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40 Years After The Assassination Of Harvey Milk, LGBTQ Candidates Find Success
Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2018, 02:59 PM - Edit history (3)
NATIONAL
40 Years After The Assassination Of Harvey Milk, LGBTQ Candidates Find Success
November 27, 20185:01 AM ET
SCOTT SHAFER FROM KQED
Harvey Milk, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was the first openly gay elected official in California. Nov. 27, 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.
AP
In this month's midterm elections, Colorado elected the nation's first openly gay governor. Voters across the country sent a record number of LGBT candidates to Congress. These victories come 40 years after the assassination of the first openly gay elected official in California — Harvey Milk. ... Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. In 1978, under his urging, the city council passed a gay rights ordinance that protected gay people from being fired from their jobs. His advocacy angered many.
On Nov. 27, 1978, Supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a former police officer and former city supervisor who had clashed with Milk over LGBTQ issues. After shooting the mayor, White entered Milk's office and shot him five times at his desk.
Milk's murder transformed national politics
The success of LGBTQ candidates in the midterm elections would have been hard to imagine four decades ago when Milk first won office. In California at that time, a conservative state senator named John Briggs was pushing a statewide ballot measure, Proposition 6, to ban gay and lesbian teachers. Harvey Milk led the fight against the proposition, debating Briggs around the state.
San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, left, who was openly gay, talks with Gwenn Craig and Bill Kraus, co-coordinators of the San Francisco No on Prop 6 program in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 1978. Prop 6, which would have banned gay and lesbian teachers, was defeated.
Sal Veder/AP
"And if in your statements here and all these newspapers and tonight, that child molestation is not an issue," argued Milk, "if it is not an issue, why do you put out literature that hammers it home? Why do you play on that myth and fear?" ... That November, voters overwhelmingly defeated the Briggs initiative.
But three weeks later, this announcement from the then President of the City's Board of Supervisors, Dianne Feinstein, shocked the city: ... "Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect is Supervisor Dan White."
More than 25,000 persons jammed the park and streets around San Francisco?s City Hall on Monday, Nov. 28, 1978, in a spontaneous demonstration of grief for slain Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
AP
....
40 Years After The Assassination Of Harvey Milk, LGBTQ Candidates Find Success
November 27, 20185:01 AM ET
SCOTT SHAFER FROM KQED
Harvey Milk, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was the first openly gay elected official in California. Nov. 27, 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.
AP
In this month's midterm elections, Colorado elected the nation's first openly gay governor. Voters across the country sent a record number of LGBT candidates to Congress. These victories come 40 years after the assassination of the first openly gay elected official in California — Harvey Milk. ... Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. In 1978, under his urging, the city council passed a gay rights ordinance that protected gay people from being fired from their jobs. His advocacy angered many.
On Nov. 27, 1978, Supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a former police officer and former city supervisor who had clashed with Milk over LGBTQ issues. After shooting the mayor, White entered Milk's office and shot him five times at his desk.
Milk's murder transformed national politics
The success of LGBTQ candidates in the midterm elections would have been hard to imagine four decades ago when Milk first won office. In California at that time, a conservative state senator named John Briggs was pushing a statewide ballot measure, Proposition 6, to ban gay and lesbian teachers. Harvey Milk led the fight against the proposition, debating Briggs around the state.
San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, left, who was openly gay, talks with Gwenn Craig and Bill Kraus, co-coordinators of the San Francisco No on Prop 6 program in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 1978. Prop 6, which would have banned gay and lesbian teachers, was defeated.
Sal Veder/AP
"And if in your statements here and all these newspapers and tonight, that child molestation is not an issue," argued Milk, "if it is not an issue, why do you put out literature that hammers it home? Why do you play on that myth and fear?" ... That November, voters overwhelmingly defeated the Briggs initiative.
But three weeks later, this announcement from the then President of the City's Board of Supervisors, Dianne Feinstein, shocked the city: ... "Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect is Supervisor Dan White."
