The Compton's Cafeteria Riots of August 1966 in San Francisco's Tenderloin District are the first documented, large-scale collective action of transgender and queer people against police. The riot began inside Compton’s Cafeteria–which at the time was a 24 hour diner where trans and queer residents of the Tenderloin congregated after socializing, performing, or working at nearby clubs and bars–but eventually made its way outside onto the Turk and Taylor Streets intersection where fighting continued. Tables were turned, coffee was thrown, and windows were smashed.

According to historians, the riot attracted hundreds of Tenderloin residents in the middle of the night–some who were awakened from their slumber at nearby hotels and SROs (single-room occupancy units), other trans and queer residents who were also leaving bars and clubs as their night came to an end, and other patrons of Compton’s Cafeteria.

The riot changed the way transgender and LGB individuals were treated in San Francisco, as they proved to be a force to be reckoned with. The uprising was the focus of the 2005 documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, written and directed by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman.