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The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) is a compelling and inspiring documentary that chronicles the life and achievements of Harvey Milk, a pioneering public figure and influential leader in American history. Through interviews, archival footage, and historical context, the film explores his dedication to public service, social progress, and community impact, highlighting his courage, vision, and enduring legacy. Directed by Rob Epstein, the documentary is praised for its engaging storytelling, emotional depth, and historical significance. Watch The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) online in high quality and gain insight into an important chapter of modern history and a remarkable story of leadership and social influence.
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00:00:30As President of the Board of Supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement.
00:00:54Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.
00:01:01The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.
00:01:19On November 27, 1978, San Francisco's Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated in City Hall.
00:01:34Harvey Milk had served only 11 months on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, but he had already come to represent something far greater than his office.
00:01:44A year before he was gunned down, Harvey Milk tape recorded a will.
00:01:48This is to be played only in the event of my death by assassination.
00:01:54I fully realized that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes the target or the potential target for somebody who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed themselves.
00:02:14Knowing that I could be assassinated at any moment or any time, I feel it's important that some people know my thoughts.
00:02:24I stood for more than just a candidate.
00:02:26I stood for more than just a candidate.
00:02:28I have never considered myself a candidate.
00:02:30I have always considered myself part of a movement, part of a candidacy.
00:02:36I wish I had time to explain everything I did.
00:02:39Almost everything was done in the eyes of the gay movement.
00:03:06I met Harvey like most people met Harvey, I think, in his camera store.
00:03:23I had been living in the city about a year and a half, I guess, and maybe not even that long, and went into the camera store.
00:03:33Someone recommended it to have my film developed and was greeted by this raving maniac.
00:03:38He was screaming and shouting.
00:03:40I don't even know what the issue was at that point, but he was screaming and shouting at someone in the camera store.
00:03:45And I was a little intimidated.
00:03:48You know, I thought this guy is a little too weird for me.
00:03:52When I really got to know him was in 75.
00:03:57I had a miscarriage.
00:03:59And I was astounded that I had, 75 or 76, I had a miscarriage.
00:04:06And I was astounded.
00:04:07I mean, it's a devastating physical experience as well as a mental experience.
00:04:12And I was home from the hospital and Harvey had heard that this had happened.
00:04:18And lo and behold, there was a knock at the door and I went sort of like floating to the door because I wasn't feeling well at all.
00:04:27And he was standing on my doorstep with a dozen roses.
00:04:32And he said, well, can I get you anything?
00:04:35Do you have enough food in the house?
00:04:36Do you have milk?
00:04:37Do you have food?
00:04:38I'll do your grocery shopping.
00:04:39And I knew him by name as he knew me, but I didn't know him well enough for having to do my grocery shopping.
00:04:46But that's the kind of concern he was.
00:04:48And, you know, you could relate to Harvey on many levels.
00:04:51One level was his sense of humor, which I liked, you know, and, you know, making fun of things that sometimes were very heavy, which was how I was brought up.
00:04:59But also, I didn't feel like an outsider with Harvey.
00:05:02I felt like someone of worth, you know, and some respect, the teacher thing.
00:05:07And if I was, in fact, feminine or if I was, in fact, you know, didn't always speak in a certain syntax or if I said, you know, fuck that asshole over there.
00:05:14You know, he's really a jerk.
00:05:15You know, Harvey didn't go, you know, this is not a good game.
00:05:19So that meant a lot, the human factor.
00:05:24At first, Harvey Bernard Milk showed few signs he would make history.
00:05:29Born May 22nd, 1930, the second son of middle-class Jewish parents, he grew up in Woodmere, Long Island.
00:05:51The little kid with the big ears became an high school and ordinary student, a practical joker and a regular guy.
00:06:00Or so his friends thought.
00:06:03After college, he joined the Navy.
00:06:18Then he began a career as a stock analyst on Wall Street.
00:06:22What was not on the resume was his homosexuality, which Harvey Milk had known about since he was 14.
00:06:32In the 1960s, Harvey Milk took a step off course.
00:06:37He befriended avant-garde theater people, then worked his way into a producing job on Broadway.
00:06:45By the beginning of the 70s, Harvey Milk had marched in anti-war demonstrations, burned his bank AmeriCardin protest, and emigrated to San Francisco.
00:06:56He and lover Scott Smith settled down and opened a camera store on Castro Street, in a quiet old neighborhood soon to become known as the Castro.
00:07:11Harvey Milk threw himself into neighborhood politics.
00:07:15When he dubbed himself the mayor of Castro Street, the idea stuck.
