Saturday, January 20, 2018

THE GENE COMPTONS RIOT

Historian Susan Stryker made the amazing discovery the way that many of her peers do: by pure accident. She wasn’t looking for it, but she found evidence of a forgotten chapter in the history of LGBT community in America.In 1995, Stryker a transgendered historian, and co-author Jim Van Buskirk were working on Gay by the Bay, their soon-to-be published, best seller capsule history of the San Francisco LGBT movement, when they came across an interesting item in the program for the 1972 Gay Pride march.The article described an August 1966 riot at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin, a poor and working-class area of the city where many transgenders and drag queens lived, and still do. The incident started after a rowdy queen refused to leave the popular hangout and management called the police.
The account of the riot from the Pride program reads like a description of a lot of the social unrest of the 1960s: “Gays began breaking out every window in the place, and as they ran outside to escape the breaking glass, the police tried to grab them and throw them into the paddy wagon, but they found this no easy task for gays began hitting them “below the belt” and drag-queens smashing them in the face with their extremely heavy purses. A police car had every window broken, a newspaper shack outside the cafeteria was burned to the ground.” Though many positive changes occurred after the riot, including a better relationship with the local police district and the establishment of social services for the trans community, the incident didn’t give birth to the kind of national mass movement that followed a similar night of rioting in New York’s Greenwich Village after cops raided the Stonewall bar.
Nearly three years after Compton’s, the Stonewall riots were the spark that gave birth to the modern gay liberation struggle. Literally, overnight, thousands of students and others, many from the antiwar and other radical movements, came pouring out of their closets to form the in-your-face organizations that eventually replaced the existing “homophile” groups. “Compton’s happened too early,” says Stryker. “In 1966, things were just starting to bust out all over: The Black Panthers, the anti-war movement, the kids using psychedelics. Three years later, a lot more gay people were waiting for their own moment. Stonewall happened. A lot more people were primed to take advantage of it.”
Word spread about the rebellion in New York. Eventually, the Compton story was forgotten. Inspired by what she read, Stryker went on to make a documentary about the incident at Compton’s.
Co-produced with Victor Silverman and Jack Walsh, it’s appropriately entitled Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria. It aired on PBS stations nationally in June 2006. An official San Francisco city plaque was installed in the sidewalk near the site of the riot that same summer.
I'll say one thing...drag queens are not to be trifled with.

26 comments:

  1. One of those lost stories many probably don't know about it. And your right...a queen will not be trifled with. They will kick your ass.

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  2. Nope - not to be trifled with! xoxoxo

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  3. I was talking to a guy this pass summer here is Ptown who is a friend of prolific playwright Larry Myers, He said Myers is at work on a stage play called Banquet at Compton s Cafeteria. How cool would that be? I've been enjoying the month so far.

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  4. The exact date of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot is not known; but it is now understood to be the first LGBT uprising in U.S from the LGBT even before Stonewall.

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  5. Any one who can pull off a riot in big wigs, gowns and heels, you don't want to get on the bad side of!

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  6. It's amazing what people can do when they stand united and stand up for themselves and for something they believe in.

    And yes, I think being tough is the core requirement to being a fabulous drag queen.

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    1. Your right .I remember years ago being out one night and there was a homophobe in the bar where we were. He started a name call and shove match with my friend and untimely called him a faggot. Game is on when I hear that word. I pop him in the face heard then got security. I will throw down when one of my own is threatened.

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  7. What's the best way to handle an angry drag queen? RUN

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    1. Always good advice. A 5" inch heel hit to the head is painful.

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  8. Interesting! Never heard of this incident before.

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  9. I knew about stonewall, but this was pre-stonewall. and how appropriate to publish this on women's protest march day!

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    1. Yes...you picked right up on that! And with the way things are going...it may just come to that again.

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  10. I remember reading about these, and was shocked I hadn't heard of them before then. Keep history alive!

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  11. Last time up in San Francisco with friends we were past where Comptons used to be. Saw the memorial plaque. I believe the building was vacant.

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  12. "Drag queens along with gay hustlers arrive at Compton’s Cafeteria on a balmy August night passes. Appearing to be a normal, undisrupted night, a group of officers set foot inside. Grabbing an arm of one drag queen expecting the “girl” to surrender and exiting the cafeteria like usual, the drag queen retrieves a cup of coffee nearby and hurls it towards the officer’s face. This resistant act only lead to disturbance and chaos. Drag queens launch heavy glass sugar shakers toward the plate-glass windows resulting into debris. Fights take place on the streets as backup officers arrive. Fighting out of anger towards the officers with their high-heeled footwear and purses, victory exists in the drag queens’ hands for a moment. Police vehicles were demolished. After years of facing harassment and injustice, the night of the riot can no longer hold their resentment." I word of warning to these modern day repressors........

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  13. People still talk about Compton’s around here.
    When you were out here, your hotel was on the border of the Tenderloin.

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  14. I had never knew about this...one only ever hears about Stonewall. For you for the posts this month Dean Borghese.

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  15. The Stonewall Riots have always interested me...so I am shocked I have never heard of this. Thanks for the post...this should be heard about too.

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  16. No, they're not! If someone can fight while wearing high heels and a wig, don't mess with them.

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  17. What a great post and great education I had not known. Just proves we should be way pass this shit by now. And I love the above comment...Dean Borghese!!!!!!!!

    I'm more proud then ever to admit I'M A TRAN WOMAN!!!!!!!

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  18. In between the Compton riot and Stonewall riot, there was also one in the Tenderloin (what a name!) district of Los Angeles. And, while it wasn't exactly a riot, the same year as the Compton riot, there was the "sip-in" at a restaurant called Julius in Greenwich Village, only a block away from the Stonewall Inn. Yet none of those inspired an entire movement as Stonewall did. Curious. But then it's said at there were at least two black women who refused to go to the back of a Montgomery bus a few years before Rosa Parks. I guess these movements just need some time to get off the ground.

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    1. I did not know about Julius's!!!! I have had several drinks there when I up in the Village for a good bar crawl. We usually hit Julius, Marie's Crisis, Stonewall, Pieces and Boot and Saddles. Who needs the big clubs anymore.

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    2. I meant to say Silverlake district of LA, not Tenderloin.

      Freudian slip

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  19. I'm so glad everyone is enjoying the month so far. Thank you for reading and stopping in.

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  20. So many untold stories. All hail the drag queens!

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Go ahead darling, tell me something fabulous!