In the summer of 1966, a trans woman and patron of the Tenderloin’s Compton’s Cafeteria threw her cup of hot coffee in the face of a police officer as he made an unwarranted attempted to arrest her. The riot that followed would come to be known as the United States’ first recorded act of militant queer resistance to social oppression and police harassment. Three years before Stonewall, the famous gay riot at New York’s Stonewall Inn, the neighborhood’s trans women and allies banded together to fight back against their ongoing discrimination, beating the cops with their high heels and throwing furniture through the cafeteria windows.
The Tenderloin Museum is proud to announce the reopening of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, an original, interactive theater piece directly inspired by the historic riot for Transgender rights. The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot is an integral piece of the Tenderloin’s identity, and this play offers a singular opportunity for audiences to celebrate the individuals whose tenacious spirit spawned a movement against the long history of discrimination and violence. Attendees will convene for a late night breakfast in our functioning replica diner, where a 12 person cast will recreate the neighborhood’s seminal act of resistance and immerse the audience in the tribulations of a marginalized community striving for survival and recognition.

While the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot has immense significance for the LGBTQ+ community at large, it was also a defining moment for the Tenderloin. As such, Compton’s figures prominently in the Tenderloin Museum’s permanent exhibition. Special thanks is due to Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman, whose diligently researched, Emmy Award winning documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria saved Compton’s from historical obscurity.