For Trans Day of Visibility, here are some brave trans men who have contributed to trans rights activism
Reed Erickson (1917-1992) was an American philantrophist. In 1964, he founded the Erickson Educational Foundation, which researched transsexuality and medical transition, and provided resources for trans people and their families. He also funded many other LGBT groups in the 60s through the 80s.
Lou Sullivan (1951-1991) was an American author and activist. In 1986, he founded FTM International an organization for trans men to help access resources and create a community. He had an immense contribution to the ftm community in the US.
Jamison Green (1948-) is an American activist, author, and educator. He has been advocating for better legal and medical policies for trans people since the 1980s. After Lou Sullivan passed away, Green took over writing the FTM International Newsletter. He wrote the book Becoming a Visible Man, about his own transition and about the shared experiences trans men in society.
Rupert Raj (1952-) is a Canadian activist and author, who has been active since the 70s. He is the founder of various trans rights publications and organizations, such as the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsexuals, the Metamorphosis Medical Research Foundation, Gender Worker, and the FTM Peer-Support Group.
Max Wolf Valerio (1957-) is a Native American poet, writer, musician, actor and activist. He transitioned in 1989, and in 2006 published The Testosterone Files, a memoir about his transition and experiences as a trans man.
Pepe Julian Onziema (1980-) is a Ugandan LGBT rights and human rights activist. He has campaigned against homophobic laws and coordinated pride parades. In 2013, he received the David Kato Vision and Voice Award, and was chosen as Stonewall’s Hero of the Year in 2014.
February is here, which means it’s BLACK HISTORY MONTH!
Short but sweet, growing up black history month was always one of my favorite times of the year where we can acknowledge our struggle, celebrate our history, highlight trailblazers, and plan for the future. A couple years ago I posted about some of my fave LGBTQ Black Folk and this year I wanted to post about past and present individuals who paved the way for Black Politicians, creatives, and activist to shine! Because of them, we can.
CeCe McDonald is a queer trans woman from Minneapolis, Minnesota. CeCe McDonald made national news after she accepted a 41 Month plea bargain for manslaughter. CeCe Mcdonald stabbed a man in self defense after she was struck in the head with the man’s drink and called transphobic and racial slurs. The man threw his glass at her, and as she left to exit the bar he came after her which is when she stabbed him with scissors out her purse in fear of her life. CeCe was released after serving 19 months. Today CeCe Fights for the rights of Trans Women across the nation. In 2014 CeCe Mcdonald created The Black Excellence tour, which collaborated with Joshua Allen a prison abolitionist. In August of 2014 she was awarded the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. You can learn more about her horrific journey in the documentary called, Free CeCe, which was directed by Laverne Cox and Jac Gares.
Marlon Riggs was born in Texas but as a child lived all over the globe ranging from Georgia to Germany. Riggs recalled always being chastised by other children about his black identity and his queer identity. Marlon went on to go to Harvard University to study History. Studying history, Riggs became fascinated with the history of racism and homophobia and began to explore these concepts through the media of film. He later moved to Oakland, California where he got his Masters in Journalism with an emphasis in Documentary Filmmaking at UC Berkeley. Riggs was hired on as a professor at Berkeley and worked there as he was working on his own films. Marlon Riggs has many documentaries from Ethnic Notions, to Color Adjustment, but one of the most groundbreaking films Marlon Riggs is known for is his film, Tongues Untied. This film documented the complex identity of Black Queer Men and was released on PBS. The documentary was seen as controversial and made many headlines as people called it pornographic and were mad that tax paying dollars went towards his production. Shortly after the film Marlon Riggs found out he was a person living with HIV. He didn’t let this derail his life, and worked on films and documented his experience until his very last day which can be seen in the documentary, I shall not be removed. Marlon Riggs lived everyday of his life trying to “shatter the nations brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference”.
Ruby Bridges was born on September 8th, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi. At the age of four years old, her family relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana. Later, young six year old Ruby was one of six black children who were selected by the NAACP to be the first kids to integrate into white public schools. Although her father was very hesitant, and two of the fellow families decided to deny the request, The Bridges family persevered with their decision. Ruby was taught alone in a classroom by for a full academic year because of white community members disapproving of her presence. Ruby’s family suffered because of this; her father laid off, grocery stores denying their business, and the violent hate they received on the daily. Every morning there was a crowd outside the school where racist threatened to poison six year old Ruby. She never cried, all admired her as she “marched along like a little soldier”. Ruby’s mother walked her to school every morning where she stated, “I simply want the privilege of taking my child to school”. Ruby Bridges now 63 years old, is the chairwoman of The Ruby Bridges Foundation. You can learn more about Ruby’s fight in the tv movie, Ruby Bridges, and her book, Through My Eyes.
Congresswoman Chisholm had a multitude of ‘first’ racked up on her resume. She was the first black woman elected to congress, the first black candidate for a major political party (Democratic Party), and the first woman ever to run for the democratic party presidential nomination. A first generation black woman, who truly paved the way for the next generation of black advocates. After her career in congress Chisholm taught politics and sociology at various universities, was a visiting scholar at Spelman College, and fought for African American Women reproductive rights, which was an unheard narrative in the Pro-Choice movement. You can watch the documentary on Congresswoman Chisholm called, Shirley Chisholm ‘72: Unbought Unbossed, (which won a peabody award). You can also read her two auto-biographical books, as well as visiting the research center named after her at Brooklyn College which focuses on women and continuing the Shirley Chisholm legacy.
Tarell Alvin McCraney is a playwright from Liberty City, Florida who has a long impressive resume in the theatre world but is most known for being the brains behind the pivotal movie, Moonlight. Moonlight (Directed by Barry Jenkins) which dominated the industry last year is based on McCraney’s play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. A play he wrote for his Graduate school applications, it was collecting dust on the shelves until him and Barry Jenkins began to collaborate. A Yale School of Drama MFA Alum, Tarell’s work focuses a lot on the intersections between black identity and queerness. His work often challenging the typical narratives we are used to digesting about black queer people in society. His words, and ideas have changed the way we view certain bodies as well as the way our art is received. Moonlight won academy awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and was considered “The best Film in the 21st century” by The New York Times. Moonlight also is the first film with an all black cast, as well as the first LGBT film in general, to win the oscar for Best Picture.
LGBT people: share an experience that is based on persecution of our sexuality and gender expression, have formed spaces to openly express our sexuality and our relationship with gender as safely as possible (even though we still sometimes get killed for it when in those spaces)
Acey-beans: we should center LGBT spaces around REAL shared experiences outside of heteronormativity! Like cake! UwU
Fucking GLAAD: Hey can we be more discrete with our lan-
Exclus: OH SO YOU WANT ME TO STOP BEING GAY? DO YOU WANT ME TO BE ERASED? YOU WANT ACES TO TAKE OVER? I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW MY TWO GRANDFATHERS DIED AT STONEWALL FOR ME TO ALIENATE ASEXUALS AT ANY GIVEN OPPORTUNITY. GOOD DAY, SIR. I SAID GOOD DAY!
Just admit that you’re a homophobe.
If you don’t want LGBT people to have spaces where we can actually safely express our sexuality, but instead cater to people whose identity is based on a disconnect from the sexual experience, then you’re a homophobe, plain and simple.
You goobers literally NEVER make these demands of the average cis-het. No, you be these demands of LGBT people.
You are toxic. You are bullies. You are homophobes.
*raises hand* I would like if everyone could keep it in their pants unless they are in privacy or at a club… That’s just kind of how I feel as a modest human being who would like to walk down the street and see kind gestures of love rather than two people engaging in foreplay on the sidewalk. People of all sexualities should be able to show affection or sexuality, but at the right time please.
Where the fuck are you going where there’s “foreplay on the sidewalk”? That’s pure hyperbole and a total dodge.
Even the Leather floats at Pride parades are never any less scantily clad than billboards for stripper clubs on the freeway – but Poor Pweshuss Smol Ace Beans would rather bully LGBT orgs to “de-sexualise LGBTOMFGWTFBBQ spaces,” rather than cis-het society, which is homophobia, pure and simple.
If they actually cared about what they perceived as an overall oversaturation of sexuality in society, they’d join forces with feminist groups, but they don’t, cos they’re misogynistic, in addition to homophobic.
