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Cooper's - Part 2 (Patreon)

Published:
2026-05-23 02:34:42
Edited:
2026-05-23 02:49:00
Imported:
2026-05
Tags:

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Content

Memorial Day weekend honestly feels like the right time for this one.

The Last Straw was about one kind of war - fought in the skies over the Pacific, in the hearts of people who didn't have words for what they were feeling. Cooper's is about another kind that was fought on a street corner in Los Angeles, in the small hours of a May night, by people who also didn't have the words - but fought anyway.

When we left Vivian and Carmen in Part 1, they had found each other in the only place that felt safe. Cooper's Do-nuts on Main Street, which offered bad coffee and good company. It was a fragile, beautiful bubble of belonging. Then, violence found them.

For me, this is a story about courage. About the people history forgot. About the ordinary nights that turned out to be anything but.

Happy Memorial Day to my fellow Americans. Remember everyone who fought - in every kind of war. 💕

P.S. I've included PDFs of both Part 2 and the full version, and the plain text.

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Comments

Tim

I've read the history—what little has been written of this night—and you've filled it out beautifully. I'd like to believe that Vivian became a headliner with the Jewel Box Revue and became good friends with the revue's "one girl." Maybe she shared her story of that night at Cooper's, that proved to be an inspiration to her friend a decade later. Cooper Donuts really was the beginning.

Jenny S

We have always been here. That's so important to remember, as much as vile people today insist we are something new, we have always been here. What's different about the Cooper's riot and the later Stonewall riot is that Cooper's is something of a folktale. Oh, it happened, but it was far less documented than the more famous uprising. Police records were scrubbed, the papers didn't run the story, leaving only a few eyewitness accounts. The names of most of the people involved have been forgotten. That's what makes "Cooper's" different from something like Roland Emmerich's "Stonewall," with his little white gay insert character throwing the first brick. We don't know who threw the first, erm, donut at Cooper's. We don't know exactly how it played out. Instead we have whispers, and bedtime stories, and shadows. But they're our shadows to claim. You've done a fantastic job claiming them, Emory. Vivian is such a sweet soul, and Carmen/Ernesto has such wonderful rough edges. I appreciate Vivian finally acknowledging that Ernesto is doing their own gender thing at the end, and I love the dress Ernesto made for her. I ache for their pain, but take comfort in their support and caring of each other. This is how we survive. This is how we love. This is how we thrive. We have always been here, and we always will be.

Jade Diaz

It feels almost impossible to believe but my chosen mom lived through a time when cross dressing laws were still on the books and the cops would still roust gay bars. This was the late 70s and early 80s. Not even that long ago… what a beautiful story. So many incredible panels you’ve built around a touching script.

Gemma

Bitter sweet story of such great courage. What a tough time. Beautiful heart ache tale in the lead to Vivian’s coming of age and his journey to hopefully transitioning into a new world and life. Through the guidance and support provided by Carmen, new doors of opportunity become open to her that were not available to Ernesto in his/her life. Touching last couple of paragraphs in which Carmen/Ernesto seems to be wishing her well and saying goodbye.

Kris Greg

I'd never heard of heard of any of this until you published this story. I just watched a Youtube video titled "Inside the Jewel Box Refue's World of Drag" that's a short documentary with members of the troup. This clearly struck a cord with you, & compelled you to creat this fictionalized account to tell the story. Thank you for posting this so that some of us can learn.

Zoe Storm

Beautiful ❤️

Zoe Storm

(fuck the police)

