WEBVTT - The Compton Cafeteria Riot 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.200 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.480 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:15.840 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff you 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:20.720 should Know. It's one of our overlooked history editions. And Chuck, 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.040 this is your pick, and hats off to you, Wiggs 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:24.599 off to you. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:29.400 Yes, it was my selection to pass along to Livia 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.080 to help us with. But this is a listener suggestion. 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:36.720 This came from gg Cowlin and big thanks to Gigi 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.839 because I and I'm sure you will agree with me, 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.160 found that not only is the story of the Compton's 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:50.720 Cafeteria Riot interesting in and of itself, but sort of 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.800 the larger story, or a part of the story, is 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:58.840 the fact that how we preserve history because Compton's Cafeteria 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:03.320 Riot happened in nineteen sixty six and was almost lost 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:03.840 to history. 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:06.200 Yeah, I agree with all of that, which is. 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.679 Crazy to think about something that happened in nineteen sixty 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.319 six in San Francisco could be lost to history. But 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:14.680 it almost was if not for the efforts of one 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:19.160 Susan Striker, one person like, yeah, this may have really 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.479 gone away, Oh totally, I mean it had gone away, 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.000 and she managed to clutch together a bunch of just 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.840 different tiny little scraps of mentions of it or. 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.319 Put like the neighborhood and just just over the years 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.000 cobbled together all this little stuff and finally got an 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.319 idea of it and was able to corroborate it like 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.160 it was Gonsville until Susan Striker came along. 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:45.760 Yeah, and we'll talk about what Susan Striker did with 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.920 this information. But hats off to you, Susan Striker and Digigi. 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:54.000 And here we go with the almost forgotten Compton's Cafeteria 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:54.800 riot story. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.880 Yeah. And the reason why it's significant that it's almost 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.480 forgotten or it was forgotten for a while, that the 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.840 Stone Wall Uprising, which was a really great episode we 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.959 did on that too. That's considered like the watershed moment 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:15.000 of gay rights in history, like the riot at the 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.800 Stone Wall in that was it, that was what started 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.720 it all. The thing is, when you think of things 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.560 that way, it erases the stuff that came before that. Yeah, 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.800 And one of the things that came before Stonewall was 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:33.400 the Compton's Cafeteria riot in San Francisco in nineteen sixty six. 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.040 And there wasn't a lot of difference between the two. 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:38.480 It was based on. It was a reaction and a 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.760 response to police harassment that had been building over the time. 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:48.160 It was a multi racial group of LGBTQ people like 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.160 fighting back against the police that spilled out into the streets. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.760 Like it, it bore a striking resemblance to Stonewall. And yet, 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.639 like you said, there are reasons that we'll talk about 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:01.960 that it was just pushed into the dustbin of history. 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.320 Yeah, it's very interesting. So as way of setting this up, 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.680 we'll talk a little bit about the area at the 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.600 time in San Francisco called the Tenderloin. This is in 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:17.760 the nineteen sixties. The Tenderloin has long had a reputation 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.560 and even still does today in some ways. In the sixties, 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.920 it was a place where you could go buy drugs 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.720 or deal drugs. You could go do some illegal gambling, 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.919 you could get involved in set sex work on either side. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.440 It was a neighborhood that didn't have a lot of money, 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:41.080 and it was a neighborhood that attracted transience people that teenagers, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:45.920 namely who were either run out of their hometown because 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:50.160 they were LGBTQ or maybe even run out of their 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.120 family or maybe even run out of a different neighborhood 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.920 in San Francisco to sort of collect in the Tenderloin 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.760 where they could turn to sex work because they couldn't 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.760 get other jobs, and they could turn to each other 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.280 for support in community. 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:12.520 Yeah, community developed of essentially what one of the people 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.839 Susan Striker interviewed described as like the lowest drawing on 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:21.760 the ladder of not just society of like including LGBTQ society. 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:28.720 At the time, these were unhoused, teenage street trans people 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.600 and like they had no rights, they had no respect 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.240 from anybody, and yet they still came together and looked 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.080 out for another, informed that community you were talking about. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:43.360 But they lived in really dire straits day to day, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.440 and yet they still formed that community. And the reason 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:49.720 why they all kind of ended up in this the 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:53.279 Tenderloin is because there was a few square block section 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.240 of the Tenderloin that that was the only place they 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.520 could live. And even there they got harassed. But like 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.320 if they straight out of it, they were beaten. They 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:08.320 were You couldn't leave that area if you were trans 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.920 in San Francisco at the time, And I think Susan 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:16.479 striker compared it to a ghetto, essentially that there was 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.479 a trans ghetto in San Francisco in the sixties. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.960 That's right, and just the mirriad people that were interviewed 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.120 from the time, it's clear that the cops basically could 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.680 do whatever they wanted in there. They could arrest someone 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:38.200 for quote unquote female impersonation. One was arrested. I believe 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:40.919 Amanda Saint James, who was a transforman there ran a 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.960 residential hotel, was arrested for obstructing the sidewalk I saw 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.560 in this documentary that we're going to talk about later. 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.400 You know, any kind of cross dressing or drag. They 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:58.000 could arrest you for having the buttons on your shirt on. 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.920 You know what they deemed the wrongs because you know, 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:06.000 traditionally the buttons on like men and women's shirts and 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:10.880 clothing is reversed. I never understood why was it to 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:12.760 draw a distinction between the two when you're shopping. 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:14.440 I think it's just to be difficult. 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:17.320 It may be a short step at some point, but 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:19.200 they would say like, oh no, your buttons are on 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.880 the wrong side. You're impersonating a female, so let me 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.800 crack your skull and throw you in a jail cell 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:30.560 where you will be abused more and by fellow inmates 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:32.320 and by the people who ran the jail. 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.039 Yeah. And one of the reasons that this group of 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:37.719 people were in such a pickle was not just because 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.280 there was a small area of the world that they 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:44.039 could leave. It's that they couldn't even work because they 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:49.120 couldn't get id that reflected their gender, the gender they 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:53.000 identified with. If they wanted to work as the gender 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.359 they didn't identify with, they could just go back to 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.320 their family that kicked them out in the first place. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.760 So to be themselves, to live as themselves is the 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.400 way that they they they were who they were. They 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:11.120 really really suffered and paid for it and were very poor. 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.040 Resorted to sex work almost across the board unless you 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.480 were really good at singing and dancing and you could 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.400 make a living that way. And even those people who 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.000 are successful at entertaining very frequently were stuck in that 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.280 area of the tenderloin too. So it was a really 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.240 it was a it was a tough position to be in. 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:30.880 And I mean just the fact that they're like, well, 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:33.920 if I want to be myself, it sucks that society 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.240 treats me this way, but I'm going to be myself. 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:38.640 You really have to respect that. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.760 Oh yeah, totally. Within this community, there was a place 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:49.400 called Compton's Cafeteria which provided a haven late at night. 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:53.080 So it was at one oh one Taylor Street, right 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.040 there in the Tenderloin, and it was a restaurant and 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.480 it was one of quite a few in San Francisco. 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.240 It is a small chain, local chain started up by 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.280 a man named Gene Compton in the nineteen forties. This 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.120 one opened in fifty four, and it became a gathering 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.520 place for these people late at night who were unwelcomed 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.840 even at gay bars. It was very centrally located. It 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.480 was clean, it was open twenty four hours, it was 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.800 well lit. It was a place where they could go 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.040 and have coffee after you know, they got done with 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.440 work or you know, doing whatever they were doing late 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:27.280 at night. And what I really wanted more than anything 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.480 when I was learning about the story was like I 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.199 wanted to learn that Compton's Cafeteria was a bright spot 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:35.320 in a haven where the owners would run the cops 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.480 off and let these people do as they as they 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.960 would and live in peace. Sadly, that was not the case. 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.960 I didn't get the idea that they were just like 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:51.439 completely unwelcome there. But they did call the cops here 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.040 and there over you know, over the years, and like 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.240 you know, the cops would come down there and run 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:59.920 them out. So that was sort of a one discip 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.640 pointing spot for me. But that's you know, that's what happened. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.120 So that's the way we have to report it. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:10.360 So the still I mean, even having to face that, 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.679 like Compton's was the place you went to because like 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.920 I was saying, like even in the LGBTQ community, the 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.080 trans community and the Tenderloin were not well thought of, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.400 Like they couldn't even go into the gay bars in 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.760 the Tenderloin. They were limited also and where they could go. 