LGBT people: share an experience that is based on persecution of our sexuality and gender expression, have formed spaces to openly express our sexuality and our relationship with gender as safely as possible (even though we still sometimes get killed for it when in those spaces)
Acey-beans: we should center LGBT spaces around REAL shared experiences outside of heteronormativity! Like cake! UwU
Fucking GLAAD: Hey can we be more discrete with our lan-
Exclus: OH SO YOU WANT ME TO STOP BEING GAY? DO YOU WANT ME TO BE ERASED? YOU WANT ACES TO TAKE OVER? I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW MY TWO GRANDFATHERS DIED AT STONEWALL FOR ME TO ALIENATE ASEXUALS AT ANY GIVEN OPPORTUNITY. GOOD DAY, SIR. I SAID GOOD DAY!
Just admit that you’re a homophobe.
If you don’t want LGBT people to have spaces where we can actually safely express our sexuality, but instead cater to people whose identity is based on a disconnect from the sexual experience, then you’re a homophobe, plain and simple.
You goobers literally NEVER make these demands of the average cis-het. No, you be these demands of LGBT people.
You are toxic. You are bullies. You are homophobes.
LGBT people: share an experience that is based on persecution of our sexuality and gender expression, have formed spaces to openly express our sexuality and our relationship with gender as safely as possible (even though we still sometimes get killed for it when in those spaces)
Acey-beans: we should center LGBT spaces around REAL shared experiences outside of heteronormativity! Like cake! UwU
I bet in the 20s all the weird German emo girls were thirsting after the Somnambulist
German emo girls be like “ich will ”
Don’t hide this magnificent piece of info in the tags.
The bloke (Conrad Veidt) was an outspoken opponent of antisemitism, and when he refused to divorce his wife (who was Jewish), Joseph Goebbels had him blacklisted.
He also donated tons and tons of money to poor children who had been negatively effected by the Blitz in London after he moved to the US, following his becoming a naturalised-British citizen after leaving Germany in the 1930s.
Don’t forget that in 1919, he starred in “Different from the Others”, a German film protesting the anti-homosexuality laws in place. It’s widely regarded as the first pro-gay film. Conrad Veidt was a goddamn hero.
I just feel like this pic is relevant to the discussion
He was also the highest paid member of the cast in “Casablanca” (where he played a Nazi officer, again), even if he only got second billing, because he was THAT big a star.
He and his first wife divorced after… well she said it better than I ever could.
“I excused a lot of his failings and whims because I loved him. But one day he did something to me that I couldn’t forgive. I was singing that evening at the cabaret. I left him home and he told me: “I invited a few friends; we’ll dine while we wait for you.” And it just so happened I had received a new dress from Paris. That evening, after work, I arrived home and what do I see? All these gentlemen dressed as women. And Conrad had put on my Paris dress. At this point, I divorced!”
“Any Berlin lady of the night might turn out to be a man; the prettiest girl on the street was Konrad [sic] Veidt.”
Good to see the tumblr sexyman precludes even tumblr
*predates
Conrad Veidt was an amazing human. To quote his wikipedia page:
Veidt fervently opposed the Nazi regime and later donated a major portion of his personal fortune to Britain to assist in the war effort. Soon after the Nazi Party took power in Germany, by March 1933, Joseph Goebbels was purging the film industry of anti-Nazi sympathizers and Jews, and so in April 1933, a week after Veidt’s marriage to Ilona Prager, a Jewish woman, the couple emigrated to Britain before any action could be taken against either of them.
Goebbels had imposed a “racial questionnaire” in which everyone employed in the German film industry had to declare their “race” to continue to work. When Veidt was filling in the questionnaire, he answered the question about what his Rasse (race) was by writing that he was a Jude (Jew). Veidt was not Jewish, but his wife was Jewish, and Veidt would not renounce the woman he loved. Additionally, Veidt, who was opposed to antisemitism, wanted to show solidarity with the German Jewish community, who were in the process of being stripped of their rights as German citizens in the spring of 1933. As one of Germany’s most prominent actors, Veidt had been informed that if he were prepared to divorce his wife and declare his support for the new regime, he could continue to act in Germany. Several other leading actors who had been opposed to the Nazis before 1933 switched allegiances. In answering the questionnaire by stating he was a Jew, Veidt rendered himself unemployable in Germany, but stated this sacrifice was worth it as there was nothing in the world that would compel him to break with his wife.Upon hearing about what Veidt had done, Goebbels remarked that he would never act in Germany again.
