Get to Know The Transgender District of San Francisco

San Francisco is world-famous for being a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community. Its legacy of queerness, activism, and culture is embedded into the very fabric of the city. To this day, San Francisco is a leader in policymaking and exemplifies the positive change in a seemingly ever-divided United States. Part of the example it has set for us came in the form of the world’s first legally recognized Transgender District in 2017.

Founded by Aria Sa’id, Janetta Johnson, and Honey Mahogany, three black trans women, the area is comprised of 6 blocks in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, crossing over Market Street to include two blocks of 6th street. It was originally named “Compton’s Transgender Cultural District”; the name was taken from the first documented uprising of transgender and queer people in United States history, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots of 1966. It has since come to be simply known as “The Transgender District.”

This urban region of the city’s Tenderloin was chosen as “The District” because of a documented, ongoing presence of transgender residents there since as early as the 1920s. In fact, the Tenderloin was known as a “gay ghetto” from the 1930s through to the 1960s, prior to the birth of the Castro District, which now serves as the center of queer culture in the city. The Tenderloin was home to San Francisco’s first LGBT bar, The Gangway (which closed in 2018), and various community spaces, gathering sites, and hotels with cultural significance for the broader transgender and queer community, making it the perfect location for The District.

The mission of this innovative organization is to create an environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy, and empowerment of transgender people and its deep roots in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood. It aims to stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites, and safe community spaces.

In order to fulfill its mission statement, the Transgender District focuses its work on six key initiatives:

Tenant Protections

The district is actively in negotiations with the City and County of San Francisco and supportive housing agencies to stabilize transgender residents who are vulnerable to displacement due to development and gentrification in the Tenderloin area. Unfortunately, the majority of long-time transgender residents of the Tenderloin have been chronically homeless. The District aims to support, create, and facilitate efforts and initiatives that will help transgender homeowners, and identify resources to stably house disenfranchised members of the transgender community.

Economics and Workforce Development

The District utilizes an economic empowerment strategy that looks to provide immediate employment opportunities for transgender people with multiple barriers to self-sufficiency and sustainability; while also creating an incubator entrepreneurship program that will provide monetary and educational resources for transgender entrepreneurs aspiring to open businesses and projects in the district area. As one of the District’s founding principles, it is committed to facilitating business models that include monetary and sweat equity options that will produce as many transgender business owners as possible.

Part of this endeavor is the Entrepreneurship Accelerator program which is for Transgender and Queer People of Color who aspire to start a business project. It is a virtual 4-week seminar that includes webinars, information sessions, mentorship, free business tax filings, one-on-one coaching, the creation of a full brand suite and website, plus a seed grant of $10,000 to kick off each of the cohort’s proposals at the end of the program.

Arts and Culture

The District also works to celebrate the culture, resilience, and resistance of transgender people by working with transgender and gender non-binary artists to lead neighborhood placemaking efforts, art exhibitions, informative and topical panel discussions, and varied music programs that are led by and for transgender people. In addition, the district aims to be the city of San Francisco’s hub of transgender culture by leading unique and impactful events, exhibitions, cultural celebrations, festivals, and more.

Cultural Heritage Preservation

The District works with historical preservationists such as the San Francisco Planning Department and California State Senator Scott Wiener’s office to identify, evaluate, and document buildings and areas of the district with significant cultural and historical assets to the transgender community. They also promote the legacy of transgender culture in the district through oral history and storytelling, in addition to partnering with archival institutions and museums that possess cultural artifacts related to transgender culture.

Cultural Competency

 As the transgender community is a marginalized and disenfranchised community—both in San Francisco and worldwide—they are creating an environment that affirms the lives and authenticity of transgender people living in a world that consistently tells them they should not exist. The broader goal of the district is to continue a wave of cultural shifts in which the humanity and resilience of transgender people is celebrated and respected.

Land Use

The District actively participates in policy meetings with various San Francisco City and County government agencies to help shape and guide protective City regulations, tools, and programs (such as zoning and land use controls) to promote and protect safe spaces and commercial enterprises for the transgender community. The district has successfully begun implementing its placemaking and urban beautification efforts with the City of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works and San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency to ensure renewed crosswalks, an increase of sidewalk trees, an increase in restroom access, and more. The district aims to create ongoing urban beautification efforts that enrich the lives of longtime residents of the Tenderloin as a reverse gentrification model.

To donate to The Transgender District click here.

To learn more about The Transgender District, its programs and events head to their website.