The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recorded transgender riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City.
Susan Stryker and company put some significant effort into the telling of this story. And it is a story that needed to be told because it was a significant victory for the community. This event “The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria” predated the infamous Stonewall riot and it got very little press. Both of those riots had a huge Transgender presence despite the notion that Stonewall was about Gay rights.