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.559 But one of those places they could go was Compton's 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.640 Cafeteria and go be themselves and like a real like 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.640 you could check in on one another, you could give 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.880 each other tips to like steer clear of this guy 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:43.960 in this car kind of thing. It was despite the 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.439 setbacks and drawbacks of going there, it was a place 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.760 that they could go. Does that make sense? 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.880 Yeah? And it was also a time, you know, we 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.080 mentioned that they couldn't even go into certain gay bars. 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.920 It was a time where the LGBTQ community was starting 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.600 to organize a little bit, starting to kind of speak 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.200 up a little bit for like the most basic rights 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.319 you could imagine. And it was it was through the 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:11.200 lens though, of what were called homophile organizations. One was 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:16.199 called the Mattachine Society. These organizations where they were gay people, 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:20.040 but they were like, hey, listen, I'm middle class, I 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.960 have a great job, I am gay, and I just 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.240 I just don't want to be harassed. So they they 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.520 were organizing, but it wasn't like it wasn't like the 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.280 kids on the streets, and they weren't They weren't rabbel rising, 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:38.160 they weren't radical. In fact, within homophile organizations there were 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.160 often disputes between some of the sort of you know, 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:46.720 middle age more you know, not well healed, but sometimes 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.640 well healed people sort of disagreeing with people in their 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.440 own community. Some of these younger kids that were more radical, 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.640 they're like, we don't even want you in our group anymore, right. 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.560 Yeah, And those those homophile groups are they were the 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.640 ones they had the connections to say the press or 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:07.240 they had a working relationship with the police, department. They 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.719 were trying to show the rest of society they were 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:15.840 respectable people living respectable lives, and so being inclusive of 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:22.080 unhoused teenagers who were also sex workers kind of it 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.280 didn't really stand up to their argument. So they just 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.959 pretended they weren't there. They excluded him, they kept him out. 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:33.760 But what's cool is those same unhoused teenage trans sex 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.360 workers they were like, well, we'll go organize ourselves. And 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.360 they were really, really fortunate to have in the neighborhood. 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.040 A couple of blocks away from Compton's a place called 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:47.160 Glibe Memorial Methodist Church, probably one of the more progressive 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.280 churches in the United States of all time. There was 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.160 a reverend named Cecil Williams. He was a Civil rights 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.960 movement VET and he was very much interested in supporting 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.880 these trans kids who were just getting abused one way 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.839 or another by every quarter of society, and he helped 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:11.479 them organize. Actually they organized into an organization called Vanguard. 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.120 That's right, and Ceca Williams is still alive. My friend, 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.920 Oh yeah, he's ninety four years old. 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.240 I saw footage of him preaching and he looked pretty cool. 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.960 Yeah, So that church was there and like you said, 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:29.600 just to have any formal organization on your side for 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.520 these kids who are trying to radicalize the movement was 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.600 a really really big deal. So Vanguard had formed in 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:40.080 sixty five, and through the church and through Ceci Williams 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:44.000 and Vanguard, they eventually would help get the Tenderloin recognized 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:48.520 as a War on Poverty target district in May of 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.640 sixty six. Usually when these districts were recognized, it was 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:58.040 there were you know, impoverished communities, and usually racism was 0:12:58.080 --> 0:12:59.800 sort of at the core of what they were facing. 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.320 But these kids basically stood up with Cecil Williams and 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.920 they're like, well, no, it's we're suffering the same way, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.680 and so we should be recognized thusly, and they were 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:11.120 in May of nineteen sixty six. 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.199 Yeah, that was a big deal to get those kind 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.760 of grants, and that ended up there was like a 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.720 center for the kids living on the street. There was 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.800 a van that doled out medical services like it had 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.160 a pretty good effect, as we'll see. Yeah, so you 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:32.240 said that there were times when Compton's Cafeteria would call 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.720 the police on their patrons, their trans patrons. Apparently that 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:42.800 really picked up after Vanguard. It became clear that these 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.600 trans kids weren't just like keeping to themselves as much 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.240 as they could, that they were starting to have a 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.000 little bit of self respect, that they were organizing, that 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.160 they were getting political. That's apparently when it really started 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:58.560 to step up and the vanguard I think at one 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.360 point picketed outside of Comptons. That was one of the 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.360 things that they did. And that was a month or 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:09.240 so before the riot happened. So you've got these trans 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.960 kids organizing, starting to have like a certain amount of 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.400 self esteem and self respect that's coming out of their community, 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:23.200 and that that usually leads to pushback from establishment, and 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:24.400 that's what happened. 