7 - before stonewall: the compton's cafeteria riot

Before Stonewall, before rainbow flags, there was a dingy diner in San Francisco’s Tenderloin where drag queens and trans women said: “Hell no, we’re not taking this anymore.” In 1966, one steaming cup of coffee hurled in a cop’s face set off a riot that history tried to erase. Tables flipped, windows shattered, stilettos swung like weapons — and suddenly, the police weren’t the only ones with power. This is the untold story of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, the messy, fierce, lipstick-smudged rebellion that lit the spark for queer resistance years before Stonewall.