More than 25,000 persons jammed the park and streets around San Francisco?s City Hall on Monday, Nov. 28, 1978, in a spontaneous demonstration of grief for slain Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
AP
....
THE CALIFORNIA REPORT
NOV 27
40 Years After Assassinations, Assessing the Legacies of Harvey Milk and George Moscone
The LGBT community scored legal and political victories unimaginable in 1978. And local activists got involved with city government, signaling unprecedented engagement by neighborhoods.
NOV 27
40 Years After Assassinations, Assessing the Legacies of Harvey Milk and George Moscone
The LGBT community scored legal and political victories unimaginable in 1978. And local activists got involved with city government, signaling unprecedented engagement by neighborhoods.
CHRONICLE VAULT
Tribute to Milk and Moscone: Found photos show SF leaders in younger days
Forty years ago, San Francisco’s mayor and first openly gay supervisor were assassinated in City Hall. Today, rediscovered photos show them before their days as leaders
Bill Van Niekerken Nov. 21, 2018 Updated: Nov. 21, 2018 4 a.m.
Their deaths punctuated one of San Francisco’s darkest eras, but their memories became a guiding light for a city that was determined to right itself.
As the 40th anniversary of Moscone’s and Milk’s assassinations approached, a visit to The Chronicle’s archive turned up images of the mayor and supervisor that haven’t been published in decades. The photos show the leaders as younger men, before they represented so much power and promise, and before they were shot dead in City Hall in 1978 by former Supervisor Dan White.
....
From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspaper’s archive. It’s part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Tim O’Rourke, The Chronicle’s assistant managing editor and executive producer of SFChronicle.com. Sign up for the newsletter here and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Tim at torourke@sfchronicle.com.
Bill Van Niekerken is the Library Director of the San Francisco Chronicle. He does research for reporters and editors and manages the photos, negatives and text archives. He has a weekly column “From the Archive”, that focuses on photo coverage of historic events. For this column Bill scans and publishes 20-30 images from photos and negatives that haven’t been seen in many years.
Bill started working at the Mercury News in 1980, when nothing in news libraries was digital. Research was done using paper clippings, and cameras shot film. He moved to the Chronicle in 1985, just as the library was beginning their digital text archive.
Past Articles from this Author:
SFO’s ‘Miracle on the Bay’ crash-landing, 50 years ago
How SF State’s bloody strikes changed academia and nation 50 years ago
It’s Halloween; here’s a dog costume contest from 1985
Tribute to Milk and Moscone: Found photos show SF leaders in younger days
Forty years ago, San Francisco’s mayor and first openly gay supervisor were assassinated in City Hall. Today, rediscovered photos show them before their days as leaders
Bill Van Niekerken Nov. 21, 2018 Updated: Nov. 21, 2018 4 a.m.
Their deaths punctuated one of San Francisco’s darkest eras, but their memories became a guiding light for a city that was determined to right itself.
As the 40th anniversary of Moscone’s and Milk’s assassinations approached, a visit to The Chronicle’s archive turned up images of the mayor and supervisor that haven’t been published in decades. The photos show the leaders as younger men, before they represented so much power and promise, and before they were shot dead in City Hall in 1978 by former Supervisor Dan White.
....
From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspaper’s archive. It’s part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Tim O’Rourke, The Chronicle’s assistant managing editor and executive producer of SFChronicle.com. Sign up for the newsletter here and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Tim at torourke@sfchronicle.com.
Bill Van Niekerken is the Library Director of the San Francisco Chronicle. He does research for reporters and editors and manages the photos, negatives and text archives. He has a weekly column “From the Archive”, that focuses on photo coverage of historic events. For this column Bill scans and publishes 20-30 images from photos and negatives that haven’t been seen in many years.
Bill started working at the Mercury News in 1980, when nothing in news libraries was digital. Research was done using paper clippings, and cameras shot film. He moved to the Chronicle in 1985, just as the library was beginning their digital text archive.
