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 — years before the Stonewall Riots.

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 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 document served as the basis for a 1995 city ordinance banning anti-trans discrimination.

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.

Go deeper

Tunde Modupee's social media feed is filled with scenes from the Bay Area, whether she's eating at Gregory's Gourmet Desserts in Oakland or trying a cryo spa — "a love letter to the Bay," she tells Axios.

• This is "Made in the Bay," a series spotlighting content creators with ties to the Bay Area.

Zoom in: Modupee moved to the Bay after college and has lived here for over six years.

• The lifestyle and food influencer started doing content creation as a hobby and now has nearly 25,000 followers on TikTok.

The following answers have been lightly edited.

When did you realize your content was starting to blow up?

When friends who didn't live in the Bay would tell me their friends were sending them my videos — and they'd be like, "Oh wait, I know her!" It always feels like a fun jump-scare.

What's your favorite piece of content you've created?

My walking video from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the ferry in Sausalito ... I feel like I captured it beautifully — from the water views under the bridge, to the bridge itself, to the hillside houses overlooking the Bay in Sausalito.

What's your ultimate go-to Bay Area meal?

I'd have to go with the G-Fire wings and lumpia with steamed rice and extra sauce from Lucky Three Seven.

Full Q&A

🌃 Community organizers in the Sunset are launching a new event, "Sunset After Dark," on Sept. 26 after the original Sunset Night Market was canceled. (ABC7 News)

📖 Reporter Scott Alan Lucas' new book, "Last Night in San Francisco," examines three central forces in the Bob Lee murder: the victim, convicted killer Nima Momeni and the distorted perceptions of SF that the case unleashed. (SF Chronicle)

🚨 A man was charged with disorderly conduct and public indecency for allegedly throwing a sex toy onto the basketball court during a Golden State Valkyries game. (SF Chronicle)

It may not officially be spooky season yet, but it is year-round at the William Westerfeld House, a historical haunted gem near Alamo Square.

State of play: The more-than-a-century-old gothic Victorian at 1198 Fulton St. has been the site of a Czarist Russian-run brothel and social club, jazz-era flophouse, psychedelic hippie commune and host to occult film sets and rumored satanic rituals, earning it an eerie reputation.

Catch up quick: The 28-room mansion was built in 1889 by local architect Henry Geilfuss for the affluent German baker William Westerfeld, who died there six years later.

• The house is colloquially referred to as "The Russian Embassy," earning the moniker after Russian émigrés purchased it in the late 1920s and turned the ballroom into a club called "Dark Eyes."
• Today, gothic enthusiast Jim Siegel owns the house and has restored its original Victorian flourishes with the hope it can become a museum one day.

Tell a horror enthusiast

A 9-year-old girl was attacked by a sea lion while surfing at Asilomar State Beach near Monterey last week in what authorities are calling a first for the region, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

The latest: Corale Olsen was sent to the emergency room with a non-life-threatening leg injury after the animal bit her — a move her surf instructor described as territorial, KSBW first reported.

What they're saying: While such attacks are rare, human-sea lion encounters are more likely to occur in areas along the coast where the species lives in close proximity to people, Marine Mammal Center spokesperson Giancarlo Rulli told the Chronicle.

Threat level: Males can become territorial while hunting. Exposure to domoic acid, a neurotoxin from algal blooms, can also result in erratic or aggressive behavior.

• If a sea lion approaches, back away slowly and calmly to avoid triggering defensive behavior, per NOAA guidelines.