‘It Seeks to Diminish Us’: San Francisco LGBTQ Teams Protest Metropolis’s Redistricting Plans

Edward Wright, president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, said the task force must listen to queer and trans residents.

“We are here today because we have not been heard, and it’s critical that the task force knows as they move forward in this process that they cannot divide the LGBTQ community,” Wright said at Wednesday’s event.

“That potential separation would also divide the Transgender District, which is again the first recognized transgender cultural district anywhere in the world, from the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, which is also the first of it’s kind recognized anywhere in the world.”

Staff members of the Transgender District listen to speakers outside the site of the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, San Francisco, March 30, 2022, during a press conference calling for the Transgender and Leather and LGBTQ districts in the Tenderloin and Western SOMA to remain in District 6 .(Beth LaBerge/KQED)

The press event took place at the site of the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, a historic area for queer history and the LGBTQ civil rights movement.

Compton’s Cafeteria served as a meeting place for drag queens, trans women, sex workers and other marginalized individuals in the 1960s. In August 1966, a riot occurred in response to police harassment against the trans community. After the riot, local LGBTQ advocacy gained a stronger foothold, and more support services for the community were established.