00:07:22In 1973, he tried to make it official by running for the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco's city council.
00:07:34To many, Harvey Milk seemed more like a joke than a candidate.
00:07:43Well, the first time I heard of Harvey was one of these conventions at the Labor Council,
00:07:51and we were voting on who we were going to support in our union.
00:07:56We'd get together with other union delegates and talk over who we were going to support,
00:08:00and we supported a guy that I didn't know at that time, Harvey Milk.
00:08:05And we were talking with the people, and somebody said, he's gay.
00:08:13And I thought, holy Christ, how are we going to go back to our union and go back to where we work
00:08:18and tell guys that we supported a fruit?
00:08:22You know, and I thought, my God, this is, what's labor coming to, you know?
00:08:27And then we found out that he got Coors Beer out of all of the gay bars in San Francisco.
00:08:35And this Coors Beer boycott, which Labor's been trying to do throughout the United States,
00:08:41especially in San Francisco, Labor Town, really hadn't been too successful.
00:08:48You know, I met Harvey for the first time.
00:08:50I mean, I had read about him and had heard a lot about him, but that was the first time I really met him.
00:08:55And it was a rather strange meeting, because Harvey was talking about all these visionary things
00:09:03about, you know, the oneness of man and thinking about all the great things that needed to be done,
00:09:11not only in San Francisco, but throughout the country.
00:09:15And I said to myself, gee, this man is never going to make it.
00:09:20Between 1973 and 1976, Harvey Milk ran for political office and lost three times.
00:09:30But in each race, he garnered more and more votes, enough to establish himself as a broker for his neighborhood
00:09:37and the growing gay community.
00:09:40In 1975, neighborhood activists like Harvey Milk found a strong supporter in their new mayor, George Moscone.
00:09:47Moscone had campaigned on the conviction that a city is enriched by more than downtown development.
00:09:53To make our city work once again.
00:09:55As the new mayor, Moscone showed respect for his city's many neighborhoods, cultures and peoples.
00:10:02My late father was a guard at San Quentin, who I was visiting one day, who showed to me and then explained the function of the death chamber.
00:10:13And it just seemed inconceivable to me, though I was pretty young at the time,
00:10:18that in this society that I had been trained to believe was the most effective and efficient of all societies,
00:10:25that the only way we could deal with violent crime would be to do the ultimate ourselves,
00:10:30and that's to governmentally sanction the taking of another person's life.
00:10:34Moscone and his allies, including Harvey Milk, set about designing a plan for neighborhood people to run the city they lived in.
00:10:43The plan, called District Elections, would allow candidates for supervisor, such as Harvey Milk,
00:10:49to run from districts rather than the city at large.
00:10:54They had this crazy idea that they were going to change the form of government, the way we elect our officials in this town.
00:11:00There was one meeting that was supposed to be behind this guy, Harvey Milk's camera store.
00:11:04And so I went to the meeting, and I kind of thought, what the hell am I doing here with all these fruits and kooks?
00:11:09Behind the camera store, a little crummy camera store. It was nothing like Brooks.
00:11:13It was a little crummy camera store, and in the back was this little crummy room with a bunch of worn-out old sofas and chairs,
00:11:20and a bunch of people in jeans and Levi's, and Harvey Milk was there, and he doesn't dress in a distinguished manner.
00:11:30He just looks like any working stiff.
00:11:33The way he handled the people there, some of the people get kind of emotional and outrageous,
00:11:40and he would control them and calm them down and get the thinking going a certain way,
00:11:46and very, very impressive.
00:11:50The voters of San Francisco decided to give the district elections plan a try.
00:11:55In the Castro, a new kind of politics was taking shape.
00:12:01More and more men and women were arriving in San Francisco every day to take up the gay life.
00:12:07The Castro was booming.
00:12:10Each summer, Harvey Milk helped organize the Castro Street Fair, where the neighborhood celebrated its very existence.
00:12:24The Castro's a race-KI 1-0-1-2-1-1-2-1-2-1-1-2-1-1-2-3-1-1-2-3-1-2-1-2-1-3-1-2-1-2-1-3-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-1.
00:12:43Harvey Milk realized that the Castro was ready
00:13:11to elect its own representative to City Hall.
00:13:15In 1977, Milk launched his fourth political campaign,
00:13:20this time for the Board of Supervisors
00:13:22from the newly created District 5.
00:13:36There's just too many candidates.
00:13:38The vote is split all over the place,
00:13:39and there's too many things happening.
00:13:41Nobody knows about it.
00:13:42There are at least seven candidates
00:13:44with a shot at capturing the heart of the city,
00:13:46District 5.
