This simultaneous rise in support for transgender rights on the one side and the unwillingness to accept these new ideas on the other created the strain that fueled the riot at Compton's Cafeteria in the summer of 1966.

[5] The general public was first made aware of transgender identities after the famous medical transition and 1952 sex reassignment surgery of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark.

Many feminists stopped wearing bras and makeup, hippies and the members of the Beatles grew their hair long, and gender-neutral fashion such as floral patterns became more popular.

Eventually, they stopped trying to seek employment elsewhere, though some "fortunate" ones were saved from the dangers of street prostitution because they could "pass" (i.e. being perceived as cisgender by society) and get other jobs, such as singers and dancers.

Some of the women were able to pick up clients in bars and clubs, but many establishments didn't want them to work there because it was illegal and police could raid the building at any time.

[6] Many were murdered or assaulted, and there was even a serial killer that specifically targeted, mutilated, and killed trans women sex workers (especially those working on the streets) in the Tenderloin.

The Tenderloin location of Compton's at 101 Taylor Street (at Turk)—open from 1954 to 1972—was a popular meeting place for transgender people, especially trans women,[12] to congregate publicly in the city.

[6] Because cross-dressing was illegal at the time, police could use the presence of transgender people in a bar as a pretext for making a raid and closing the establishment.

[6] No records of the building's exterior appearance at the time were known to have survived, until in 2021 photos surfaced on social media that had been taken in 1970 of an unrelated event and showed Compton's Cafeteria in the background.

[6] Although the picket was unsuccessful, it was one of the first demonstrations against police violence directed towards transgender people in San Francisco and ultimately led to the Compton's Cafeteria riot.

"The issues facing gay and transgender youth in the 1960s produced radical insights into the connections between economic class, police violence, incarceration, and homophobia".

For over fifty years drag queens were abused by the San Francisco police department, often arrested them for sex work and for violating the city's cross dressing law (which was repealed in 1974).

[17] Many held handmade signs reading "Fall Clean Up: This Is a Vanguard Community Project", and "All trash is before the broom", pushing against the idea that they, as people, were in any way disposable or unworthy of human dignity.

Vanguard symbolically called into question the fact that police were treating transgender and queer sex workers like "trash" to be "swept away", and instead reclaimed public space as their own.

[23] [24] The NTCU's success was partially due to financial support from the Erickson Education Foundation, which funded renting an office space and hiring two full time peer counselors.

[22] Serving as an overseer to the NTCU was Sergeant Elliott Blackstone, designated in 1962 as the first San Francisco Police Department liaison to what was then called the "homophile community".

While Blackstone didn't face charges, he was reassigned to a different department, leaving the NTCU staggering along for a short while before the EEF withdrew funding.

[22] Nevertheless, the Compton's Cafeteria riot has been described as having been "largely lost to history" until historian Susan Stryker rediscovered it, and in 2005, with Victor Silverman, released the documentary Screaming Queens.

[25] According to Susan Stryker, Compton's Cafeteria riot was "the first known incident of collective militant queer resistance to police harassment in U.S.

[33] On January 27, 2025, the building located at the site of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

[34] In the first episode of the 2019 Netflix miniseries Tales of the City, Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis) receives a photograph of herself in front of Compton's, taken shortly after she had arrived in San Francisco.

[36] The Red Shades is a "Trans Superhero Rock Opera" that occurs on Z Space's Steindler Stage in San Francisco's Project Artaud complex.

In The Red Shades, a teenage trans femme Ida runs away from an abusive home in Nevada to live in the Flip House, a hippie flat in San Francisco where she receives affirmations and conflict, similar to the real world 1960s Tenderloin life.

[37] "Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria " is a documentary film directed by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman, that explores the history of transgender activism and resistance in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.

The film recounts the events leading up to the riot, including police harassment and the oppressive environment that transgender individuals endured.

The documentary explores the impact of the riot on the emerging transgender rights movement and its significance in paving the way for future activism and advocacy.

[38] Through interviews with activists, archival footage, and personal narratives, the film highlights the historical importance of the Compton's Cafeteria riot and the contributions of transgender individuals in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights.

[5] It serves as a reminder of the ongoing fight for equality and the need to recognize and uplift the voices and experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.