The Riot Before Stonewall: What Happened at Compton's Cafeteria

Most people know the name Stonewall. Almost nobody knows what happened three years earlier in a San Francisco cafeteria. In 1966 the word transgender did not exist yet. Joe and Rya follow the trail from a church basement to the local diner where queens finally stood up to the bullies. History nearly lost this story, and that is exactly why it is worth reclaiming.

On the thumbnail: Nearly every photograph of Compton's Cafeteria is under copyright, so we could not use one. This thumbnail was made with ChatGPT. We generally steer clear of AI art, but Edward Hopper's Nighthawks restaged with the queens of the Tenderloin District in the window was too good to pass up.

One correction: In the episode, we say that nothing earlier than Compton's was documented. That is inaccurate. The Dewey's lunch counter sit-in in Philadelphia came first in April 1965, and the Black Nite brawl happened in Milwaukee, in 1961. There are also accounts of a riot at Cooper Do-nuts in Los Angeles in 1959, though that one is thinly sourced. Compton's is still among the earliest and by far the largest. We are learning this history right along with you.

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