Ellen Mellor

I wrote this up as a review on my Bluesky feed (https://bsky.app/profile/samarcand.eurosky.social/post/3mmjiv4epfs2o) and on Storygraph (https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/abe57e92-5656-4280-8438-a6eeccd97624) but I'm going to post it here as well. This novella is only available through Emory's Patreon and I highly recommend subscribing. https://www.patreon.com/emoryahlberg This story is, in many ways, a follow up to her last novella, 'The Last Straw'. Like that one, it is a historical story, with an actual connection to real world events. The Last Straw was based around a real B52 bomber in WWII, whereas this is based around a queer riot in LA in 1959, pre-dating both Stonewall and the Compton's Cafeteria Riot, although there is some question about whether this one actually happened. Whatever the truth of the event, Emory takes that framework and produces a beautiful, heartbreaking and true story. Vivian is a nineteen year old 'female impersonator' living in poverty with another 'female impersonator' called Carmen. The difference is 'Carmen' is a costume that Ernesto can take off. Vivian is really Vivian. The two go to Cooper's Donut Shop one night, despite Carmen's protests, and end up in the middle of one of the regular police raids to pick up gay men and men who are breaking the anti-crossdressing law that states that you have to wear a minimum of three articles of clothing that matches the sex marker on your ID. And shit kicks off. One of Emory's (many) skills is an ability to really inhabit her characters, to draw out their emotions and to make you feel them. While she has done this in all her work, it feels like she has really perfect it in this story and The Last Straw. The tension, the need to be understood and seen when those around you are incapable of either. Her protagonists get inside your head and your heart and proceed to tear you apart. Apart from the historical settings of these two stories, there is another thing that connects them which is the absolute pitch-perfect portrayal of gender dysphoria. Both Edie (the protagonist of The Last Straw) and Vivian suffer from it in different ways. Edie by having to deny her true self and Vivian by having her body constantly betray her and tell her that she is a man, even when everyone else sees a pretty young woman. Honestly, reading these stories were quite tough at times and I'd throw up a really big CW here. But that is absolutely not a reason not to read them. These are not stereotypical tales of trans suffering and despair. They are instead stories of finding an inner strength, overcoming adversity and finding joy in becoming the woman you are. They don't deny or whitewash the difficulties of being trans - I wish I could say 'in those days' but it seems like those days are back. I really hope nobody in power in the UK or USA finds out about the Crossdressing Law. It has strong 'we made the Torment Nexus' vibes about it - but they also celebrate the strength it takes to be yourself and the joy you find when you do. I have not yet mentioned Emory's artwork yet. She produces multiple, stunning, computer generated pieces for every story without resorting to Al at any point. The detail and the energy she imparts to each of these pictures is amazing and she depicts emotions across the spectrum in all of them. Vivian is a beautiful woman with the cutest sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks. You could almost believe that these were photos of real people that Emory had taken and manipulated. (This was shown perfectly in The Last Straw when there was a shot of Christine Jorgensen that was both instantly recognisable and didn't make the other characters look less real.) The final image of Cooper's was so beautiful I honestly welled up when I saw it. Emory really deserves to be considered among the top tier of trans femme authors, alongside her more famous counterparts. I have no idea why she isn't but both The Last Straw and Cooper's, as well as her other work like Jack & Jill, Homecoming, Taylor Made and Anywhere But Boring deserve a much higher profile and appreciation both within the trans femme community and beyond.

Roz Milner

This is so good, thanks for sharing it

Alex Cioranic-Alex From the Tri-Cities

Apologies for the late reply, my dearest muse Emory. I was on the bus when I got a notification my other account...Camper Van Man...page got deactivated and when I tired to fix it...the bus jostled...Canadian potholes...so I hope you won't mind starting a new account as I didn't feel like waiting for Patreon customer support and didn't want to go a day without supporting you.

SteveP

So powerful, along with amazing artistry. Thank you.

Pet Jeffery

I've finally read this today. Yesterday, I was too ill to read it. Today, I feel somewhat better, but as though someone had roughed me up, which added an extra (tactile) element to reading Cooper's. Very sharp and vivid writing and, as ever, wonderful images. I'm sure that it resonates powerfully, even to people who don't feel as though they'd been beaten up. Sometimes, I feel as though the USA were very similar to England. And then I read something like this that reminds me what a strange and violent country it is. And then I think, what can you expect of a country that was founded upon slavery and genocide of the native population? I've read of the three items of gender appropriate clothing before, although I forget where. Now, I wonder when that law was enacted and why. It must have been in response to something people were doing. Surely, they don't pass laws against things that nobody does. That leads me to think that there may be a lot of buried trans history involved in this. As far as I know, there have never been laws in England about gender appropriate clothing. The nearest of which I'm aware are medieval laws banning people from wearing specific items proper to a higher social classes. I've read of a Victorian police raid on a molly house, but I'm not clear as to what law the mollies were contravening. Possibly, they were suspected of gay anal sex, which was still illegal when I was a teenager (it was decriminalised in 1967, something that I recall very well). It must have been dreadful to receive transphobic violence from the police. My own experience is of the police being supportive after transphobic violence (both the Metropolitan Police and the British Transport Police). I hope that the police are now supportive in the USA, but I suspect that there are wide variations from place to place.

Garlic Witch

I got to this too late but I'm so glad I caught up. I have too many thoughts for a comment so I'm just gonna add to the chorus that this is an important tale exquisitely told.

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you so much Jenny, 💖. The erasure is the thing that gets me. Not just that it happened, but that it was scrubbed so clean! Police records gone, no newspaper coverage, most of the people unnamed. Vivian and Carmen are made up, but I hope that the gap they fill is real. And yeah, the difference between this and the Hollywood version is who gets to throw the first thing. It wasn't somebody photogenic and palatable. It was people who were tired and broke and had nowhere left to back up to. In my character notes for Vivian I said she: "Above all, she is brave. She doesn't know this about herself yet." That applies to a lot of people in our community. 🏳️‍⚧️

Emory Ahlberg

💖 Jade, "not even that long ago" - yeah, I mean, that's exactly it. Your chosen mom lived through the same laws Vivian is counting clothing articles against in this story. It's insane to think those weren't ancient history. And thank you!!!

