California History Professor Jennifer Thompson's Statement Opposing SF Board of Supervisors Whitewashing The 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot's Legacy

Professor Jennifer Thompson, PhD

Jennifer Thompson teaches history at Cal State Fullerton (with a focus on African studies,) and is openly trans - making her one of the only Black women to be both openly trans and a professor at a university in the country. As a native and current resident of California she's also particularly interested in California's trans and LGBQ of color history, so it's understandable why she's extremely disappointed with the recent development concerning San Francisco's elected officials making light of the racist, transphobic and homophobic police brutality that led to the Compton's Cafeteria Riot of 1966 in San Francisco, California (three years before Stonewall), the same year the Black Panthers were founded and at a moment that should be honored, not 'whitewashed'.

Last summer Professor Thompson helped lead efforts to call out the 'Stonewall' film's whitewashing, history revisionism, trans-minimizing and racism by presenting a historical lecture during Stonewalling Accurate & Inclusive Depiction's (SAID) education rally which was held outside Warner Brothers Studio near Hollywood (film's distributor) .

Today she released the following statement to be published on SAID's website which opposed the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors unbelievable renaming of the intersection of Turk and Taylor after an accomplice of police brutality - rather than after the actual resistance and riots that protested SFPD's hateful violence against trans, LGBQ, poor, homeless, Black and/or Brown residents of San Francisco.

Here is her statement:

With the recent passage of a measure to rename part of Taylor Street "Gene Compton Cafeteria Way," the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has, in one fell swoop, erased the historical struggles and activism of the local trans and queer communities in 1966 and honored an individual who caused grievous harm to trans and queer people, alike.

Led by trans women, gender variant people, drag queens and gay people, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot of August 1966 came about because trans and queer people rose up against racist and transphobic police brutality, legal discrimination and the intolerance of Gene Compton - the white male owner of the cafeteria who called the police on peaceful persons trying to live authentically, therefore inciting state violence.

The activism at Compton’s Cafeteria anticipated the Stonewall Uprising of June 1969. I urge the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to rescind the recently passed ordinance, and honor trans people and their history by replacing the name "Gene Compton Cafeteria Way" with "Compton's Cafeteria Riots Way. Thank you! - Jennifer Thompson

Jennifer Thompson, PhD

Lecturer of History

California State University, Fullerton
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From Trans Forming Media www.TransFormingMedia.blogspot.com:

"Trans Icon Donna Personna "Betrayed, Disappointed" by SF City Whitewashing Compton's Cafeteria Riot" http://transformingmedia.blogspot.com/2016/08/video-trans-icon-donna-personna.html

VIDEO: Iconic Trans Pioneer Donna Personna's Testimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf8Mzu6LbxA&feature=youtu.be

From Trans Forming Media's Ashley Love:

On July 16th, directly following the Tenderloin Museum's One Year Anniversary celebration, I interviewed trans pioneer and artist Donna Personna (she was in SF during Compton Cafeteria Riots) about San Francisco city's unbelievable whitewashing of Compton Cafeteria Riot's legacy.

During the recent post-Trans March ceremony on June 24, 2016 the city renamed the intersection of Turk and Taylor 'Gene Compton Cafeteria Way' instead of  'Compton Cafeteria Riots Way' as Donna and others voted on, and what the community assumed it was being renamed as.

So not only has 'Riots' been whitewashed out, the name of an accomplice of police brutality has been snuck in. Gene Compton, the cafeteria owner who conspired with the violent law enforcement, should not be honored, the people's resistance against transphobia, homophobia and racist and sexist state violence should be.
#DropTheGene #DropTheG #DropPoliceBrutality
 

Call To Participate: Attend October 15th Public Hearing in N.Y.C. to Ensure Proposed Stonewall Memorial Plaque Has Trans-Inclusive & Affirming Language

Stonewalling Accurate & Inclusive Depictions (S.A.I.D.)

What:  First Public Hearing on Proposed Plaque Honoring the Stonewall Riots of 1969

This hearing will occur during a meeting of Community Board 2’s Landmarks & Public Aesthetics Committee  to enroll the public to discuss the proposed draft of what will be written on the plaque to be placed on the Stone Wall Inn honoring the Riots of 1969.

When:  Tuesday, October 15^th @ 6:30pm

Where:  NYU’s Silver Building at 32 Waverly Place (at Washington Square East), room 411

Why:  It’s vital that transsexual, transgender and gender-non conforming people attend this hearing to ensure that the language on the plaque does not gloss over our communities by repeatedly and inaccurately pushing thee word “gay” as an umbrella term because this minimizes and erases the significant role transsexual, transgender and gender non-conforming people had in the rebellion. Sexual Orientation (gay) is not the same thing as a transgender gender identity or a transsexual medical condition. Words really do matter.

S.A.I.D. organizer Miss Major, currently the Executive Director of T.G.I Justice Project and a Stonewall veteran who was actually inside the Inn when the riots started, has deep concerns about the proposed plaque’s wording and the overall misrepresentation of Stonewall’s legacy.  She states,

“We started S.A.I.D.’s campaign to honor all those at the Stonewall Inn the night the riots erupted and, though you wouldn’t know it by viewing the inaccurate ‘Stonewall Uprising’ film or a string of other (mis)depictions, that most definitely and primarily included trans women and people of color.

The whitewashing of this history is an abuse of power which we will no longer tolerate.

The plaque should not use “gay” as an umbrella term as it marginalizes and erases the many trans people there. I’m not gay. Many transsexual and transgender people are also not gay.

 History revisionism and trans-erasure have no place in this memorial. Let’s truly honor all the people who stood up for their human rights and yours by writing language on the plaque that’s honest.”

S.A.I.D. organizer Ashley Love, a journalist and transsexual & intersex advocate who volunteers with the anti-defamation group Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET), finds the plaque’s inaccurate draft speaks to larger issues,

“It’s well documented that Sylvia Rivera, a Puerto Rican woman of trans experience, “threw the first heel” that started the riot, with Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major and many other trans* people and people of color also kicking things off. Then after the affluent white gay male political establishment was done using Rivera to fundraise she was quickly discarded. I’m sure the fact that she rightfully called out classism and transphobia also led to her being blacklisted.

If this commemoration is to have any integrity then the pattern of certain privileged communities within the LGBTTIQQ coalition making Stonewall's legacy all about them must be challenged. It’s not just about “gay” people as the proposed text repeatedly misrepresents, it’s also about transsexual and transgender people. Let’s pay a genuine homage to the people who sacrificed so much for all of us by using more affirming text on the plaque.”

Stonewalling Accurate & Inclusive Depictions, or S.A.I.D., is an educational project drawing attention to the ongoing pattern of trans-erasure, whitewashing, misgendering and problematic messaging spread in numerous media portrayals, political establishments and educational institutions regarding the history and multi-movement building surrounding The Stonewall Riots of 1969. This campaign aims to encourage filmmakers, historians, educators, students, journalists and activists to responsibly affirm the colorful diversity which ignited the global revolution which the Stonewall Rebellion inspired.

“We S.A.I.D. enough is enough!”