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:27.280 That sounds like a great place for a break, my friend, 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.640 Thank you all right? Well, Josh sat it up perfectly 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:32.800 and will be right back to knock him down right 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:58.680 after this. I know why a bowling analogy happened just there, 0:14:59.120 --> 0:14:59.960 I don't know. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.040 But it was great. I love your sports metaphors. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:04.560 Is bowling a sport? 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:05.120 Sure? 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:06.760 Oh boy, I'm gonna get in trouble for. 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:08.920 That, Yes you are, I said, sure, everybody. 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:15.000 So this is how lost to time the Compton Cafeteria 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:19.440 riot has been is they're not even positive. Still what 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.120 the exact date was, Yeah, Striker did a lot of 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.600 research Susan Striker, who we mentioned and who will talk 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:30.040 a lot more about in this segment. Eventually Striker narrowed 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.360 it down to August twenty seventh, which was a Saturday, 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:36.280 the last Saturday of that month. But we can safely 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:38.520 say it was in August of nineteen sixty six, probably 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.320 late August, very early in the morning, as in Saturday 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:46.560 leading into Sunday. And the story is a lot like 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:48.920 like you said, it's a lot like Stonewall. The police 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.640 get called in because things are kind of rowdy. The 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:56.520 police get there, start being very physically aggressive with these people, 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.640 and then one of them through coffee in one of 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.640 the cop faces, and it was on. After that, Basically 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.520 it went downhill pretty fast. Other patrons joined in, the 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:12.160 cops started fighting back. The cops eventually go outside and retreat, 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.680 wait for reinforcements. The management, you know, close the place up, 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.280 and the people inside started breaking the windows, They started 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.160 trashing the place, they flipped the tables over, they started 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.840 wrecking it, and you know, the cops showed on, showed 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.800 up en mass to deal with about sixty people or 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.440 so that fought the police with their purses and throwing 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.560 high heels, and I think they destroyed a police car 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:38.560 by the end of the night and set a news 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:39.400 stand on fire. 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:45.520 I saw potentially hundreds of people, like the nearby hotels 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:51.000 like drained, the bars drained, like it went. It got serious, 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:53.280 like after they left Compton's. 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:58.120 Yeah, so unsurprisingly some of them were successfully arrested and 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:02.840 taking to jail, and Compton's, you know, for their part, 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:07.280 basically said from now on, you know, they called them, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.480 you know, drag queen patrons at the time said you're 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:15.400 not allowed here anymore, no more gay hustlers. Apparently there 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.680 were there were pickets after that, Like the ensuing days 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.680 were kind of a mess. They would some people would 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.119 still go down and picket. They wouldn't be allowed in 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.879 the restaurant. They started closing at midnight instead of being 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.840 twenty four to seven and just closed I think like 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:30.400 five years after that permanently. 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:36.520 Yes, but they they it had immediate effects. First of all, 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.239 it took that kind of sense of organizing among the 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:44.280 trans kids in the Tenderloin. It like bolstered it. It 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.480 gave them like a feeling like, oh, we actually can 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.240 make things happen together, even if it was violent in 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.480 the face of police violence. And apparently it had an 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:58.480 effect that they the police kind of stopped so casually 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:03.240 harassing or beating or even kidnapping the trans kids in 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.080 the Tenderloin after that, immediately after that, there was an 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:08.040 immediate effect. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.800 Yeah, for sure. They ended up having an ally in, 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:20.240 a community relations cop named Elliott Blackstone, who basically was like, 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:23.200 you know, I would like to help you folks out. 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.040 I'm going to advocate for an end to these anti 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.959 cross dressing laws. You won't get harassed for dressing how 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.240 you want to dress. I'm going to help you get 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:35.080 the services that you need. Eventually, a public health unit 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.879 called the Center for Special Problems started offering their support 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.119 as well, including getting IDs that reflected their gender identities, 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.040 which is what you were talking about. That kept a 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.680 lot of them from getting jobs, and that allowed many 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.280 of them to go get legal work, and you know, 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:51.639 they could leave sex work behind. