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A San Francisco address that was once the site of a pre-Stonewall transgender uprising has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of historic sites, buildings, and objects in the United States.
The National Park Service added the building at 101-102 Taylor St. in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood to its official list of historic U.S. places worthy of preservation on January 27, without any public statement or press release, The Bay Area Reporter first reported.
The address was the location of Compton’s Cafeteria in the 1960s. One night in August 1966, a riot broke out at the 24-hour eatery between its trans and queer patrons and police officers after a drag queen threw a cup of coffee at a cop who was trying to arrest her. The café’s windows were shattered and a police car destroyed amid the protest against police harassment, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
The site is likely the first landmark to be registered specifically for its connection to the history of the transgender community, trans scholar and historian Susan Stryker, whose 2005 documentary Screaming Queen details the riot, told The Bay Area Reporter.
“There is Stonewall and sites connected to individual people like Pauli Murray, who was nonbinary,” Stryker noted. “But this is the first thing put on the register specifically because of its connection to the history of the transgender movement.”
Madison Levesque, an architectural historian with the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, first submitted a request for the site to be added to the national registry in 2022 as part of their master’s thesis in public history.
“Today, the Compton’s Cafeteria riot is remembered as a turning point towards militant resistance in the LGBTQ, and particularly transgender, community,” Levesque wrote in their 2022 application. “The property is significant at the national level because of its influence on the future political and social representation of transgender and gender-variant people within the United States.”
Stryker, whose work informed Levesque’s initial application and a revised version submitted late last year, credited Levesque with making the registration happen.
Historian and historic preservation planner Shayne Watson said that the news was “something to celebrate” amid the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on transgender rights. In just his first two weeks in office, President Donald Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders intended to further marginalize transgender Americans.
Earlier this week, the National Parks Service removed the letters T and Q from the “LGBTQ+” initials on its website for New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, effectively erasing trans, queer, and gender-nonconforming people’s leading role in the 1969 uprising that is widely recognized as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The move appears to be an effort to comply with Trump’s executive orders prohibiting any federal recognition of trans people in any aspect of civic life.
The hubs and duds of queer life in modern America have been revealed, thanks to a report from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The good news: wherever you are, you’re not alone. Overall, 14.1 million people reported that they “identify as LGBT” between 2020 and 2021, making up a significant portion of the population at 5.6 percent. By state, there wasn’t a single area with an LGBTQ+ population of less than 4 percent.
However, compared to others, some states still have less than half as many queer people proportionally.
While the report did not give any reasoning as to why some states have larger LGBTQ+ demographics than others, the states with the lowest percentages of queer people all but one have pushed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation this year.
Here are the states with the smallest queer communities, and the legislation facing them.
5. South Carolina (Tie)
South Carolina’s 192,800 LGBTQ+ adults account for 4.9 percent of the state’s population. There were 32 anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed this year, according to the ACLU’s legislation tracker, with one passed into law — an extreme ban against gender-affirming care for youth, as well as requiring school staff forcibly out them to their guardians.
5. North Dakota (Tie)
North Dakota’s LGBTQ+ population also accounts or 4.9 percent of its overall population, but their queer community is fewer in number, with 28,400 members. There were no anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed this year in the state, which pushed 17 anti-LGBTQ+ bills last year, 10 of which became law.
4. Iowa
Iowa‘s 113,600 LGBTQ+ adults account for 4.7 percent of the population. 37 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been considered in the state in 2024, four of which passed — including religious exemptions for discrimination.
3. Alabama
Alabama has 173,000 LGBTQ+ people, making up 4.6 percent of the population. Four anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed in the state this year one of which passed that forces universities to implement trans bathroom bans.
2. North Carolina
North Carolina‘s LGBTQ+ population accounts for 4.4 percent of the state’s population, with 353,100 people. There were six anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed in the state, none of which have yet been defeated or advanced.
1. Mississippi (Tie)
Mississippi’s 93,300 LGBTQ+ adults account for 4.1 percent of the population. There were 23 anti-LGBTQ+ bills been proposed in the state this year, four of which passed. The laws include a ban against trans people using the public facilities that align with their identities, and a legal redefinition of gender that incorrectly conflates it to biological sex.
1. West Virginia (Tie)
West Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community also accounts for 4.1 percent of the population, but their 60,000 queer adults are less in number than Mississippi. West Virginia has considered 33 anti-LGBTQ+ bills this year, one of which passed — enacting barriers to accurate legal identification.
Takeaways
The states with the fewest queer people are also some of the states proposing the most anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
While there is no data (yet) around mass queer exoduses from these states, some could be moving to avoid legislation. Others may not feel comfortable coming out for census data.
