#25 - World's First Transgender District with Juniper Yun + Jupiter Peraza

This week's all new episode of Beau my God features two guest from the world's first Transgender Cultural District, which lies in the heart of San Francisco, CA, USA.

Host Beau Bradley (he/they) is joined by Juniper Yun (she/they), Director of Cultural Affairs for The Transgender District; and Jupiter Peraza (she/her), Director of Social Justice and Empowerment for the Transgender District, who walk Beau (and listeners) graciously through the history of the 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riots and the history of the Tenderloin in San Francisco.

This episode shares not only crucial San Francisco history, but also Trans and Queer history, information about the history of racism and transphobia in our world, a lot of truth, and a some #TransJoy as well.  Listen in to hear how the organization helped to make history yet again, as they await the initiation of August as the official Transgender Pride Month for the City of San Francisco, and how you can commemorate the history of the Compton's Cafeteria Riots with Juniper, Jupiter, and the rest of the Transgender District on Sunday August 29th, 2021 from 12-4pm on the 100 block of Taylor Street in San Francisco.

Thank you so much to the Transgender District for sharing your initiatives, history, and future plans with us. You can find more about our guests this week at www.transgenderdistrictsf.com or on social media @trasngenderdistrict .

Don't forget to rate, subscribe, and follow along for more Beau my God! You can visit our website www.beaumygod.com or find us on social media @beaumygodpod . 

Beau my God is a unique space for trans and gender nonconforming individuals and their allies to rumble about the things going on in our community, all things queer, what it's like to exist in a world that generally doesn't understand us

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Transcript

*Intro music*

Beau: Hello and welcome back to Beau My God. I’m your host, Beau Bradley, my pronouns are he and they. This episode we have two special guests joining us from the Transgender District in San Francisco. The mission of the transgender district is to create an urban environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy and empowerment of transgender people and its deep roots in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood. The Transgender District aims to stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites and safe community spaces. Before we introduce those guests, first I want to do a brief recap of out last episode, Beau My God Turns 1 with Rose Bradley. Rose, whose pronouns are they/them recapped some of our guests from previous episodes, kind of went over some of the significant things that happened over the past whole year of Beau My God the podcast and Rose also updated us on their gender journey and their change in pronouns and what it means to them to be non-binary. So, thanks to Rose. I’m really excited to introduce you to today’s guests. Our first guest is the Director of Cultural Affairs for the Transgender District, Juniper Yun, whose pronouns are she and they and our second guest is Director of Social Justice and Empowerment Initiatives, Jupiter Peraza, pronouns she/her/hers.

Jupiter: So, I can go first, my name is Jupiter Peraza. I am Director of Social Justice Initiatives at the Transgender District.

Juniper: Hi, I’m Juniper Yun. I am the Director of Cultural Affairs at the Transgender District.

Beau: Thank you both so much for being here. I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about the history of the Transgender District and kind of how it got started and what it is.

Jupiter: Yeah, you know, the Transgender District’s relatively new. I believe this year it’s the fifth-year anniversary if I’m not mistaken. But you know, it’s the first of its kind, there is no other transgender cultural district in the world, so for it to be in San Francisco is very special and very unique because San Francisco has so much transgender history, but it was the right place for the Transgender District to exist. But you also have to consider how do transgender districts come about? The legislation in San Francisco that has facilitated cultural districts is also relatively new. I believe it was introduced in 2017 and it was introduced by our co-founders, and we have three wonderful co-founders, who are Aria Sa’id, who is currently the president of the Transgender District; we have Honey Mahogany, who is now the chair of the San Francisco democratic party, which is awesome; and we have Janetta Johnson, who runs her own organization as well. So, these three women sort of trailblazed the legislation in San Francisco to make cultural districts happen and when the Transgender District happened, other culture districts started coming about in San Francisco as well. So, that is what I can say for the Transgender District and you know, Juniper wants to add as well, she can as well. You know, something that is really special about the way that they Transgender District works now is that we have different branches. What I mean by that is that I am the Director of Social Justice Initiatives and Juniper is our cultural and she has a different outlook than I do, so *laughs*. 

Juniper: Yeah, I’ll follow up on that for sure, thank you so much for setting the context of like, you know, the birthing of the district. I really think that the district in itself is unique because it was formed in particular to yes, one of the propositions that was passed in San Francisco that denoted particular locales as specific neighborhoods dedicated to a community historically and they a huge portion of that proposition deals with the idea that these communities were marginalized throughout their time in the United States. So, the transgender District represents a physical location that encompasses six blocks in the southeastern Tenderloin of San Francisco, so if you go to San Francisco, you go to the Tenderloin, it’s right in the heart of San Francisco, it is one of the most densely, or the most densely populated area of San Francisco. So, we’re right there in the center and the heart is at the corner of Turk and Taylor and what happens at Turk and Taylor, historically in 1966, was what is called the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riots. This actually represents one of the earliest uprisings of transgender and gender nonconforming people against police brutality, in which a transwoman, after being asked to leave an establishment in 1966, under the law that they were, you know, being a sexual deviant by being in women’s clothing by police. She threw her coffee in the face of the police officer and it incited riots that lasted...some say a day, some say a week, you know. So, it’s, uh, it’s funny, we’re actually doing the work historically to recognize the action that is still, you know, talked about in this time and day. We’re actually coming on the 55th year anniversary of that, in 2021. I want to also continue on our kind of contemporary ideas of what we do, so the mandates of the cultural districts are across the board, so all of the cultural districts are mandated by the propositions and by the legislation to kind of focus on six different work areas, whether you’re in Calle 24, which is the Latino/Latina district, the SOMA Pilipinas, and several others of the cultural districts that are, you know, our brothers, sisters and siblings in San Francisco. So, the six areas by this proposition that we cover are tenet protections, economics and workforce development, arts and culture, cultural heritage conversation, cultural competency, and land use. And Aria Sa’id, being ever sort of a genius that she is, added a seventh for us, just because we don’t already have our work cut out for us, but we are also tasked with trans empowerment as our seventh initiative, being the first of its kind in the world.

Beau: That’s beautiful. Also, it’s really cool, I didn’t realize until I started talking to Aria for a different project and then doing some looking into before this episode, but I don’t think many people realize that this happened before Stonewall, the Compton Cafeteria Riots. It’s just like, I don’t think people realize the timeline and I think it’s so important and I think it’s awesome that you all are making sure that it’s something that is recognized and is heard. 

Juniper: Absolutely.

Jupiter: Yeah, and you know, I think something that’s very important to take note as to why Stonewall is sometimes, sort of focused on more than what happened at the Compton Cafeteria Riots, which happened 3 years before Stonewall, is that with the Compton Cafeteria Riots, there’s very little documented paperwork that sort of documents what happened. Did you know that we still don’t know exactly what day in August the Compton Cafeteria Riots happened? But with Stonewall, that is different. Stonewall is very well documented, we know exactly what happened at every single hour of the night, who was there, you know, so you can consider all of that when it comes to why is it that Stonewall is more recognized than what happened at the Compton Cafeteria Riots. So, the work that the Transgender District does as well is sort of disseminate and bring to the surface all that vital information of how critical and how important Compton Cafeteria was for, not just trans liberation movement, but the gay liberation movement as well. 

Beau: So cool, I just, this has been so interesting and fun to learn about and it’s so important. 

Juniper: Yeah, absolutely. It’s like, um, you know before I has started working at the district, it was actually the first I had heard of the 1966 Compton Cafeteria Riots, like and you know as someone who has worked in community organized and as someone who does a lot of particular kind of grass roots organizing, to only hear about it now is just really interesting and it’s like so important for us to uplift that history and to recognize that it’s deeply important to our, you know, our community as LGBTQ people. 

Beau: Definitely, especially because of the historical significance of that whole area, versus how well known even the Castro District is, it’s so interesting that there isn’t as much…I guess it’s not interesting, it’s very obvious as to why. But it’s just sad and it’s disappointing and it’s yeah. 

Juniper: Yeah, so I think as a tangent to that, I think it’s really interesting, you know San Francisco in the cultural consciousness of the United States and even the world is seen as this kind of like queer mecca, like everyone turns to San Francisco to understand what does it meant o live in a liberal society, where LGBTQ people are uplifted and you know, seen as equal if not, people who just have the same rights as every other person. But you know, you go to the district and you see the work that we’re doing and you have to understand that many people who come to San Francisco, particularly trans people, gender nonconforming people, it’s a different reality. Castro in itself has this very rich history for the gay community, but so as a city, I think we have to understand that San Francisco in its history has been in many ways deeply hostile to people of color, particularly black people and brown people and that, because of these histories in line with LGBTQ community, folks come to the district, particularly the trans district, the first in the world, and expect it to be, just kind of like paradise for trans people but we are still living in the realities of marginalization, of you know decades and decades and decades of, you know, oppression. So, when you go to the Castro, there’s a stark difference in what is looks like than the Transgender District because a lot of the funding, understanding of the upliftment of San Francisco’s LGBTQ community is attached to the Castro, but the funny thing enough is that the Transgender District was recognized as a cultural district prior to the Castro District and that the work that has been done for creating cultural districts as an entity was kind of uplifted by Black trans women. So, we see this kind of disparity in the cultural consciousness of how san Francisco’s architecture of LGBTQ rights is and we’re working to fix that to really pay an homage to all the Black trans and Brown trans really did all the groundwork to put the LGBTQ community in a place of better standing in society. 

Beau: Absolutely and still are.

Juniper: I know that’s right *laughs*. So, we do have a really exciting little thing happening this end of month, so Jupiter, do you want to take it away? We have two different, really, really exciting things. 

Jupiter: Yeah, yeah. So, after we shared all that incredible context to the Transgender District and how it came about and the history that’s tethered to it in the city, especially in the Tenderloin. This month we have incredible news, starting with the mayor of San Francisco is signing a proclamation that is declaring the month of August, for the city and county of San Francisco for the next hundreds of years Transgender History Month, which is incredibly amazing. And you know we think this is an incredible opportunity, transgender history month for future generations of San Franciscans to truly understand the rich history, especially the transgender history that is in San Francisco and we hope that with this, it will offer broad opportunities to really engage in the trans community with a scholarly and research outlook. And the second one, the second event that we have going on is, Juniper, you want to do this one?

Juniper: So yeah, as I was saying before, in particular to, were coming on our 55th anniversary, here at the district, in recognition of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots of that summer of 1966. So, at the end of the month, August 29th, it’s a Sunday, from 1-4, in the heart of the district, the 100 block of Taylor St. We are actually going to throw a riot party, so to recognize sort of the joy and resilience of our people, we have a huge line up or trans and gender nonconforming and you know queer people that are preforming for the community and it’s free for the public to come. We’ll have Fiera Ferrari, one of my favorite local DJs, as well as Dreams. We also have Saturn Rising coming up from LA, so it’s just a really amazing event, we have tons of drag queens, go-go dancers, exotic dancers. So it’s just going to be this crazy, but kind of miraculous celebration right at the corner where the uprising happened. So, we want to invite anyone who is in town to come by, please bring your proof of vaccination and bring a friend and their proof of vaccination and just have some fun, it’s free for the public. 

Beau: Awesome, that’s so cool, both things. Very exciting and I’m sure a lot of hard work has gone into it. 

Juniper: Oh, these eye bags speak for themselves, baby *laughs*.

Jupiter: I mean, the reason why I woke up 2 minutes before we were supposed to jump on and chat is because, you know, but nonetheless we’re so happen to be doing this. I speak personally when I say that it really resonate with me personally, that the advocacy work that we do on behalf of the Transgender District and you know, I enjoy it. I love it and it’s important for us to represent a community that is marginalized and overlooked and try to change that and uplift our community, empower them and you know, let the world know that we are beautiful, we are the future. 

Beau: Yeah, thank you both so much. 

Jupiter: Thank you.

Juniper: Gorgeous. So, I guess that’s that on that *laughs*.

Beau: Awesome.

Jupiter: Thank you, Beau! Bye-bye!

Beau: Thank you again so much to both Juniper and Jupiter from the world’s first Transgender District. You can find them at transgenderdistrictsf.com, on social media @thetransgenderdistrict or you can find them in San Francisco in the Tenderloin area. Thanks for listening, don’t forget so subscribe, rate, and follow along. Catch you next time. 

*Outro music*