At the Crossroads of Turk and Taylor: Transgender History in the Present, and the Future We Need

Historian Susan Stryker discusses the lasting legacy of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot of 1966, when trans women, gay hustlers, and unhoused queer youth fought back against police repression in San Francisco's Tenderloin. Keying her remarks to the current repressive climate in the United States, she explores the relationship between public memory of the past, social change activism in the present, and the determination to build the future we need. Susan Stryker holds a distinguished visiting appointment at Stanford's Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, and is Professor Emerita of Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies at the University of Arizona, where she directed the Institute for LGBT Studies for many years. She is also former Executive Director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco. Dr. Stryker earned her Ph.D. in United States History at UC Berkeley in 1992. She is the author or editor of numerous articles, books and anthologies, including Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution. A collection of previously published short works, When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader, was published by Duke University Press in 2024. She is also an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker for Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria.