Although Susan
Strykers lecture is entitled Transgender Rage: The Comptons Cafeteria
Riot of 1966, I felt that because she focused on the history of
segregation and discrimination against the transgender community,
leading up to the point of the riot, was compelling. Her lecture was
broken up into parts in which she went over questions that she wanted
to seek answers to when researching the event. Such questions like,
Was there a population of drag queens in Tenderloinand how does
prostitution play a role in this event? were valid in determining the
cause and effect of Comptons Cafeteria riot. Stryker also brought up
interesting points and issues concerning the way transgender people
were treated and their response to oppression. The main idea that I
concluded from attending Susan Strykers lecture is that corruption
among the police, poverty and poor living situations, and the
transsexual phenomenon all contributed to retaliation of the
transgender population.
Perhaps the most
significant detail about the riot in 1966 was how transgender issues
were dealt in the community. According to Stryker, the transsexual
phenomenon was the idea that transsexuals are sick and that they need
help. It was made popular by Harry Benjamin in 1966. I felt that this
information was important because it shed light onto the hardships of
transsexuals in trying to pass off as the other sex, which lead to
difficulties in finding a job and further pushing them to turn to
prostitution. Others who tried to fight for their right were a group
of social activists who called themselves Vanguard, who held regular
meetings at Comptons Cafeteria.
However, there are
people who reject the idea of helping transsexuals. Police
corruption, I believe, is inherent. It exists to some extent in
various communities. When prostitution was legalized and then
re-criminalized in the early 1900s because the police was getting a
part of the money that prostitutes were making, it lead me to believe
that transsexuals at the time were being treated as second class
citizens, inferior to the dominant white society. This caused tension
and