If San Diego had its own Stonewall protests, maybe it would go something like this:

On the corner of Fourth and Fifth avenues, a large contingency of San Diego SWAT officers assemble in the parking lot behind Washington Mutual Bank. About 50 police officers in full riot gear are about to raid The Brass Rail on suspicion of transsexual prostitution activity.

Inside the bar, Ophelia is producing a benefit for a prominent community member who lays in intensive care at Mercy Hospital. Surrounded by the Imperial Court’s royalty, a number of San Diego’s GLBT community is saying goodbye to Hal, The Brass Rail’s longtime manager, who has decided to retire.

Suddenly, the SWAT team busts through the door yelling: “Back up against the wall! You’re all under arrest!”

Now, push the rewind button 37 years to a similar moment of pride.

In a small Greenwich Village gay bar is a group of people enjoying being out on a hot summer night. Suddenly, a paddy wagon pulls up outside the Stonewall Bar and police pile inside, rounding up the patrons and filling the paddy wagon with individuals accused of holding hands in public and wearing clothing traditionally of the opposite gender.

As the wagon begins to fill, the assembled crowd begins to yell in protest of the unlawful police action.

Acting like Superwoman, Sylvia Rae Rivera springs out of the crowd and begins to shout and throw beer bottles at the paneled truck.

In support of her action, homeless street queens with little to lose rip a parking meter from the ground and use it to force the police out of the bar.

And so began four days of rioting and the beginnings of the GLBT community’s quest for equality.

Some credit Rivera as one of the founders of the Gay Liberation Front, which turned into the Gay Activists Alliance and was then backed up by the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR).

When the Gay Liberation Front folded in the ’70s, the conservative, more straight-appearing Gay Activists Alliance was formed. It became New York’s primary gay rights group, and Rivera joined them in hopes of promoting transgender rights in a citywide antidiscrimination ordinance. At that time, politics and attitudes influenced the elimination of clauses in civil rights bills dealing with transvestites and drag queens.

The GAA was unjust to Rivera, and the gay men and women on the forefront of the gay civil rights movement became oblivious to transgender issues, which they deemed too radical.

As it turned out, the civil rights legislation they were fighting for didn’t get passed until 1986. This was in the middle of the AIDS crisis, when drag queens, much like the members of our own Imperial Court, gave countless benefits for people living with HIV. The money contributed to organizations like Mama’s Kitchen, Auntie Helen’s and Being Alive generated press coverage and forced the gay and the straight communities to recognize that transgender people are important contributors to the GBLT community.

In direct contrast to the horrible years before Stonewall, the San Diego political community has united with San Diego’s GLBT leaders by appointing people like Nicole Murray-Ramirez and Julia Legaspi as San Diego city commissioners.

Our community has grown to the point were many transgender people have gained important positions in San Diego, such as Tracy O’Brien, who heads Project STAR, and transgender activist Brenda Watson, who spoke at a recent meeting at The Center about recognizing the “T” in the GLBT community.

Additionally, Sandra Usi Ramirez, an outstanding transgender woman who has made a difference in The Center’s Latino Services Program, received San Diego LGBT Pride’s Champion of Pride Award this year. And transgender activist Connor Maddocks was recently elected to the Pride board.

By recognizing that San Diego’s transgender men and women are a critical part of our civil rights movement, San Diego’s GBLT community has finally come home to roost.