And while it may not seem as if the South is a popular place for LGBTQ+ people, by raw population, the region actually has the largest percentage of queer adults. The 5.2 million LGBTQ+ people in southern states account for 36.9 percent of the queer people in the U.S.
While we may not be the majority, LGBTQ+ people across the country have an enormous and undeniable presence wherever they call home.
The U.S. is home to over 168 million women, whose health and well-being are essential to their quality of life and happiness. However, access to affordable health care remains a challenge, and more than one-third of women in the U.S.skip needed medical care because of the cost.
Even though there are efforts across the nation to support women’s health, some states provide better conditions for women to thrive than others. In order to highlight the best states for women’s health and the ones that need to improve the most, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 18 key metrics. The data set ranges from the maternal mortality rate to the quality of women’s hospitals to the affordability of a doctor’s visit.
With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.
Methodology
In order to determine the best states for women’s health, SmileHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: 1) Health & Living Standards, 2) Health Care Policies & Support Systems and 3) Safety Risk.
We evaluated those dimensions using 18 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of women’s health. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), the square root of the population was used to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for population differences across states.
We then determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.
Health & Living Standards – Total Points: 45
Women’s Life Expectancy at Birth: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
Female Uninsured Rate: Full Weight (~4.50 Points) Note: This metric accounts for females ages 16 and older.
Share of Women with Good or Better Health: Double Weight (~9.00 Points)
Women’s Preventive Health Care: Full Weight (~4.50 Points) Note: This metric measures the share of women who were up-to-date on cervical and breast-cancer screenings.
Share of Physically Active Women: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
Share of Women Who are Obese: Full Weight (~4.50 Points) Note: This metric measures the percent of females aged 18 years and older who have obesity. Obesity is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a body mass index greater than or equal to 30.0.
Maternal Mortality Rate: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
Heart Disease Mortality Rate for Women: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
Female Smoker Rate: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
Health Care Policies & Support Systems – Total Points: 35
Health & Wellness Charities per Total Number of Women*: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)
Quality of Women’s Hospitals: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)
Share of Women Ages 18-44 Who Reported Having One or More People They Think of as Their Personal Doctor or Health Care Provider: Double Weight (~8.75 Points)
Lower health care costs;
Greater use of preventive services, such as flu shots or mammograms;
Fewer emergency department visits for non-urgent or avoidable problems;
Increased patient satisfaction;
Improvements in chronic care management for chronic conditions such as hypertension and high cholesterol.
Abortion Policies & Access: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)
2 – Most or very protective: the state has most or all of the protective policies;
1.5 – Protective: the state has some protective policies;
1 – Some restrictions/protections: the state either has few restrictions or protections, or has a combination of restrictive and protective policies;
0.5 – Restrictive: the state has multiple restrictions and later gestational age ban;
0 – Most or very restrictive: the state either bans abortion completely or has multiple restrictions and early gestational age ban.
Unaffordability of Doctor’s Visit: Double Weight (~8.75 Points) Note: This metric measures the percentage of women who could not afford to see a doctor in the past year due to costs.
Domestic Violence Support Services per Total Number of Women: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)
Safety – Total Points: 20
Suicide Rate for Women: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
Depression Rate for Women: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
Prevalence of Rape Victimization Among Females: Double Weight (~10.00 Points) Note: This metric measures instances of rape. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 91 percent of rape victims are female, and 9 percent are male.
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Mortality DataBase, United Health Foundation, U.S. News & World Report, Guttmacher and National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Date & Time: Last Friday of each month ~ Jan 31, Feb 28 & Mar 28 | 4pm – 5:30pm
Location: Brew – Santa Rosa | 555 Healdsburg Ave Brew has a delightful selection of coffee, beer, wine, or food choices. Brew is LGBT owned and is considered a LGBT hang out! View their website for food items HERE.
https://www.instagram.com/positiveimages?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Join Positive Images and North Bay LGBTQI Families for our monthly family friendly get together. Each month we explore a different place in Sonoma County so check back often to see where we will be this month!
Positive Images, 200 Montgomery Dr c, Santa Rosa, CA 95404, USA
Join us for art activities at our first hang out of 2023! Materials and snacks provided! This group is BIPOC only and will be happening the 1st Monday of every month. It is meant to be a social hangout space for Black, Indigenous, Queer, and Trans people of color (18+). Se habla español! For questions please reach out to marian@posimages.org
In the face of anti-trans legislation sweeping the country over the past four years, California stepped up to protect trans people and in particular trans youth. In 2022, the state became the first in the nation to create a sanctuary for transgender youth seeking gender-affirming medical care.
