Callen-Lorde Community Health Center

One of the first LGBTQ+ riots in US history, the Compton Cafeteria riot occurred in 1966, just a few years before Stonewall on the opposite coast. The uprising was comprised of mostly trans women, s*x workers, and queens, specifically people of color, in San Fransico's Tenderloin district in response to police harassment.

Compton's Cafeteria was a 24-hour diner and community staple for s*x workers and other denizens of the Tenderloin. Since it wasn't covered by media and few records exist, we only know it began on an August night in 1966. Police responded to a call and attempted to arrest a trans woman, who promptly threw a cup of coffee into their faces. A riot broke out and continued into the street, where the participants threw diner items through the windows and fought with police.

Instead of standing down to police violence and the threat of arrest, those who took part returned to protest the diner the next day. Once again, they broke the (newly replaced) windows.

Largely forgotten in the timeline of LGBTQ+ civil rights, this act of resistance has been elevated and celebrated in recent years. You can learn more about this moment in q***r history from Susan Stryker's incredible 2005 documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria which features interviews with the figures who led the charge. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WASW9dRBU

We are so excited that Dr. David Holland has been appointed as Associate Chief Medical Officer at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.

Dr. Holland brings distinguished clinical and leadership experience, most recently serving as Chief Medical Officer for Mercy Care in Atlanta, Georgia where he delivered high-quality, equitable care to underserved populations.

Throughout his career, Dr. Holland has been a leader in HIV treatment and prevention, tuberculosis care, and s*xual health services. His pioneering work includes establishing the first PrEP clinic for uninsured patients in Georgia and launching Atlanta’s first rapid-entry HIV clinic, significantly improving timely access to care. He also played a critical leadership role in Atlanta’s COVID-19 response, overseeing clinical efforts that contributed to the vaccination of more than 500,000 individuals.

In his new role at Callen-Lorde, Dr. Holland will partner with clinical leadership in the Office of the CMO to advance high-quality, patient-centered care, support innovation in service delivery, and strengthen our commitment to the communities we serve.

Since our beginning, Callen Lorde has pioneered healthcare equity in the spirit of resistance. Today, Callen-Lorde's grassroots history is still alive in our care and advocacy work—particularly as threats mount against our communities.

That's why this year's Pride theme is Care is Our Resistance. The visuals, illustrated and designed by are inspired by historic advocacy signage and flyers, and this month we will be looking back on the fight for LGBTQ+ rights throughout the decades.

Our past is something we carry into the future. Our ability to advocate for LGBTQ+ health equity is made possible because of the advocates who came before, including our namesakes — Michael Callen, Audre Lorde, Thea Spyer, Keith Haring and Cecilia Gentili — who are each honored and celebrated within the artwork.

In this moment we cannot relent. We hope you’ll join us throughout Pride season as we show up, show out and ask our community: What does care look like for you?

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As we close out , Callen-Lorde wants to reaffirm how important it is to highlight the many diverse stories and experiences within the AAPI community.

To explore further, we suggest checking out the Dragon Fruit Museum. This institution is a digital museum that encompasses a collection of nearly 100 interviews featuring trans and q***r Asian American and Pacific Islander community members. You can read through these personal histories in their index or listen to them on the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library website.

The museum began as the Dragon Fruit Historical Preservation Project, which was founded in 2007 by educator Amy Sueyoshi in San Francisco. Its mission was to record and transcribe the histories of trans & q***r Asians & Pacific Islanders living in the Bay Area. In 2013, Lavender Phoenix continued the project to what it is today: a multi-media museum and social community. These individual histories are now documented and available to the public, lending a window into many different experiences.