As noted above, he was also bisexual, a friend once stating: “He was very much in love with a beautiful girl whom I trained. I’ll say frankly that Conrad also loved men, once in a while.“
The man was a bi icon, an anti-fascist Jewish ally, and a goddamn hero and we stan.
<3 I didn’t know much about Conrad Veidt before reading these posts but he sounds like an utterly amazing and fabulous human being <3
An Overview of LGBTQA+ Fashions Throughout History
Happy Pride Month, everyone!
In honor of pride month I wanted to research a very particular topic which, unfortunately, isn’t very widely studied. Being part of the LGBTQA+ community myself, I know that we have a very particular way of communicating through fashion, and I was wondering - in a world where homosexuality was punishable by death, how did LGBTQA+ people dress differently, or communicate their sexuality to other members of the community?
As I already mentioned, there is very little known about these things as nobody would openly document how they made others understand they were, for example, into the same sex, but we do know a little.
But first, we have to understand the circumstances in, let’s say, the 18th century.
Homosexuality didn’t really become “a thing” until the late 1800s, as in it didn’t have a label, and it really wasn’t “that big of a deal” in Rococo’s upper class. Not to say it was common, but it was generally common in the upper class to have several sexual partners, and it was not a rare occasion that a rich man's mistress actually turned out to be another man. Though it was technically, by law, punishable by death, the more common punishment for “indecency”, was public humiliation. The fact that it was especially common in the upper class really surprised me, as today’s upper class tends to be much more conservative than the middle or lower class. But I guess it was the wealth that made their sexual encounters be swept under the rug while the lower classes were punished for the exact same things.
A big part of 18th century LGBTQA+ culture were Molly Houses, aka an equivalent of today’s gay bars. Historians assume they first appeared in the middle of the 17th century, but very little is known about them for reasons already mentioned, but they were the place to go if you wanted to meet other LGBTQA+ people. However, if the wrong people found out about them, they would be raided by the police and… you can imagine the consequences.
But now, let’s get to the actual topic: the fashion.
What we know, and what we can even derive from today’s trends, is flamboyance. We know now that some LGBTQA+ people love extravagant fashion as a way to express themselves. I’m saying some because I don’t want to stereotype, and I think it’s awesome that we’re slowly starting to normalize dressing however you want. But flamboyance was key in the 18th century. But now we wonder, in an era where extravagance was everything, what was even more extravagant?
Unfortunately, I only found explanations of how men dressed, but they used an exaggeration of aristocratic costumes and elements from female fashion to express themselves. There are multiple paintings and drawings out there, but I didn’t really want to include any in this post since the ones I found were bordering on (or straight up) caricatures and, if you put it nicely, works of their time. They do give us, however, an idea of what this extravagance could mean as they show people who were perceived as male at the time with high updos and sometimes even completely in traditionally feminine outfits. And in fact, there are mentions of people cross-dressing within the security of Molly Houses, but obviously they wouldn’t do it publicly in a time like this. The only reports are, unfortunately, from police raids and those who did cross dress were given a much harsher punishment than those who didn’t.
Let’s look at a picture of Lord John Harvey, a bisexual man who lived in the 18th century.
When I first saw this picture, I could immediately tell it was different from the rest, I just couldn’t pinpoint exactly what felt so off but then I realized - it was the way his left was just so casually propped on the… thing, and the silk draped over his arm. It’s something I’m used to seeing in female portraits, and it has a sort of sensuality to it that just isn’t common in male portraits. Sure, sometimes there can be a piece of silk draped around a man in a portrait, but I’ve never seen it done like this. I’m not gonna go into the fact that he’s quite literally pointing at his crotch, I don’t know enough about him to say why that is, but you’re free to interpret that however you’d like.
Another interesting 18th century personality I found through my research is Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar who became a Swedish corporal and married a woman. Long story short, she posed as a man and enlisted in the army, then went on to marry a maid named Maria Löhnman. Löhnman eventually found out about her wife’s gender, but it didn’t matter to her and they stayed together. They were put on trial but claimed they had lived in a marriage without sex and were subsequently acquitted from the charge of homosexuality, but Ulrika still got a sentence for posing as a man and her wife for not revealing the truth. After serving their short sentences (a month and fourteen days, respectively), they lived a quiet life at their family’s estate. Unfortunately, there seems to be no picture of her out there!
