Date of Compton’s riot remains elusive

111 Taylor Street once housed Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, the site of an August 1966 riot by drag queens and trans people against the police.

Photo: Cynthia Laird

San Francisco’s Transgender History Month, observed in August for the past several years, often brings attention to the fact that an exact date of the 1966 riot at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin remains elusive. The former eatery, which was frequented by drag queens and trans people, among others, has been in the news this year, as activists work to reclaim the historic site that is now a reentry facility for formerly incarcerated people.   The ground floor commercial space at 111 Taylor Street had housed Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, where one night in August 1966 a drag queen reportedly threw a cup of hot coffee in the