Jane Kim establishes first TLGB District in the U.S.

By Nigel Flores

 

Jane Kim, San Francisco Supervisor, is working to designate 6 blocks in the southeast portion of the Tenderloin as the nation’s first transgender historic district.

 

Supervisor Kim, who played a major role in passing Proposition W, attempting to make City College free, introduced the legislation to commemorate a social cultural district for transgender and non-transgender conforming people.

 

The area will be known as Compton’s TLGB District, referencing the first known LGBT civil rights uprisings in the San Francisco Tenderloin transgender community in America.

 

Compton’s Cafeteria, on Turk and Taylor street in 1966, was a gathering place where members of the TLGB and LGBT community fought police harassment in the 1960’s.

 

“One of the most important neighborhoods in America for transgender history, culture, and civil rights,” Kim said, is located at Turk and Taylor. Kim not only proposed the nation’s first transgender cultural district, but a community center in the Tenderloin neighborhood.

 

Advocates were pushing to stop the development of a twelve-story project by developer Group I.

 

However, the developer has agreed to pay three hundred thousand dollars to help establish the district, which also includes a transgender community center.
“By creating the Compton’s TLGB District we are honoring this vibrant community built by transgender people, and are sending a message to the world that trans people are welcome here,” Kim said.