I apologize for this short anecdote, I just thought that was really cool and wasn’t expecting not to find a picture, but now let’s get back to the fashion. Another great info I read was that in 18th century Paris, gay men wore shoelaces instead of buckles! Interesting!
Let’s jump forward into the next century. Here’s where flowers become important! The language of flowers was a huge deal in Victorian times, and who would’ve guessed - certain flowers could communicate your sexuality to others. For instance, in 19th century England, the color green indicated homosexuality. Irish author Oscar Wilde, a homosexual man, popularized pinning a green carnation to the lapel.
I’ve seen this picture colorized with the carnation being red but no, it is green so don’t let google fool you!
For women, the color violet and violets became the symbol of same-sex attraction.
These women are wearing 18th century clothing but from what I could find, this is actually an engraving from 1838.
In early 20th century New York, LGBTQA+ men wore red neck ties or bow ties as a subtle signal.
Speaking of early 20th century - I just thought I’d add these adorable pictures of actresses Lily Elsie and Adrienne Augarde. They’re from a show called The New Aladdin, and while neither of them are LGBTQA+ (as far as we know), they’re still worth a mention.
Nowadays, we are more fortunate to be able to be ourselves than these people ever were, and we can be thankful for that without forgetting about the fact that we still have a long way to go. Some countries, unfortunately, haven’t seen any improvements at all. But I also know that being LGBTQA+ even in today’s society can be scary, and sometimes signalizing it through fashion is a lot easier than going up to someone of the same sex and just ask them out. There is this slim line between stereotyping and genuine signals we send, and most of the time we do it so subconsciously that we’re not even aware of it at all times. What I want to say with that is, take my research with a grain of salt. A lot of this information stems from a time when the LGBTQA+ community wasn’t exactly respected and a lot has been interpreted from caricatures. But the most important thing to take from this is that no, LGBTQA+ isn’t just a “modern trend”, we’ve always been there and we always will be. And it’s also important to mention that the reason for me starting my post with the 18th century is that before that, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. In fact, the further back you go, the less of a big deal it was. And while today’s society is still healing from the cruelty that came after, we can thank everyone who came before us for the rights that we do have now. Without them being their brave selves, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
So here are some important historical figures who were part of the LGBTQA+ community.
Benvenuto Cellini (1500 - 1571), Italian sculptor and goldsmith, homosexual or bisexual
“Lesbian pulp fiction refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel (often conflated with pulp magazinefiction) with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 60s by many of the same paperback publishing houses that other genres of fiction including Westerns, Romances, and Detective Fiction. Because very little other literature was available for and about lesbians at this time, quite often these books were the only reference people (lesbian and otherwise) had for modeling what lesbians were.
Stephanie Foote, from the University of Illinois commented on the importance of lesbian pulp novels to the lesbian identity prior to feminism: “Pulps have been understood as signs of a secret history of readers, and they have been valued because they have been read. The more they are read, the more they are valued, and the more they are read, the closer the relationship between the very act of circulation and reading and the construction of a lesbian community becomes…Characters use the reading of novels as a way to understand that they are not alone.”[1] Writer Donna Allegra explained why she purchased them in saying, “No matter how embarrassed and ashamed I felt when I went to the cash register to buy these books, it was absolutely necessary for me to have them. I needed them the way I needed food and shelter for survival.”
Dorothy Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s. Throughout that time she was the only woman working in the field.
She left Paramount in 1932 to begin work as an independent director for several of the studios. The films launched the careers of many actresses, including Katherine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Sylvia Sidney and Lucille Ball. In 1936, Arzner became the first woman to join the newly formed Directors Guild of America.
Dorothy Arzner was a lesbian, and well known in the Hollywood community though little attention was paid to it publicity. She cultivated a masculine look in her clothes and appearance.
She had been linked romantically with a number of actresses including Joan Crawford,Clara Bow, and Billie Burke, but lived much of her life with her companion, choreographer Marion Morgan.
During WWII the United States Military starting issuing “Blue Discharges.”
A Blue Discharge/Blue Slip was named because of the color paper it was printed on. These slips were used exclusively for dishonorably discharging soldiers accused of being homosexual. Once discharged, a serviceman could NOT receive any government benefits for his service in the armed forces and could be REFUSED employment by anyone.
