Political Notebook: 2025 op-art showcases historic SF trans revolt

This year’s installment in the Political Notebook’s annual end-of-year op-art offerings showcases several seminal LGBTQ moments in the history of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. Created by local artist Emily Fromm, it pays homage to the 1966 protests by queer and trans patrons of the now defunct Gene Compton's Cafeteria who were fed up with being harassed by police.

It also honors the LGBTQ youth who swept through the neighborhood one evening in June that year with brooms to also protest the harassment they routinely faced from the cops. The action was by Vanguard, considered by some as the first gay liberation organization in the country, as noted by the archival website FoundSF.

Both actions came three years prior to the better known Stonewall riots in New York City credited with sparking the modern gay rights movement. They have gained more notoriety of late, particularly amid efforts to landmark the building at Turk and Taylor streets that had housed the late-night diner and this year’s push by trans activists and others to reclaim it from the operator of housing for recently incarcerated individuals that now occupies the site.

“My studio used to be in the Tenderloin when I lived in San Francisco, and I still spend a lot of time in the neighborhood,” noted Fromm, who is nonbinary and lives on the San Mateo County coast. “It is a place I like to be and a community I am a part of.”

As noted in a profile in the Bay Area Reporter’s 2025 Pride issue, Fromm utilizes photographs of street scenes in composing their paintings and public murals found throughout the Bay Area. In this instance, Fromm drew upon historic images of the Vanguard sweep and took their own photos from screening on a wall at home the 2005 documentary "Screaming Queens" by transgender scholar and historian Susan Stryker, Ph.D., that had unearthed the Compton’s incident.

“I really loved the doc and the story. It struck me as having a lot of relevance and parallels to now,” noted Fromm, who was also inspired by their friend E Dyer's outdoor mural at the venue for “Compton’s Cafeteria Riot: The Play,” whose set recreates the diner's interior. “This year, especially, at a time when so many rights were compromised and violated, it was really heartening to retrace the steps of Compton’s and, I guess, highlight a moment where fighting back as individuals worked.”

With many forced into sex work since they weren’t hired for other jobs, the trans diner patrons fought back and stood up for themselves after years of being jailed and harassed just for making a living, noted Fromm. And they persisted amid the decades-long push to enact the first laws expressly protecting trans people, added Fromm.

“I feel that is a message of hope right now,” said Fromm. “Maybe the official state and government don’t feel like a safe place and aren’t a safe place, but I am feeling some inspiration from this past event of people looking out for one another.”

Learn more about Fromm and their art at emilyfromm.com.

Political Notes, the notebook's online companion column, returns Monday, January 12.

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Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected].