In Auigust 1966, the Compton's Cafeteria Riot occured, one of the first LGBT-related riots in US history, preceding the more famous Stonewall Riots by three years. The restaurant, one of a chain of cafeterias in San Francisco, was in the Tenderloin location of the city. It was one of the few places where transfender people could congregate publicly, since they were not welcome in gay bars due to transphobia.
The staff at Compton's Cafeteria began to complain to police about the transgender people at the restaurant, and implemented a fee aimed directly at the transgender community to try to get them to leave the restaurant. One night the police were called because some of the transgender customers became 'raucous' and one transwomen threw her coffee in a police officer's face when he tried to arrest her. The riot erupted and a police car had all its windows broken out.
More rioting occurred the second night and more members of the LGBT community joined picket lines. Exact dates of the riots are unknown since police records from that time no longer exist and it was not covered by the media.
It marked a turning point in the local LGBT movement. A network of transgender social, psychological, and medical support services was established. It led to the creation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit in 1968, the first such organization in the world.
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