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you, Tim! I love where you went with this. Whether Viv told the Cooper's story over drinks after a show one night, whether that story traveled... I'm not confirming or denying anything because I wanted to leave it a bit open. But I will say that history doesn't happen in isolation, and the people who were at Cooper's in '59 didn't just disappear. They went somewhere. They told somebody. And yeah... Cooper Donuts really was the beginning.

Emory Ahlberg

Gemma, thank you so much! 💖 The ending really is a goodbye... maybe not that day, but eventually. It was really interesting to explore the different between Carmen/Ernesto and Vivian during a time when our understanding of things was so much less nuanced. Vivian is not a man on a journey toward womanhood, she's a woman born into a world that didn't have a word for what she was yet. And, yeah, that's the whole difference from Ernesto. He puts Carmen on and takes her off (although of course both versions are "real" in the moment). Vivian can't take Vivian off.

Emory Ahlberg

Ellen, thank you so so much for the review and for spreading the word. 💖All the nice things you said gave much such a big smile.

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you, Kris! 💖God, I love that you went and found that documentary. The Jewel Box Revue is one of those incredible pieces of history that just fell through the cracks for most people. And yeah, Cooper's hit me hard when I first learned about it, too. I mean... a riot that predates Stonewall by a decade, started by trans women, and almost nobody's heard of it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised but that's one of the reasons I really wanted to write this story.

Emory Ahlberg

Steve, thank you so much. That really means a lot!

Emory Ahlberg

Never too late! 💖 Thank you so much, Witch. I really love this story and Vivian & Carmen / Ernesto are going to stay with me for a long time.

Emory Ahlberg

Pet, I hope you are feeling better! The tactile thing is real, and I think about it a lot when I write scenes like the nightstick, Carmen's blood on Vivian's hands, bare feet on hot concrete. I guess that I want you to feel the grit so that it feels a bit more real. And you're right on the clothing law. That was a response to people who were already doing it. That's always how it works. Nobody legislates against something that isn't happening. So yeah, there's a mountain of buried trans history underneath those statutes, and most of it was never recorded because the people living it were too criminalized to leave a paper trail. Cooper's itself is a perfect example, actually. Police records were scrubbed, there was almost no press coverage, and most of the people there are unnamed forever. Oh and the transatlantic comparison is interesting and probably more complicated than people usually admit. Different legal frameworks, different enforcement cultures, but it's really the same fundamental project of making certain people's lives impossible in public. I'm really glad your own experiences with police were supportive... I don't think that has been the experience of a lot of your sisters on this side of the pond.

Tim

Thank you for this response, Emory. This is as much of, and as beautiful as, an epilogue to this story as Edie's enjoying a quiet cup of coffee on a fire escape was to The Last Straw.

Gemma

Thanks for feedback. P.S. not on point, but had to say, I just love the ‘Snapshots’ image of Nikki (vexed look on Nikki’s face wearing her cute black with assorted alternate assorted bras in the background. As determined as she tries to look to hate her situation she looks so cute and pretty. Additional comment: just now, after further reading your deep reflections and the other deep feedback and that of other patreons on this story, I apologise for what now seems to be very superficial light weight comment I just made about Nikki.

Kris Greg

I found your story about Cooper's both inspiring & sad. It's inspiring when a repressed people who are just trying to peacefully live their lives stand up for their rights. It's sad that so few people know anything about what happened, & that the same battle is still being fought in parts of our country. Thanks again for this story.

Pet Jeffery

Thank you for that Emory. I had shingles and that's caused nerve damage. The medication for nerve damage is making me feel really weird. Yes, the tactile thing is certainly real. Tactile sensations are more intimate than sights and sounds, but often ignored by writers. Like all sensations, they can be good or bad. They include both the texture of the pavement when someone knocks us to the ground, and the delightful touch of soft fabric against our thighs as our skirts come to life on the dancefloor. Most trans history is invisible. I think that it's only recently that trans people have started to write their own stories. Press coverage is sketchy and unreliable. Police and criminal records are less complete than might be expected. I've done work for which employers institute criminal records checks, and I found, to my surprise, that there's no record my 1972 drugs conviction. But trans people have always been here. No doubt there are prehistoric burials in which gendered grave goods don't match the sex implied by the skeleton's pelvis. The transatlantic comparison is very complicated. I think that police in London must have training in dealing with trans people. Perhaps that extends to other large cities, but I suspect that the police might be less supportive in small towns, not that I've ever put that to the test. Hospital staff are not only less supportive than the police but can be downright hostile. For example, after an attack, I told the male nurse that my wrist was broken. He said, "No it isn't." As a result, my x-ray and treatment for the fracture was delayed longer than it should have been. So, yes, some people's lives are difficult (if not impossible) in public. Sometimes difficulties pass easily. Once, a London Underground ticket inspector said to me, "You know you can't use your boyfriend's travel card" and laughed.