This article by Leslie Feinberg, a lesbian transgender and Jewish communist and a managing editor of Workers World, was first published May 5, 2006, as part 62 of the series “Lavender and Red.” The 10th anniversary of comrade Leslie’s death will be marked on Nov. 15. The 1969 Stonewall Rebellion

In 1966, “Compton’s Cafeteria Riot” erupted in the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district when a group described as transgender women and gay street hustlers fought back against police harassment. Rebellion broke out after a trans customer in the all-night cafe reportedly threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of a cop who was roughing her up. Transgenders and transsexuals threw sugar shakers through windows, overturned tables and torched a police cruiser. (San Francisco Bay Times, March 23, 2006)

On the 40th anniversary of the rebellion this year [2006], community-organized events in San Francisco will commemorate this important milestone uprising. The 1966 events are brought to new generations in the recent film documentary “Screaming Queens” — written, directed and produced by Victor Silverman, an associate professor of history at Pomona College, and Susan Stryker, former executive director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.

In another response to a police raid on two Los Angeles’ bars in 1967, political organizers took their struggle to the streets. That year, as the stroke of midnight ushered in the New Year at The Black Cat bar in Los Angeles’s Silverlake neighborhood, the “The Rhythm Queens” were singing Auld Lang Syne.

Plainclothes cops who had infiltrated the festivities began viciously beating and arresting patrons. Several people tried to escape to the New Faces bar across the street, where a drag contest was taking place. Cops followed and raided that club also, assaulting one of the workers so violently that his spleen ruptured. (The Gay & Lesbian Review, March-April 2006)

In response, more than 200 gay activists and human rights supporters from all walks of life rallied on Feb. 11 at Sanborn and Sunset to protest police brutality and arbitrary arrests and to demand homosexual rights. The rally swelled the membership ranks of a newly and quickly formed, more militant gay group called “PRIDE.” (Stephen O. Murray, lgbtq.com)

And within two short years, the collective anger that was bubbling up would break into a furious boil: Stonewall!