Learning more about the history of the trans community was an important aspect for students in attendance of Wednesday’s screening of the film, “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.”

The screening, hosted byThe Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success, was held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Carver Hall as part of The Center’s recognition of LGBTQIA+ History Month.

Released in 2005, the film is a documentary of the riot by drag queens and transgender people in the Gene Compton’s Cafeteria of the Tenderloin district of San Francisco in 1966.

After the film, students discussed key takeaways and what the film meant to them, including having a centralized meeting place like Compton’s as an important aspect of community, the prevalence of police harassment today and its similarities to the ‘60s, and the film’s overall importance to the transgender community.

“[Compton’s] was one of the few places where people could congregate and just be themselves and also show off their accomplishments,” said Roslyn Gray, senior in biology and women and gender studies.

Police harassment in the ‘60s was another key issue shown by the film, causing students to draw connections to its impact on marginalized communities today.

“There is still a lot of prejudice in the police community,” said Aryana Miller, junior in statistics. “Obviously not all of them, but it is still prevalent in the communities with people of color and queer people, minorities in general, there is a lot of prejudice there.” 

The recognition and representation of the transgender community was the final takeaway of the film “Screaming Queens.”

“Recognizing that there is a history, it’s so inspiring knowing that the people who started these movements were so affected,” Gray said. “It is empowering knowing your history because our history gets erased a lot.”

For students who did not attend or could not attend the screening, the film is free to stream through Parks Library and The Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success.