Harvey Milk assassinated on this day, 1978.
Remembering Harvey Milk, assassinated on this day in 1978 by ex-cop Dan White.
“Hope Will Never Be Silent”
Gay in the 80s
A personal account of LGBT life in the 1980s in the UK, USA and Australia
Remembering Harvey Milk, assassinated on this day in 1978 by ex-cop Dan White.
“Hope Will Never Be Silent”
Like so many gay websites, you overlook an important fact about this day in gay history, Mayor Moscone was also assassinated with Harvey Milk. I knew both as friends, and realize that the mayor was a great friend to the S.F. gay community. He was elected in 1975, and his first appointment to his administration was Harvey,to the S.F. Board of Permits, making Harvey the first openly gay person to sit on any major city’s board.
Moscone was always seen at various gay events and helped the early gay rights movement in many ways. I first met him at a Gay Men’s Business Association, where he was the main speaker. I was a publicist and photographer that specialized in gay clients and businesses.
When Anita Bryant began her anti-gay campaign in 1977, the Mayor spoke out against her and appeared at several gay fund raisers to help fight her in Dade County Florida. On June 7,1977
She led a successful campaign to rescind a gay rights ordinance there. Back in San Francisco, Harvey Milk led and angry crowd on an impromptu march from the Castro, past City hall and to Union Square using his bullhorn and yelling “Out of the bars and into the streets”. By the time we got there,over 5,000 people joined in. I took what became one of the most iconic image of Harvey, as he spoke to the crowd, with a candle in one hand and his bullhorn in the other and a SAVE OUR RIGHTS sign in the background. After the crowd disbursed I walked over to the Associated Press S.F. Bureau to see if they were interested in my images. At first they said no,however I convinced them that 5,000 people responding to the results of a local election 2,000 miles away was a national news worthy story. They ran it and it introduced Harvey Milk nationally 5 months before he became the first openly gay man elected in California.