‘Tales of the City’ on Netflix: Yes, Compton’s Cafeteria Riot Really Happened

Netflix’s Tales of the City is a love letter to the queer community at large, delivered on the first Friday of Pride Month. The series, a revival of the beloved ’90s limited series that pushed boundaries on PBS, features an all LGBTQ staff of writers and directors and has added even more out and proud actors to its cast list. Ellen Page, Victor Garber, Murray Bartlett, Jen Richards, Garcia, Daniela Vega and many more join returning actors Laura Linney, Paul Gross, and Olympia Dukakis for the series, which depicts numerous angles of queer life and chapters of queer history.

One of those chapters is the Compton’s cafeteria riot, an event that was overlooked by historical records and preserved in queer memory. Now it’s been dramatized on screen in Tales of the City, but what really happened in the cafeteria? Is Tales of the City’s take accurate?

What was Compton’s cafeteria riot?

The riot took place in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Gene Compton’s was a chain of cafeterias that operated in the area from the ’50s to the ’70s, with the riot taking place at the cafeteria located at the intersection of Taylor and Turk. Since cross-dressing and “impersonating” a female were against the law at the time and transphobia kept transgender individuals out of gay bars, many trans people would gather at this Compton’s Cafeteria overnight. The restaurant’s management were prejudiced against their late night clientele, believing that trans patrons were scaring away other customers. Management began charging a service fee for trans customers and even called the police on the crowds. At first this led the trans and LGBTQ community to picket out in front of Gene Compton’s. When that didn’t change the way they were treated, a riot broke out.

On the first night of the riot, a cop known in the community for being physically violent against trans women, tried to arrest one of the protestors. The activist picked up a cup of coffee and threw it in the cop’s face, thus kicking off a brawl that involved dozens of protestors and police officers and spilled out into the street. Dishes and windows were broken, the cafeteria’s plate glass windows were shattered, and cop cars were damaged. The riot lasted multiple nights, and Compton’s plate glass windows were smashed again as soon as they were repaired.

This riot predates the one at the Stonewall Inn in New York City by almost 3 years, itself another queer rights riot kicked off by trans women. One reason why Compton’s isn’t as well-known is that the police records of the riot no longer exist and the newspapers didn’t cover the incidents at all. That’s why even the exact dates of the riot remain unknown. There is a documentary about the riots–Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria–and it is streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.

How is Compton’s cafeteria riot depicted in Tales of the City?

Considering that there are no police or newspaper reports to go off of, Tales of the City does a commendable job of getting the details down. The riot is seen in Episode 8, a flashback to young Anna Madrigal’s (Jen Richards) arrival in San Francisco in 1966. She visits Gene Compton’s with her new trans friends, including Daniela Vega’s Ysela. The cafeteria is even located on the corner of Turk and Taylor. When the protest turns to rioting, the show’s narrative puts the coffee cup in Ysela’s hand. She’s the one who throws the coffee into a cop’s face (that cop being Anna’s boyfriend, played by Luke Kirby).

For more info on the Compton’s cafeteria riot, you can stream Screaming Queens on Prime Video at the link below.

Stream Tales of the City "Days of Small Surrenders" on Netflix

Stream Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria on Prime Video