says the Cooper Do-Nuts was located between two older gay bars, Harold's and the Waldorf on Main Street, south of the Rosslyn.
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When they came back, the event escalated such that it ultimately shut down Main Street for a full day.
Resentment at being targeted by the police came to a head in the Cooper Do-Nuts, and when police came into the especially popular gay hangout attempting to arrest three people (Rechy among them), some of the trans women and gay patrons bombarded the officers with donuts, coffee, and paper plates until the police ran out seeking backup. (It was this kind of police attention that also inspired the Black Cat riot in Silver Lake seven years later.) Rechy, who was present in the doughnut shop on the night in May 1959 when the riot took place, notes that at this time, it was not uncommon for police to arrest members of the gay populace simply for congregating or being in a bar that was being raided. The event has also been detailed in the 2009 book Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians, says Out magazine.
John Rechy, a noted chronicler of gay LA, wrote in his book City of Night that this location of the Cooper doughnut chain on Main Street was the site of a 1959 uprising of transgender women and street hustlers. This incident, though relatively small in size, is often considered by historians to be the first modern uprising against police treatment of gay people.