Past Articles from this Author:
SFO’s ‘Miracle on the Bay’ crash-landing, 50 years ago
How SF State’s bloody strikes changed academia and nation 50 years ago
It’s Halloween; here’s a dog costume contest from 1985
4 replies
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Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk at Gay Pride San Jose, June 1978
Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
In office January 8, 1978 – November 27, 1978
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Although he was the most pro-LGBT politician in the United States at the time, politics and activism were not his early interests; he was neither open about his sexuality nor civically active until he was 40, after his experiences in the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
In 1972, Milk moved from New York City to the Castro District of San Francisco amid a migration of gay and bisexual men. He took advantage of the growing political and economic power of the neighborhood to promote his interests and unsuccessfully ran three times for political office. Milk's theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and in 1977 he won a seat as a city supervisor. His election was made possible by a key component of a shift in San Francisco politics.
Milk served almost eleven months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for San Francisco. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, who was another city supervisor. White had recently resigned to pursue a private business enterprise, but that endeavor eventually failed and he sought to get his old job back. White was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter, which was later reduced to five years. He was released in 1983 and committed suicide by carbon monoxide inhalation two years later.
Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States". Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager, wrote of him: "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
....
Harvey Milk at Gay Pride San Jose, June 1978
Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
In office January 8, 1978 – November 27, 1978
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Although he was the most pro-LGBT politician in the United States at the time, politics and activism were not his early interests; he was neither open about his sexuality nor civically active until he was 40, after his experiences in the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
In 1972, Milk moved from New York City to the Castro District of San Francisco amid a migration of gay and bisexual men. He took advantage of the growing political and economic power of the neighborhood to promote his interests and unsuccessfully ran three times for political office. Milk's theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and in 1977 he won a seat as a city supervisor. His election was made possible by a key component of a shift in San Francisco politics.
Milk served almost eleven months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for San Francisco. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, who was another city supervisor. White had recently resigned to pursue a private business enterprise, but that endeavor eventually failed and he sought to get his old job back. White was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter, which was later reduced to five years. He was released in 1983 and committed suicide by carbon monoxide inhalation two years later.
Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States". Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager, wrote of him: "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
....
Moscone–Milk assassinations
San Francisco Chronicle's front page for November 28, 1978
The Moscone–Milk assassinations were the killings of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were shot and killed in San Francisco City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. White was angry that Moscone had refused to reappoint him to his seat on the Board of Supervisors, from which he had just resigned, and that Milk had lobbied heavily against his reappointment. These events helped bring national notice to then–Board President Dianne Feinstein, who became the first female mayor of San Francisco and eventually U.S. Senator for California.
White was subsequently convicted of voluntary manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder. The verdict sparked the "White Night riots" in San Francisco, and led to the state of California abolishing the diminished capacity criminal defense. It also led to the urban legend of the "Twinkie defense", as many media reports had incorrectly described the defense as having attributed White's diminished capacity to the effects of sugar-laden junk food. White committed suicide in 1985, a little more than a year after his release from prison.
....
San Francisco Chronicle's front page for November 28, 1978
The Moscone–Milk assassinations were the killings of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were shot and killed in San Francisco City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. White was angry that Moscone had refused to reappoint him to his seat on the Board of Supervisors, from which he had just resigned, and that Milk had lobbied heavily against his reappointment. These events helped bring national notice to then–Board President Dianne Feinstein, who became the first female mayor of San Francisco and eventually U.S. Senator for California.
White was subsequently convicted of voluntary manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder. The verdict sparked the "White Night riots" in San Francisco, and led to the state of California abolishing the diminished capacity criminal defense. It also led to the urban legend of the "Twinkie defense", as many media reports had incorrectly described the defense as having attributed White's diminished capacity to the effects of sugar-laden junk food. White committed suicide in 1985, a little more than a year after his release from prison.
....