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.639 Yeah, I mean it had a significant impact, especially considering 0:18:55.800 --> 0:19:00.520 that it was forgotten really quickly after that. That was 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:05.879 also given credit for establishing the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.800 which is a support group for trans people, probably the 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.080 first one in history, and it was a place where like, 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.280 if you needed a place to stay, they could tell 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.760 you who to go ask. They could help you fill 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.919 out applications for hormones and tell you what doctor to 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.080 go to. It was a mail drop for some people 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.000 who had just showed up and didn't have a place 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:32.320 to live yet. Like basically everything that supported unhoused trans 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.960 kids in Tenderloin. In the Tenderloin in the late sixties, 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:42.000 the Canceling Unit did. And again this Compton's Cafeteria riot 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.240 is directly responsible for not just saying like, hey, we 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.560 have these needs that are being completely unmet, where the 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.880 police are beating us with impunity anytime they feel like it. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.960 I read. I read one story where this kid had 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.359 just shown up to San Francisco and one of the 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.159 first things he's was another kid laying on the street 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.640 in agony saying his ribs were broken. And the kid 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:07.840 who'd just got into San Francisco was like, well, we 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:09.800 got to call the police, and the kid with his 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:11.920 rib broken said, the police are the ones that did 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:14.800 this to me. And that guy, I think he was 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:18.840 one of the vanguard founders. He's like that just crystallized 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:23.320 the situation for him almost immediately, but in responding to 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:25.800 that with violence. It's sad that it took violence, but 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:28.920 they finally stood up and said, no, we're done putting 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:33.400 up with this, and that actually had a positive impact 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:37.639 in drawing attention to their needs and then getting the 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.199 city to start responding to those things at the very 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.880 least recognizing that they exist. 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:49.200 Yeah. Absolutely, boy, it would be a kettle of fire 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:52.119 as an episode. But I wonder if one day we 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:58.200 could tackle protests, nonviolent and violent protests, okay, through the years, 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.520 because it is a fraught topic. 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.440 Supposedly. I don't know where I saw this, but I 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.960 think I just saw it today. Something like fifty nine 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:13.320 percent of nonviolent organizations are non violent movements succeed in 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:17.760 their goals, but only like a quarter of violent movements too. 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.399 So usually you want to back the non violent ones 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.320 is if you're betting on it, if you're betting on 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.600 outcomes of civil movements. 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:31.440 So we mentioned forgetting about the riot and how that 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.400 could happen in nineteen sixty six, not even that long 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:40.160 ago relatively speaking, historically speaking, I guess I should say, 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:44.600 and how does that happen? And here's how that happens. 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.080 No one really wrote about it, even in San Francisco. 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:54.959 The straight quote unquote straight publications didn't write about it, 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.639 and largely the gay publications didn't even write about it much. 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.200 I believe there were a couple of members of the 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.280 local gay community who wrote about it. A gentleman named 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.840 Raymond brush Here wrote about it in the nineteen seventy 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:11.800 two so this is five years later. 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:16.159 He was a local, very very radical reverend who was 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:18.600 also gay. I think he was a Vanguard founder too. 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:20.960 So he wrote about it in the nineteen seventy two 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.879 Gay Pride program, so just in a program for a 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:28.600 Gay Pride event. And then a drag queen at the 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:32.119 time named Sandy Green mentioned it, just mention it in 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:35.720 a letter to the editor. Again, this is six years later. 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:40.879 I'm sorry, five years later, I guess seven years Wow, 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.840 we got pretty bad the seventy three issue of Gay 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:49.520 Pride Quarterly. But it was not It wasn't even remembered 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:54.719 in the LGBTQ community in San Francisco, forget about the 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:58.080 rest of San Francisco or America at large. And the 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.160 question is like, why did own wall become the thing? 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:04.359 And there's a few reasons. One is that it was 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:06.800 in New York and it was the center of publishing, 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:11.159 so that certainly didn't hurt a bit and media. Another 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:16.720 is that these homophile groups that we talked about in 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:19.640 that kind of short three year span from sixty six 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:23.400 to sixty nine started to model themselves a little bit 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:28.119 more after things like the Black Power movement and the 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:31.239 woman's rights movement, and we're a little more sort of 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:35.439 activist and action oriented than they were before when they 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:37.960 were just in sixty six saying like, you know, can 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:40.520 we just have rights like everyone else? Get a little 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:41.200 more aggressive. 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:45.000 And I saw it put in that there was more kindling, 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:47.520 Like they were just starting to bring the kindling out 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:49.760 at the time of the Compton riots, but by the 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.880 time Stonewall happened, there's a lot more kindling to go. 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:56.360 Up, totally okay, And that's you know, that's another really 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:56.879 big reason. 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:01.760 Yeah, it's pretty pretty interesting stuff. Also, I think the 0:24:01.800 --> 0:24:05.720