This afternoon's Trans March starts at 3:30 in heavily segregated Dolores Park. This year's annual transgender march should take on an even feistier tone. On Thursday, a San Francisco Superior Court Judge dismissed felony hate crime charges brought against two men accused of assaulting a 20-year-old transgender woman at the 16th and Mission BART Plaza back in April. (District Attorney Gascón, we should point out, was "extremely disappointed" by the judge's ruling. He intends to refile felony hate crime charges in the case.)

Today's march will also honor the 45th anniversary of the Compton Cafeteria riot that went down in the Tenderloin after police officers tried to arrest a trans women. Wikipedia describes it thusly:

Compton's Cafeteria was one of a chain of cafeterias, owned by Gene Compton, in San Francisco from the 1940s to the 1970s. The Tenderloin Compton's at 101 Taylor Street (at Turk)—an eatery open from 1954 to 1972—was one of the few places where transgender people could congregate publicly in the city, because they were unwelcome in gay bars. In addition, the cafeteria was open all hours until the riots occurred. Back then, trangender people were commonly referred to as Hair Fairies. Because cross-dressing was illegal at the time, police could use the presence of transgender people in a bar as a pretext for making a raid and closing the bar.

Many of the militant hustlers and street queens involved in the riot were members of Vanguard, the first known gay youth organization in the United States, which had been organized earlier that year with the help of radical ministers working with Glide Memorial Church, a center for progressive social activism in the Tenderloin for many years. A lesbian group of street people was also formed called the Street Orphans.

On the first night of the riot, the management of Compton's called the police when some transgender customers became raucous. When a police officer accustomed to manhandling the Compton's clientele attempted to arrest one of the trans women, she threw her coffee in his face. At that point the riot began, dishes and furniture were thrown, and the restaurant's plate-glass windows were smashed. Police called for reinforcements as the fighting spilled into the street, where a police car had all its windows broken out and a sidewalk newsstand was burned down.

The next night, more transgender people, hustlers, Tenderloin street people, and other members of the LGBT community joined in a picket of the cafeteria, which would not allow transgender people back in. The demonstration ended with the newly installed plate-glass windows being smashed again.

One of Sunday's Gay Pride Grand Marshall will be Chaz Bono, transgendered offspring of Cher. So, that's some sort of progress, yes? Also, the official after party will be at El Rio from 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Unofficial after parties, according to Violet Blue, are at the Lexington and the Elbo Room.

What: Trans March 2011
Where: Dolores Park to UN Plaza
When: June 24, 3:30-6:30 p.m.