In San Francisco Wednesday, the fight to preserve an important site in the LGBTQ civil rights movement moved a step closer to reality.
A group presented a proposal to the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission to designate the former Compton’s Cafeteria location in the Tenderloin as a city-designated historic site.
Back in August 1966, police were called to clear out trans and drag customers at Compton’s Cafeteria. It was illegal at that time to wear clothes that didn’t align with a person’s gender.
“One day, one amazing, fierce advocate was over it,” said Santana Tapia with Compton’s x Coalition, the group pushing for the historic site designation. “She was over not being able to have a space where she could just exist. So, she threw a cup of coffee at a police officer who was harassing her.”
What followed was a riot that spilled out into the street. It was one of the first major incidents of primarily trans and some queer people pushing back at the oppression forced upon them.
Tapia and others are trying to preserve that history by petitioning the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. Right now, the exterior wall of the former Compton’s Cafeteria and the sidewalk outside where the riot actually happened are designated by the city as historic. But the organizers of the effort say the interior and the whole building should be designated as historic as well.
Members of Compton’s x Coalition say history also happened inside the cafeteria as well as in the apartments above, where some trans people lived.
NBC Bay Area’s Sergio Quintana has more in the video report above.