But with President Donald Trump issuing an anti-trans executive order on his first day in office, California will need to bolster its legal efforts to protect these vulnerable youths further. Nowhere is that protection more lacking than for intersex kids at birth and in early childhood.
Intersex children are born with chromosomes, gonads, hormone function or internal or external sex organs that don’t match typical social expectations of males or females. Since the 1960s, doctors in the U.S. and around the world have routinely performed surgery to standardize the bodies of infants and children so that they are aligned with social gender norms. The protocol was developed largely on the unproven recommendations of a single psychologist and has been carried out countless times since on intersex children long before they are old enough to decide for themselves whether they want the procedures.
These irreversible nonconsensual surgeries are medically unnecessary to perform at such a young age, and as research has shown, carry a significant risk of trauma and other forms of lifelong harm, including a loss of sexual function, incontinence, chronic pain, scarring and early-onset osteoporosis. As a 2017 paper by three former U.S. surgeons general concluded, “In short, surgeries whose purpose is to ensure physical and psychological health too often lead to the opposite result.” In the waning days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged as much, publishing a landmark report on intersex health equity that called for an end to the practice. However, given Trump’s declaration that there are only two genders, it’s unlikely there will be any federal protections against the practice.
Once again, California and the Bay Area have a chance to lead.
The Bay Area has an important place in the history of intersex activism in the United States. This includes when Bo Laurent founded the Intersex Society of North America in Sonoma County in 1993, receiving letters from people across the country who had experienced medical trauma and wanted to get to the root of the truth about their bodies and their lives.
In 2005, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission conducted an investigation and hearing on intersex issues, concluding that “ ‘normalizing’ interventions done without the patient’s informed consent are inherent human rights abuses.” This report resonated worldwide.
At a state level, the California Legislature passed a resolution in 2018 introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener that recognized the intersex community and the human rights violations they endure. California’s state Legislature became the first in the U.S. officially acknowledged the harm that intersex people suffered at the hands of the medical system. Yet, even a nonbinding resolution — simply recognizing these surgeries as part of the intersex community’s struggle — was an uphill battle for Wiener. Surgeons from across California traveled to Sacramento to testify against the resolution while making egregious claims, like asserting that removing a child’s clitoris helps them become a “functioning member of society.”
So what else can be done to protect these children?
Currently, no hospitals in California have publicly committed to stopping medically unnecessary nonconsensual surgeries on intersex children. It doesn’t have to be this way. Children’s hospitals in Chicago and Boston have pledged to stop the surgeries. The New York City public hospital system banned performing unnecessary or “medically premature” operations before the patient can decide — offering a model for how California hospitals, and especially those in the Bay Area, could support intersex justice.
The good news is that California has taken some positive steps. In 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that introduced a third option on birth certificates. It mandated that any Californian could change their legal gender without undergoing medical procedures or verification.
But if our hospitals are still carrying out these procedures on infants and children who are unable to have their say in what is done to their bodies, having a third option on a state document after a doctor has already altered body parts, doesn’t really solve the core problem.
Globally, the momentum to end these nonconsensual surgeries is surging. Over 50 evaluations by United Nations human rights treaty bodies in different countries have concluded that nonconsensual surgeries to alter the sex characteristics of people born with intersex traits are human rights violations. Parts of Australia and India, and some countries, including Malta, Greece and Spain have passed bans on nonconsensual surgeries, while the U.N. Human Rights Council passed its first resolution on the issue last year. A growing list of medical associations and experts have spoken in favor of ending nonconsensual surgeries.
The U.S. intersex rights movement has made enormous progress, from a grassroots start in the Bay Area to influencing federal policy. California has protected marginalized youth in many ways. But until the hospitals end these harmful practices on intersex children, the fight is far from over.
Immigrants here in the wine country have been on edge ever since Donald Trump was elected president in November, given his campaign promises to deport everyone in the U.S. who hasn’t been able to obtain legal residency status. But it wasn’t until a surprise federal immigration raid down in Bakersfield on Jan. 7 — one day after the election results were certified, but two weeks before Trump’s actual inauguration — that the panic wheel really started spinning. CalMatters reported that Border Patrol officers took local farmworkers by surprise that day, showing up to businesses where they’re known to hang out. “They were stopping cars at random, asking people for papers,” a spokesperson for the United Farm Workers labor union told the news outlet. “They were going to gas stations and Home Depot where day laborers gather. It’s provoking intense anxiety and a lot of fear in the community.” More from the story:
On social media, Gregory K. Bovino, the Border Patrol chief in El Centro, called the sweeps “Operation Return to Sender.”
