Drew de Pinto’s documentary explores the legacy of a 1966 riot in the Tenderloin that was nearly lost to history.
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00:00 It was like Oz, something like the Wizard of Oz.
00:14 It had a feeling that I finally found who I am and where I'm going.
00:22 It's just a feeling that it can only happen in the gender line.
00:28 It's like a fairy tale that you wouldn't believe, but there's this nightmare of the truth of
00:35 it all.
00:35 [MUSIC]
00:45 [MUSIC]
01:10 That there was so much pain and rejection there from families that had disowned their
01:18 children.
01:20 And it was very hurtful.
01:21 So we became each other's family.
01:24 We became each other's sisters.
01:27 And if one needed something, we helped all out.
01:31 If you hurt one of us, you hurt all of us.
01:34 I think initially I was shocked and happy to see some normal old trans people, which
01:43 is not something that is common.
01:46 I think that was my initial reaction, which was like, "Oh, cool."
01:52 Not every trans person dies.
01:55 There's some hope.
01:56 It was nice, but it was also kind of bittersweet, too.
02:00 It's like something I haven't gotten before.
02:05 We weren't known as transgender people or transsexuals.
02:09 We were known as queens or the girls.
02:13 We were very proud to be known as the queens because we were queens.
02:18 We were queens of the streets.
02:20 We ruled the streets.
02:22 We had to walk the streets.
02:23 That was our turf.
02:25 It's like looking at myself.
02:30 It is satisfying, to say the least.
02:35 And humbling.
02:39 Humbling.
02:43 Because I feel so blessed.
02:49 Oh, shit, a bitch about to cry.
02:59 I'm hormonal.
03:01 I'm sorry.
03:04 Transgender people knew who other transgender people were.
03:07 We would either walk by, even if we didn't even know anyone, we would still go ahead
03:12 and give them our nod or wink or, "Hello, how are you?"
03:16 We knew, like gaydar, we knew who was a girl, who was a queen, who was a sister.
03:23 That was the wonderful thing about it.
03:26 I remember that feeling from a very young age.
03:30 I was like, I guess we could say was clocking people at a young age, but I was always just
03:36 fascinated because I saw myself in that, you know?
03:40 And of course, Compton's was our hangout.
03:42 It was a bacteria.
03:44 And it was really a fabulous time.
03:46 Basically, we went there to gossip about what we did and to let people know that we were
03:52 alive.
03:53 We survived the night.
03:54 We went to Compton's until 6 o'clock in the morning and partied because Compton was a
03:59 24-hour joint that was open all the time.
04:03 So we went there any time we wanted to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, or just sit there
04:09 and watch the girls, the queens come in and out and do their thing.
04:15 [music]
04:43 I in many ways really like thwarting people's ideas of gender.
04:50 It also is pretty scary sometimes to be in drag, especially Beijing opera drag, because
04:55 then they really don't know what the fuck I am.
04:58 They don't know what gender I am.
04:59 They don't know what species I am.
05:00 People look at you like, what is this?
05:03 You know, I've never seen something like this before.
05:07 And you know, just like art and fashion, it can inspire people or it's going to get hatred
05:14 for it because it's not understood or it's out of the box.
05:19 But that's how you should feel like.
05:22 You should feel like you're a work of art.
05:26 I derive this really powerful feeling of having power and of being in control because I'm
05:33 commanding everyone's gaze, everyone's view, everyone's thoughts.
05:37 They are forced to look at me simply because of how I've decorated my body.
05:44 You go in and there's a little bit of everything in there.
05:46 There were drag queens, there were gay guys, there were straight people.
05:49 They came, the straight people came to look at us.
05:54 They wanted to know what was going on and why we were having such a good time, I guess.
06:00 They would die for window seats just to show off whatever the people that were walking
06:07 back and forth or walking by are.
06:10 They were tables of drag queens, female impersonators, transgenders, hustlers, and everybody, every
06:21 time the door opened, everybody looked to see who was coming.
06:24 Because you know, as soon as that door opened, everybody wanted to parade their fashion and
06:30 be gorgeous.
06:31 And I mean, that's how queer spaces are now still.
06:59 When you go to the club, it's still a fashion show because everyone's showing up in whatever
07:05 it is that they do because everyone does something different.
07:08 Another garment from another queen's closet is a high ultimate gift because there are
07:17 things that are passed down, right?
07:21 And there are pieces that I have that are passed down.
07:24 They were worn and created by one queen, given to another queen.
07:29 That queen passed and then she's given it to another queen.
07:34 And that queen gave it to me.
07:37 And we used to have beautiful boys come to see us just to party with us.
07:43 And there was no really no sex involved.
07:45 We just partied.
07:46 You know.
07:47 And I think that's what we're going to do now.
