1. Levin, Sam. “Compton’s Cafeteria Riot: A Historic Act of Trans Resistance, Three Years before Stonewall.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 June 2019, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/21/stonewall-san-francisco-rio... 17 Mar. 2024.

A late night in August 1966, a restaurant called Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, which is a very popular meeting place for transgender and other gender queer people, was raided by police officers in aim to humiliate those LGBTQ members. One member of the group decided to “fight back” and this ended up becoming a two days long riot between the LGBTQ community and polices. Events like this has ignited people’s rage towards discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and this is what makes this photo so provoking. The subject of this photo is clearly appearing to be a gender queer, and such bold display of her transgendered body in a sensitive time when homosexuality was still diagnosed as a mental illness was no doubt a tremendously brave act, almost like an oppositional gaze and a protest to discriminative event like such. Such spotlighted display of individuals from all populations was also what Diane Arbus was known for—subjects that ranged from strippers and nudist all the way to middle class people and famous performers.