I’m on the corner of Turk and Taylor, gazing up at 111 Taylor Street. Tahari Williams, a 43-year-old from Oakland, flags me down to talk about the building. He tells me what he thinks it is.
“Like when I was in jail,” Williams says. “Everything's similar. Everything. Like for real. That's why I passed by here. When I first looked like, ‘Is this a jail?” Oh God. I was like, “They got a jail right here.” Like, For real? My God. That ain't somewhere you should live.“
Tahari is not entirely wrong. For the past few decades, the building has been used as a residential re-entry center for formerly incarcerated folks. But now, activist group Compton’s x Coalition is fighting to repurpose the building.
Santana Tapia says: “We want this building to be a space where everyone can come to and find hope, right, as the rest of this country continues to strip away the rights of trans people.”
Santana Tapia is a 28-year-old trans activist from San Francisco, and a member of Compton’s x Coalition. The group wants to gain control of 111 Taylor because it’s the site of an important moment in trans history.
“They all gathered here on a nightly basis to check in on the each other,” Tapia says, “to make sure that they were safe to catch up, to spill the tea, as we say. And they were met with constant harassment from police, to the point that one day, one trans woman said, ‘This is it. I've had enough.’ And threw a coffee cup at a police officer who was harassing them.”
That was the start of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in 1966—an act of collective resistance that happened three years before Stonewall.
“This space represents what happened last time the government tried to oppress us and not let us be ourselves, says Tapia. “This space that once represented a revolution for the oppressed is now being used as a facility to continue that oppression.”
The building in question is currently owned and operated by GEO Group. It’s a multi-billion-dollar company that also operates ICE detention centers and has a history of human rights violations. Compton’s x Coalition is asking San Francisco’s Board of Appeals not to renew its contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They hope that GEO Group will sell the building.
“ We think of it as the as like World Center for Queer Liberation,” says Tapia. “This is where it started. We have people from around the world who come here to live their authentic lives. That's because of this space. There's no reason why 111 Taylor Street should be an incarceration spot. It should be celebrated. San Francisco is the beacon of hope for queer and trans people across the world.”
The Board of Appeals is meeting at 5 pm on July 16 to determine 111 Taylor St.’s future. The public is invited to attend. GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment.
