Most people know Stonewall. Fewer know about the night in 1959 when queer people in Los Angeles fought back against a police raid with coffee cups and donuts, and sparked one of the earliest known acts of LGBTQ+ resistance in American history.

Cooper's Do-nuts was a 24-hour donut shop on Main Street in Los Angeles, a gathering spot for gay men, transgender women, drag queens, and sex workers who had few other places to go. On a night in May 1959, police moved in to arrest patrons, targeting people for wearing clothes "of the opposite sex" and for simply being present. The community fought back, throwing donuts, coffee cups, and anything else at hand. Some people escaped into the streets. Some police reportedly fled.

The uprising didn't make the mainstream news. No names were recorded. No plaque commemorates the site. But it happened, ten years before Stonewall, in a city that has often been erased from the story of queer resistance.

This episode puts Cooper's Do-nuts back in the history books, alongside the names and stories of the communities who were there, and asks what else we might be missing.

Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/GEOADoxV_Kw
Join our community: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.circle.so
Website: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com

What would Marsha P. Johnson resolve to do in 2026? What about Harvey Milk, Christine Jorgensen, Bayard Rustin, or Audre Lorde?

This special year-end episode takes a different kind of trip through queer history. Rather than just looking back, it imagines forward, asking what the dreams and demands of our most iconic trailblazers might sound like if they were setting intentions for this moment. The result is something that's equal parts history lesson, love letter, and call to action.

The episode weaves real biographical detail with imaginative "what ifs," grounding each resolution in the actual values, words, and life's work of the person it honors. Marsha's would be joyful and uncompromising. Harvey's would be practical and hopeful. Audre's would be a dare.

The point isn't that these people would say exactly this. The point is that their lives show us what it looks like to turn a dream into action, sometimes at enormous personal cost, and often in the face of people who said it couldn't be done.

What's your resolution? This episode might give you some ideas.

Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/eCF6x5w2v3s
Join our community: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.circle.so
Website: https://thisweekinqueerhistory.com