San Francisco’s Transgender District: A New History
San Francisco’s Transgender District: A New History by Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer
Arcadia Publishing has announced the upcoming release of San Francisco’s Transgender District by Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer, a richly illustrated book that brings to life the layered history of a neighborhood that has long been a haven, a battleground, and a place of resilience for the queer community.
San Francisco’s Transgender District, six blocks in the Tenderloin, was founded in 2017 by three black trans women.
Founded in 2017 by three Black trans women, San Francisco’s Transgender District is the first legally recognized district of its kind in the world. Stretching across six blocks of the Tenderloin, the district holds a past that is as complex as it is inspiring. Rohrer’s book includes more than 200 photographs that document the lives of the people who lived, worked, performed, organized, and protested in this community over generations.
The story begins with the earliest gender nonconforming and transgender residents, including Two-Spirit people from the Ramaytush Ohlone, and moves through the city’s founding and pivotal events such as the 1906 earthquake that reshaped the neighborhood. It shines a light on the contradictions of trans life in the early twentieth century: while some performers gained recognition on vaudeville stages and in drag shows, many others endured police harassment, housing discrimination, and exclusion from local businesses.
Central to the book is the history of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots of 1966, one of the first known uprisings of transgender and gender-nonconforming people against police violence. Oral and written histories from figures like José Julio Sarria, Ms. Billie Cooper, the “Screaming Queens,” and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence weave through the narrative, showing how trans people carved out a culture of resistance and joy amid ongoing struggles. Rohrer describes this as finding “glitter in the rubble.”
Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer is well positioned to tell this story. An activist, historian, and Lambda Literary Award finalist, Rohrer has lived in San Francisco for years and leads walking tours of the district. As a trans man and community advocate, he brings both scholarly rigor and lived experience to the project. Many of the images in the book come directly from his own collection, alongside materials from archives, museums, and local photographers.
San Francisco’s Transgender District will be published by Arcadia Publishing, a press known for documenting local histories across the United States. With this book, Arcadia adds to its catalog an important record of queer resilience and creativity in one of the most storied neighborhoods in the country.
San Francisco’s Transgender District
By Megan Rohrer
ISBN: 9781467162654
Arcadia Publishing
Price: $24.99
Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer