"San Francisco had been 'a city of villages': a decentralized city with ethnic enclaves that each surrounded its own main street. As the downtown area developed, neighborhoods suffered, including Castro Street.... [S]hops shut down, and houses were abandoned and shuttered. In 1963, real estate prices plummeted when most of the working-class families tried to sell their houses quickly after a gay bar opened in the neighborhood....
"Since the end of World War II, the major port city of San Francisco had been home to a sizable number of gay men expelled from the military who had decided to stay rather than return to their hometowns and face ostracism. By 1969 San Francisco had more gay people per capita than any other American city" and maintains that lead today.
By 1971, the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) and the Society for Individual Rights were fully engaged in confronting San Francisco's police brutality and entrapment, and its political culture of targeting the LGBT community.
DOB historian Marcia M. Gallo describes the emotional state of San Francisco in late 1978:
"Early in November 1978, California activists enjoyed a heady victory at the polls when voters decisively rejected the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned gay topics and teachers from California's public schools....
"The jubilation of defeating the homophobic measure was cut short by the discovery a few weeks later of the mass suicide of the members of the People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana; many of Jim Jones' followers were San Franciscans. Then, within days of that tragedy, San Francisco Supervisor Dan White murdered Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk at City Hall."
This is the NBC news video reporting on the November 27, 1978 murders:
That night, thousands of people marched in a solemn candlelight vigil. See The Times of Harvey Milk. for moving clips from that night.
The White Night Riots
After an eleven-day trial, on May 21, 1979, White was convicted of two counts of voluntary manslaughter. (Mainstream media misattributed the lesser conviction to the "Twinkie Defense" claiming diminished capacity from eating too much sugar, but attorney Doug Schmidt actually argued diminished capacity due to depression, although he did assert that White binged on junk food.) Once the verdict was announced, Gallo reports that:
"San Francisco erupted in violence; gay men and lesbians stormed City Hall, smashing its ornate front doors and setting police cars on fire. The San Francisco Police Department responded by invading ... Castro, and brutalizing bystanders and bar patrons in reprisal for the 'White Night' riots." Some of that night is captured in this 45-second YouTube video:
But several minutes of the riots are shown in The Times of Harvey Milk.
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