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
 

The Advocate Interviews SAID's Miss Major and Ashley Love on the Proposed Stonewall Plaque's Problematic Wording: 'Does the Stonewall Commemorative Plaque Erase Trans People's Role in Riots?'

From Advocate.com:

 

Does the Stonewall Commemorative Plaque Erase Trans People's Role in Riots?

Trans activists say the use of the term 'gay' as an umbrella term erases the historic importance of trans and gender-nonconforming people in the riots that launched the modern LGBT equality movement.

 

BY Sunnivie Brydum

October 24 2013 6:42 PM ET

Ashley Love (left) and Miss Major, two of the trans women leading the effort to make the Stonewall plaque's language more inclusive.

 

New York City is currently considering installing a plaque at the site of the historic Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village bar where in 1969, bar patrons — including trans women, lesbians, drag queens, and gay men — fought back against continued police harassment, leading to a riot that lasted three days and, by most estimations, started the modern LGBT rights movement.

Commemorating the riots and the location is undoubtedly a laudable goal, but the actual words that will be included on the plaque have stirred up controversy within New York's LGBT community...

 

...But even at the first meeting of the local Community Board's Landmarks and Public Aesthetics Committee on October 15, tensions over allegedly exclusive wording was plainly evident.... 

 

...Among those most upset over the draft language are members of Stonewalling Accurate and Inclusive Depictions, an educational project that aims to bring 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," according to SAID's website. 

 

"Many who took part in the Stonewall Rebellion died way before their time, like my sisters Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson," explains Miss Major, a SAID organizer, executive director of the TGI Justice Project in Oakland, Calif., and a trans woman of color who was inside the Stonewall Inn the night the riots began. "The ongoing whitewashing of those days of struggle put a blemish on the memory of those trans women of color and those still living — mentally, physically and spiritually. I pray this plaque uses inclusive language to honor the sacrifice we as trans women displayed by taking back our power."

 

Ashley Love, another organizer with SAID who is a journalist and transsexual and intersex advocate, cut straight to the chase on why her group is displeased with the plaque's draft language. 

 

"LGB decision-makers shouldn’t misrepresent less privileged communities by repeatedly using exclusive and nonaffirming language that marginalizes and misgenders Americans with a transgender gender identity or a transsexual medical condition," Love tells The Advocate. "Misusing 'gay' as an umbrella term erases the many heterosexual and non-gay identified people in the Trans* coalition, and confuses the already ignorant public. This is a chance to responsibly depict history by ensuring this plaque honors all diverse communities who kickstarted the Stonewall Rebellion."

 

Sen. Holyman's chief of staff confirmed that the specific wording will be discussed and revised at next month's meeting of Community Board 2's Social Services and Education Committee. That meeting will take place on November 19, which happens to be one day before the International Trans Day of Remembrance, where trans people and their friends and allies gather to remember all those lost to anti-trans violence and bias around the world in the past year...

 

For FULL ARTICLE: http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2013/10/24/does-stonewall-commemorative-plaque-erase-trans-peoples-role-riots