Side Fact:
The government hired psychologists to find “the homosexual” recruits. When soldiers signed up for the service, they would be asked a series of questions with (code) words that were thought to highlight homosexual behavior. It is projected that for every one LGBTQ* individual who was detained, ten passed. By the third year of World War II, the United States Government told psychologists to stop screening. Every physical body was needed for deployment.
“Julie D’Aubigny was a 17th-century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who killed or wounded at least ten men in life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest and most highly-respected opera stage in the world, and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and bang a nun. If nothing in that sentence at least marginally interests you, I have no idea why you’re visiting this website.”
History generally speaks of the Stonewall Inn Riots as the first queer riot and turning point for LGBTQ liberation but before June 1969, two other riots broke out years before and some 3,000 miles away: The 1959 riot at Cooper’s Donuts in Los Angeles and a 1966 riot at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco.
Though knowledge of both has faded over the years, they provide an important illustration of where trans folk, queens and sexual outlaws figure into the modern LGBT rights movement and what led them to finally stand up to abuse and discrimination.
In the ’50s and ’60s, Los Angeles cops made a habit of screwing with queers: They would raided gay bars, marching the queers out in a line and arresting anyone whose perceived gender didn’t match what was on their ID. Occasionally, they’d even single out a few lucky victims for special attention in the form of insults and beatings. Entrapment was common: Attractively dressed vice cops would cruise gay bars, bathrooms and hook-up spots, pick up tricks and arrest them as soon their target leaned in for a kiss. In other cases, plainclothes cops would wait outside of gay hangouts, trail two men as they walked home and burst into their residence to catch them in the act.
As bad as gay men had it, trans people had it worse: With laws against cross-dressing on the books in California, police kept an eye out for them entering or leaving gay bars—any excuse to raid and shut the place down. (Many gay hangouts rejected trans folk for this very reason.)
Many in the trans community couldn’t get decent jobs (hell, they still can’t) and some resorted to hustling, giving the whole community the reputation of being prostitutes. The media often conflated homosexuals with cross-dressers, drag queens and trans people, making gay men and lesbians resent trans visibility even more.
So what better place to kick back than Cooper’s Donuts, an all-night eatery on Main Street in downtown L.A.? Smack dab between two gay bars—Harold’s and the Waldorf—Cooper’s become a popular late-night hangout for trans folk, butch queens, street hustlers and their johns.
Two cops entered the donut shop that night, ostensibly checking ID, and arbitrarily picked up two hustlers, two queens, and a young man just cruising and led them out. As the cops packed the back of the squad car, one of the men objected, shouting that the car was illegally crowded. While the two cops switched around to force him in, the others scattered out of the car.
From the donut shop, everyone poured out. The crowd was fed up with the police harassment and on this night they fought back, hurling donuts, coffee cups and trash at the police. The police, facing this barrage of [pastries] and porcelain, fled into their car calling for backup.
Soon, the street was bustling with disobedience. People spilled out in to the streets, dancing on cars, lighting fires, and generally reeking havoc. The police return with backup and a number of rioters are beaten and arrested. They also closed the street off for a day.
The Cooper’s Donut riot often gets confused with the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot some years later: There were similar political circumstances leading up both riots. And like Cooper’s, Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district was a popular all-night hangout for trans people (called “hair fairies” at the time), hustlers and assorted sexual renegades.
And both stories involve coffee cups.
In August 1966, a cafeteria worker called the police when some transgender customers at Compton’s became unruly. When a police officer attempted to arrest one trans woman, she threw a cup of hot coffee in his face. Within moments, dishes were broken, furniture was thrown, the restaurant’s windows were smashed and a nearby newsstand was burned down.
Trans people, hustlers and disenfranchised gay locals picketed the cafeteria the following night, when the restaurant’s windows were smashed again. Unlike the Stonewall riots, the situation at Compton’s was somewhat organized—many picketers were members of militant queer groups like the Street Orphans and Vanguard.
Also, the city’s response was quite different from the reaction in New York: A network of social, mental and medical support services was established, followed in 1968 by the creation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, overseen by a member of the SFPD. Directors Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker’s recount the historic two-day incident in their 2005 film, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.
