How SF became the heart of the trans rights movement
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Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Susan Gilbert/San Francisco Chronicle, Clay Geerdes/Getty Images
San Francisco kicked off Transgender History Month this week with a flag-raising ceremony that emphasized the urgency of protecting trans rights while serving as a reminder that the city has played a crucial role in advancing the movement.
The big picture: SF is believed to be the first U.S. city to officially observe the commemorative month. It began doing so in 2021 after activist Jupiter Peraza led an effort to celebrate the city's rich history of trans pioneers.
Between the lines: While trans people in the U.S. continue to face disproportionately high rates of violence, suicidal ideation and homelessness, advocates say these realities do not define the community.
Catch up quick: August was designated Transgender History Month to honor the legacy of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot in August 1966, when a trans woman resisted police harassment by throwing a cup of coffee at an officer at Gene Compton's Cafeteria in the Tenderloin.
- The move sparked a revolt, marking "the first known instance of collective militant queer resistance to police harassment" in the country — years before the Stonewall Riots, historian Susan Stryker said in a 2015 episode of the "Code Switch" podcast.
Flashback: SF has also been the heart of several other pivotal moments in American trans history:
In 1965, the San Francisco Department of Public Health established the Center for Special Problems. Led by doctor Joel Fort and trans activist Wendy Kohler, the center provided mental health counseling and hormone prescriptions.
- It also issued ID cards, signed by a public health doctor, that matched trans people's gender instead of their sex assigned at birth, allowing them to open bank accounts and seek employment in alignment with their identity, per Stryker's book "Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution."
Trans activists Jamison Green and Kiki Whitlock, among others, worked with San Francisco's Human Rights Commission to publish a landmark report in 1994 documenting human rights abuses against the trans community.
- The investigation found that trans people faced significant barriers to obtaining medical and social services, securing stable employment and accessing rape crisis resources and homeless shelters.
- The document served as the basis for a 1995 city ordinance banning discrimination against trans people.
Theresa Sparks made history in 2007 when she was elected president of the San Francisco Police Commission, becoming the first openly trans city department head as well as the highest-ranking trans official.
In 2017, three Black trans women — Honey Mahogany, Janetta Johnson and Aria Sa'id — founded Compton's Transgender Cultural District, now known as The Transgender District, the first of its kind in the world, KQED reports.
What's next: San Francisco will host events throughout August to commemorate the month.