#screaming queens

[orpheusdrinkinga40inadeathbasket]

Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (2005)

[lewispullmaned]

[edyer-art]

“if it feels oppressive — kick against it”, 11x14”, ink on panel, 2022. Title is a reference to the musician Arca and the painting’s subject was inspired by Amanda St. Jaymes in the documentary Screaming Queens by Susan Stryker, about the riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.

“Turk street was our street, and the buildings that were on it, the hotels, that’s where we lived; that was our home… The El Rosa was really like a wayward home for girls. There were so many of us that were there; our families had disowned us… It was a wonderful place. We spent the holidays together there. We became each others family. We held on to each other.” — Amanda St. Jaymes

[alittlegayhistoria]

August 1966

“It was the first known instance of collective, militant queer resistance to police harassment in United States history.” Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman, the producers of the ‘Screaming Queens’ documentary.

In the documentary, Suzan Cooke - a trans woman and activist, describes the Tenderloin at the time as ”...a kind of a gay ghetto....” Many trans women and queens were refused employment, housing and were at the brunt of police violence and humiliation. Compton’s Cafeteria, a centrally located all-night cafe, became a place of refuge from the persistent threat of violence.

The upswing of the Civil Rights movement created new forms of activism in San Francisco, such as homophile movements which were early gay rights advocates and the Glide Church began to introduce progressive community projects. Stryker highlights in the Screaming Queens documentary that “the civil rights movement fuelled the queens newfound militancy.” Changing political attitudes created deeper divisions between the queens and Compton’s management, who began to more regularly call on police to kick out and arrest the queens. It was time to fight back.

On a hot summer night, a queen threw a hot cup of coffee into a  policeman's face and mayhem ensued. Windows were smashed as the Tenderloin’s queer community fought hard against the police, rioting against all the oppression and hatred they’d been subjected to. Stryker summarises;  “....Before it was over, a police car was destroyed, the corner newsstand set on fire and years of pent-up resentment boiled out into the night.”

The riot resulted in positive change for the rights of transgender people. Trans women were given more autonomy and freedom to self-express. Felicia Elizondo recounts; “There was a big change. We can dress like women all the time. We don’t have to be little effeminate hair fairies anymore. We can be who we are inside.” Moreover, networks and new support programs for trans people were formed, such as official identification cards that reflected their new gender, allowing the trans community to pursue state careers and education. The first surgical sex reassignment clinic was also introduced in 1968, by the Stanford University Medical Center.

Predating the more famous Stonewall Riots, Compton’s should be respected and remembered within LGBT history. Trans historian Susan Stryker’s work in Screaming Queens truly honours the hustlers of the Tenderloin - as pioneers who fought with courage and passion for their human rights.

[42ftm-transition]

Learn your trans history

I bought the film a few years ago but luckily found it posted by a PBS station on their YouTube channel, where it can be viewed and shared freely.

[edyer-art]

If you would like to know more about my piece "The Night of Unsung Heroes", read this! Compton's Cafeteria was a chain of cafeterias owned by Gene Compton in San Francisco from the 1940s to the 1970s, and this one was on the corner of Taylor and Turk. The painting is an ode to The Compton's Cafeteria riot, which occurred in August 1966. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of drag queens and trans people, particularly trans women. The incident was one of the first LGBT-related riots in United States history, and marked the beginning of trans activism in San Francisco. My undying gratitude goes out to the people who stood up for their rights then, so we could have more now.

The best resource I've found about this is the documentary by Susan Stryker "Screaming Queens". From Kanopy's description, the documentary "tells the little-known story of the first known act of collective, violent resistance to the social oppression of queer people in the United States - a 1966 riot in San Francisco's impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood, three years before the famous gay riot at New York's Stonewall Inn.

Screaming Queens introduces viewers to street queens, cops and activist civil rights ministers who recall the riot and paint a vivid portrait of the wild transgender scene in 1960s San Francisco. Integrating the riot's story into the broader fabric of American life, the documentary connects the event to urban renewal, anti-war activism, civil rights and sexual liberation. With enticing archival footage and period music, this unknown story is dramatically brought back to life.

Screaming Queens is a production of Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker produced in association with ITVS and KQED, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

"The Night of Unsung Heroes", ink on panel, 11x14”, 2021

[asweethistory]

Screaming Queens

Coffee and Passion Fruit Frozen Yogurt with Sugared Pecans

Fifty-four years ago, on a hot summer night in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, the first act of trans resistance against police brutality in America began at Compton’s Cafeteria with a cup of coffee. (See “Queen Swan” for the first known act of queer resistance against police brutality in the U.S. in 1888.)

Compton’s was a local chain that had been around since the 1940s. Positioned centrally in the Tenderloin, Compton’s Cafeteria became a meeting space for the neighborhood’s trans and drag queen community. Historically, after the Gold Rush, the Tenderloin was an active downtown neighborhood with popular theaters, hotels, and restaurants, which were rebuilt after San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake. By the Roaring Twenties, the community was known for its nightlife, full of gambling, prostitution, and speakeasies. And by middle of the 20th century, the neglected neighborhood was the city’s poorest and had boarded-up businesses, corrupt cops, and queens who lived and worked in the single-vacancy hotels.

The transgender community was usually pushed into prostitution to survive because of job discrimination. Those who passed as female could find jobs as performers. Since the community’s trans women weren’t welcomed in the nearby gay bars due to transphobia, they gathered at Compton’s at all hours of the night to catch up with one another, make sure their friends were safe, and to have a safe place to eat and sit. The girls were often harassed and arrested by the police since female impersonation was considered illegal. In many cases, the police were paid off to let certain activities continue in the neighborhood, although there was no protection for the trans women. Tamara Ching, who now works as an AIDS prevention and sex work activist, talked about the precautions they would have to take themselves against the violence they regularly experienced in historian Susan Stryker’s 2005 documentary on the riot: “We also had to load our handbags up. I’d drink a pint or half pint of southern comfort and put the empty bottle in my bag. When people got out of line, we’d crack it over their head…we weren’t going to let people hurt us.”

By the mid 1960s, the managers of Compton were no longer accommodating the queens who were taking up seats for hours on end, and so they created a service fee strictly for transgender customers and started to call the cops in order to push the queens out. The trans community was fed up with their treatment and started discussing a picket. One night in August 1966, though, a police officer entered Compton’s and began to forcefully arrest a trans women. So, she threw her cup of hot diner coffee into his face and the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot began. Everything exploded, furniture was destroyed,  and windows were broken. Amanda St. Jaymes recalled, “All the sugar shakers went through the windows and the glass doors. I think I put a sugar shaker through one of those windows.” The fight poured into the surrounding streets, as rioters were slowly forced into police cars. But the following night, even more supports of the fight arrived at Compton’s and picketed, breaking the newly installed cafeteria windows.

The exact date of the riot is unknown because newspaper didn’t cover it and the police records no longer exist. After the riot, it took San Francisco almost 30 years to pass a transgender anti-discrimination ordinance.

[worldlibertytv]

See Screaming Queens & Many more  Attend Bizbash Live 2019 in our World Liberty TV @ https://www.worldlibertytv.org/biz-bash-live-new-york-2019/