08:16 And then of course, there was sex involved sometimes.
08:26 It was illegal to dress like a woman, but nobody was going to stop us.
08:31 There was a lot of danger out there.
08:35 Why we did it, how, why we got so bold in doing it, I'll never know.
08:41 But this is the only place that we knew that accepted us.
08:47 When I present the way I want to present, I feel like at home.
08:50 You know, I feel comfortable.
08:52 I feel powerful.
08:54 You just get so tired that you just build this like force field around you.
09:03 And you know, you walk, you walk how you want to walk, act how you want to act.
09:11 Yeah, I'd rather be doing that and get yelled at on the street than not do that and still
09:15 get yelled at on the street.
09:16 So there were murders all the time.
09:21 We couldn't do anything about it.
09:23 We couldn't complain to the police that someone was beating us or trying to hurt us because
09:29 the police didn't care.
09:32 When you make family, when you have chosen family and you see them dropping all around
09:37 you, it makes you wonder what your future could be.
09:43 And sometimes it's easier to just not think about the future because you have to just
09:48 live in the moment and get, take it day by day or moment by moment.
09:54 The police could get very forceful and beat you up here.
09:58 You know, I mean with the night sticks and, and they, you know, it was like they were
10:03 trying to humiliate us.
10:05 That we weren't human beings, so they should humiliate us and make us all feel worse than
10:10 we already did.
10:11 But little did they know, we didn't feel bad about what we were.
10:15 We felt good.
10:18 And that's the most interesting part of it is because once you feel good about yourself,
10:22 nobody can hurt you.
10:24 I was like, "Hmm, I know."
10:27 It's like, that's so true.
10:28 Because you really do have to like be like confident and like strong with yourself.
10:33 Even though we knew we were special, we were the queens or the girls, we were still part
10:42 of the gay community.
10:45 And the gay movement started in the Tenderloin, basically in the 60s, when we decided to fight
10:53 back.
10:54 This was even pre-Stonewall.
10:56 The girls got together and we just decided that we're human beings, we're allowed to
11:02 dress any way we want to, whether you accept it or not.
11:06 It was time to make a move.
11:14 As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead.
11:24 It was in around August of 1966 and the police pulled up to Comptons.
11:30 There was a lot of rage and death, like in the headlines and in the air.
11:35 They come down there to raid Comptons to begin with, that's what it was all about.
11:39 They were going to raid Comptons and take all the girls to jail and they just got fed
11:45 up.
11:46 They're crying through our singing, they're aging, cry for bread.
11:57 We screamed at the police, telling them to stop harassing us.
12:02 There was tables turned over and sugar shakers blind.
12:06 August of 1966, where we are standing, trans people were protesting police abuse.
12:18 All the sugar shakers went through the windows and the glass doors.
12:23 Then there was a lot of fighting and people being thrown in the paddy wagon.
12:29 We are here again to protest that same police abuse.
12:36 And I told the cops to stop, I picked up a rock and threw it at the cop.
12:40 And the cop thought I was cute and I said, "You god damn little faggot, do another rock
12:44 and ram."
12:45 I think I put a sugar shaker through one of those windows.
12:49 Yes it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
12:59 This facility is owned by the GEO Group, a for-profit prison corporation.
13:05 And we go marching, marching, we bring the brighter day.
13:13 We think it is an obscenity, this historic site of trans resistance is occupied for profit
13:21 by a group like GEO Group.
13:23 GEO Group has got to go.
13:25 For rising up, the willing, the raises up, the human race.
13:32 We know all the brothers and sisters and our siblings that are behind the walls.
13:36 And I want everybody inside to know this.
13:39 We got you.
13:41 You are not in this alone.
13:43 They don't care about us, but we do.
13:46 We care.
13:49 There was a lot of joy after it happened.
13:52 No more the drudge and idler.
13:58 It had to do a lot with pride too.
14:00 Although we're the gutter girls, we had pride too.
14:03 Somewhere.
14:04 Isn't there?
14:07 A lot of them went to jail, but there was a lot of, I really don't give a damn, this is what needs to happen.
14:13 We were pretty strong warriors back then.
14:17 Millions toil where one reposes.
14:22 It felt good, it felt good that this transformation had happened.
14:27 But the sharing of life's glory.
14:33 We bought our women's clothes, we tried our clothes on in the women's store, in the dressing room, which they wouldn't let us do it before.
14:40 So it was just a matter of coming together.
14:44 Bread and roses, bread and roses.
14:58 Out of confidence came some very beautiful, beautiful women.
15:20 I think that the most important thing that we can do as intergenerational knowledge for trans and queer people is the hope to survive, is the hope to live your life, is the hope to live a full life, despite the fact that your comadres or compadres will fall.
15:38 Because who you become, the generations that come after you rely on that.
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