We Have Always Existed — and We Will Not Be Erased

We Have Always Existed — and We Will Not Be Erased

The struggle for our existence began in August 1966 at Gene Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco. Fed up with constant police harassment, transgender women and gay men fought back when one person threw coffee in an officer's face. Fifty years later, in 2016, the city commemorated this pivotal moment with a plaque. In 1969, three years after the riot at Compton's Cafeteria, two trans women — Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson — stood at the fore…