“We are taking it to the bad people and bad things in Bakersfield,” the El Centro Border Patrol said in response to a comment on its Facebook page. “We are planning operations for other locals [sic] such as Fresno and especially Sacramento.”
In the end, at least 78 people were arrested during the three-day Kern County raid, according to the Border Patrol division responsible for the raid. And while that immigrant roundup was real, it has set off a chain of false rumors about additional roundups across the state — including here in the North Bay. According to multiple local organizations tracking this panicked phone tree, there have since been false reports of immigration raids at the Home Depot locations in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, as well as the Foodmaxx in Santa Rosa’s Roseland neighborhood and Manzanita Elementary on the east side of town. More from the PD:
Vikki DuRee, lead dispatcher at the 24-hour hotline run by the North Bay Rapid Response Network, said she’s been extremely busy over the past two weeks taking calls from worried residents. “I haven’t kept a tally today, but we’re getting about 25 calls a day right now, mostly people who are worried about rumors that they’re seeing on social media and anecdotally in the community,” DuRee said Thursday afternoon. For one person, all it took was a Trump sticker on a black Escalade to spark fear that immigration officers were on the road, she said.
“People who call with a rumor, they’re frightened that either they or people they care about are at risk,” she said. This rapid response network mentioned by the PD is an arm of the North Bay Organizing Project, a Santa Rosa-based organization that has come to the forefront since Trump’s election. Org leaders have been posting all sorts of information for immigrants — as well as tips to avoid spreading fake news of raids — to their Facebook and Instagram pages. They’re also encouraging people who think they notice signs of la migra to reach out to their hotline first (at 707-800-4544), so they can verify the info before blasting it wide. “Together we can transform our fear and anxiety into power and action!” they say. If you want to volunteer to join the North Bay Rapid Response Network and help with this work, you can apply online.
Here in Healdsburg, another well-known local nonprofit called Corazón Healdsburg is leading the charge on arming immigrants with critical info. Org leaders told me recently that me they’ve been handling raid rumors on an almost daily basis. So on Jan. 16, “our dedicated staff and volunteers… knocked on 712 doors in Windsor, Healdsburg, Geyserville and Cloverdale,” the org said on social media. Door-knockers were handing outlittle red and yellow cards with simple instructions about what to do if you encounter immigration officials. “Knowledge is power,” Corazón says. “Our goal is not to spread fear, but to empower our community. By staying informed and united, we can create a network of support and resilience.”
The red and yellow cards that Corazón Healdsburg staffers have been passing out around town. (Photos: Corazón Healdsburg via Instagram)
Still, the thought of what actual localimmigration raids would meanfor community and industry here in the North Bay are haunting us all right now — some more than others, of course. School officials are worried that the children of immigrants will stop coming to class, especially now that Trump has reportedly “put an end to a longstanding policy that restricted federal agents from making immigration arrests at sensitive locations like churches, hospitals and schools.” And much like in Kern County, where farm owners said immigrants didn’t show up to work after last month’s raid, wine-industry bosses in our area — who are already fighting an uphill battle against the sober movement, and dealing with labor shortages as it is — say they’re not sure their businesses would survive if something similar happened here. A recent headline in the Daily Mail reads: “Upscale Napa Valley wineries fear Trump’s migrant raids could finish them.” Other local food and hospitality businesses — and consumer prices — would feel the burn too, naturally. (Rolando Herrera, who owns Mi Sueño Winery in St. Helena with his wife Lorena, tells the PD: “If this administration really wants to ‘make America great again,’ they should put a program together that registers these important workers and gives them a temporary work permit. That’s what they really want.”)
A long list of local government agencies and police departments across Sonoma and Napa counties have vowed they won’t enforce Trump’s calls for mass deportation. Still, many activists have been urging police and politicians to go even further by explicitly cutting off all ties with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and declaring Sonoma County an official “sanctuary county” for undocumented immigrants. And although county leaders have issued some strong statements of their own in support of immigrants, they’ve stopped short of using the word “sanctuary,” the Press Democrat reports — partly because that might put “a target on Sonoma County, doing more harm than good.” And as the San Francisco Chronicle points out, none of these declarations are enough to “stop federal bodies like the U.S. Border Patrol from conducting raids.”
In the meantime, looks like we’ll have to rely on local networks of concerned civilians to keep each other safe. In the words of Corazón Healdsburg: “Help us build trust in our community, spread knowledge and empower families.” You can follow them and the North Bay Rapid Response Network on Facebook for ways to get involved.
LGBTQ activists in New Jersey say they’re fortunate to live in New Jersey as the new administration kicks-off its term by attacking the transgender community and diversity initiatives. Advocates at Garden State Equality say New Jersey sets a standard for legal equality that can inspire states throughout the country.
As part of its education and advocacy “Going Local” programming across the country, the GLAAD Media Institute (GMI) – GLAAD’s training, research and consulting division – convened meetings with local leaders and community advocates at Garden State Equality and throughout the nation. Attendees who complete a program or session with the GLAAD Media Institute are immediately deemed GLAAD Media Institute Alumni, who are equipped to maximize community impact by leveraging their own story for culture change.
The state is known for its tough pro-equality laws like New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), which is considered one of the most comprehensive anti-discrimination laws in the country. Yet, new laws in the state legislature help combat a rise of LGBTQ disinformation and hate speech, straight out of Project 2025. The anti-LGBTQ hate machine has affected dozens of Jersey school board’s policies on book bans, critical race theory, and sex education.
Main Street, home to Garden State Equality Headquarters; photo by Lana Leonard
Since Garden State Equality’s founding in 2004, over “230 LGBTQ civil rights laws” have been enacted at the state, county, and local levels. According to the organization’s website, that’s “more laws in less time than in any other state in American history.”
On a federal level, President Trump began his second term signing executive orders to dispute the fact that transgender and gender diverse people exist. On Trump’s first days in office he signed an executive order titled Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. The order is used to delegitimize trans truth, history, and science, which promptly raised concerns over a federal ban of the “x” gender marker for people of nonbinary, trans or gender nonconforming experience in the United States.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” President Trump incorrectly said upon signing the order.
Garden State Equality says they’re ready to resist these efforts by the current administration, and continue to encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, while uplifting best practices for LGBTQ youth and adult community members as they have within their state government, says advocates.
“We want our youth to understand that they don’t just live in a bubble here in New Jersey, that the work that they are doing to be activists here in our state is going to influence other states and other students across the nation,” Natalie Hernandez told GLAAD.
Natalie Hernandez, camp director and project manager & trainer; Screenshot by Lana Leonard
Hernandez is the Camp Director of Garden State Equality’s Changemakers Youth Leadership summer program. Empowering youth leaders helps inform the work of other departments and so forth, it’s a collaborative effort to fight for legal equality for the state organization.
Hime Sarah Thomas, project manager and trainer with the Education and Youth Development Department, grew up in a queer family who introduced Thomas to Garden State Equality through the Changemakers Youth Leadership summer program. Thomas works to encourage youth to become “changemakers” by giving them an outlet to express their frustrations, and amplify their voices.
Only a small number of youth actually transition: less than one-tenth of one percent of teenagers with private insurance in the United States are transgender and receive gender-related medicine, according to a study by JAMA Pediatrics.
“These youth need a space where they can talk about all the things that are happening in the news and the world because they don’t have the autonomy to be able to vote and make those choices on who is representing them,” Thomas said.
For Aisling MacDonald, a project manager for the organization’s Training and Trans Resiliency Program, which advocates for the wellness of transgender and gender nonconforming adults and families moving into New Jersey for their LGBTQ protections.
“Our world is ever evolving. There are some very legitimate anxieties, and also… we are really, really fortunate to live here,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald spends much of her day building coalition relationships and legal resources for name changes and documents for trans people who have been under attack on social media, through legislation, and the news.
Hime Sarah Thomas, project manager & trainer; Screenshot by Lana Leonard
“My experience as a woman of trans experience who is from some very particular demographics, and a very particular flavor of multiple marginalizations, is that we do not have a lot of trust for systems, institutions and legislators, especially,” MacDonald said. “And I think more than anything else in 2025 we have an opportunity to build a different kind of community.”
These insights into the LGBTQ community of Asbury Park lead into a larger narrative about community needs in New Jersey and beyond. Even still, Garden State Equality recognizes that there are hurdles that must still be overcome.
More about the GLAAD Media Institute: The GLAAD Media Institute provides training, consultation, and actionable research to develop an army of social justice ambassadors for all marginalized communities to champion acceptance and amplify media impact. Using the best practices, tools, and techniques we’ve perfected over the past 30 years, the GLAAD Media Institute turns education into armor for today’s culture war—transforming individuals into compelling storytellers, media-savvy navigators, and mighty ambassadors whose voices break through the noise and incite real change. Activate with the GLAAD Media Institute now at glaad.org/institute