00:13:47The Liberal vote is split between three main candidates
00:13:50and many lesser ones.
00:13:52One main is Terrence Hallinan,
00:13:54an attorney with endorsements from Democrats and Labor.
00:13:57Hallinan splits the Liberal vote with two gays,
00:14:00lawyer Rick Stokes and Castro Street businessman Harvey Milk.
00:14:04I think when it comes to a matter of who came first,
00:14:06that's fairly easily provable.
00:14:07I don't think anyone ever heard of Harvey Milk
00:14:09until he ran for office in 1973.
00:14:11Any single neighborhood issue or city issue for the last five years,
00:14:15you found Harvey Milk taking a stand one way or the other,
00:14:17but taking a stand.
00:14:18Every candidate claims to know of polls
00:14:20showing him the winner or running strong.
00:14:23But the one candidate who seems to run best of all
00:14:25has very low visibility.
00:14:27That's the one named undecided.
00:14:30In San Francisco, Linda Schacht for Channel 5 Eyewitness News.
00:14:34When he decided to run for supervisor, he did call me.
00:14:39And I went in to meet with him.
00:14:41And we just hit it off instantly.
00:14:44That very first day, he asked me if I would run his campaign.
00:14:48I was 23.
00:14:50There's this punk kid who knows nothing about campaigns,
00:14:53except that I loved them.
00:14:56What he offered me was an opportunity.
00:15:00He had no money.
00:15:02But he was a very difficult person to work with.
00:15:05He did have temper fits,
00:15:08where he would just be like a little kid sometimes
00:15:12for no good reason except that he was probably exhausted.
00:15:15Getting involved in that campaign was so special,
00:15:18especially after the number of campaigns
00:15:20that I had been through with the Democratic Party
00:15:23and kind of the normal type of politicians
00:15:25and the normal kind of campaigns.
00:15:27That campaign was anything but normal.
00:15:31One day, I was in there, into the campaign headquarters,
00:15:34and I'm looking around at this motley group of people.
00:15:37It was a lot of fun, but give me a break.
00:15:39And I said to Harvey, I said, well, who's that?
00:15:42And there's this desk over in the corner.
00:15:44It's really dark.
00:15:45I don't think there's a plug back in that corner.
00:15:46There's a telephone.
00:15:48I remember seeing the lights on the telephone
00:15:50was like the brightest thing in that corner.
00:15:54And he says, she's really good.
00:15:56Her name is Ann Cronenberg.
00:15:57He says, she's really good.
00:15:58And I'm looking at her and thinking, oh, my Lord,
00:16:01your image here, he's trying to run, you know,
00:16:04in a very big district.
00:16:05He'd run in our neighborhood,
00:16:07and anything goes in our neighborhood.
00:16:10But when you get out, you know,
00:16:12you kind of have to kind of blend in.
00:16:15And I looked at Ann, and here she was, you know,
00:16:18like a big dyke with the motorcycle clothes on.
00:16:21And then there's John with his three-piece suit.
00:16:23And there's little Michael Wong, who Harvey always
00:16:26called his lotus blossom.
00:16:28And a couple of old ladies that would be in there, too,
00:16:30bless their hearts.
00:16:31And then people silk screening on the side.
00:16:33And you could smell the ink and, you know, all this hubbub.
00:16:36And he's trying to run a business in the front.
00:16:38Everything happened in this long, dingy camera store.
00:16:43Everything from Save the Whales to get elected.
00:16:53We had volunteers in all different shapes and sizes,
00:16:56from Medora Payne size up to 70-year-old women
00:17:01who wanted to be doing something.
00:17:02Maybe they couldn't be walking precincts,
00:17:04but they wanted to do something for Harvey.
00:17:06It was a nice mix of people.
00:17:14He never stopped.
00:17:15And he did most of everything himself,
00:17:17which meant, you know, every day he was out on the street
00:17:20to hit the morning rush hour and the afternoon rush hour.
00:17:23He'd walk precincts.
00:17:24He'd go to shops, you know, door to door.
00:17:26At the age of 47, on his fourth try for public office,
00:17:41Harvey Milk was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors.
00:17:49When Harvey got back to the campaign headquarters that night,
00:17:52people went crazy.
00:17:54He rode up on his, not his motorcycle, my motorcycle.
00:17:59They all got off the bikes then,
00:18:01and Harvey was just encircled with people.
00:18:03I mean, the feeling there was just one of such total joy.
00:18:08And it was more than just, you know, a candidate winning.
00:18:11It was the fact that all of these lesbians and gay men
00:18:15throughout San Francisco,
00:18:17who had felt like they'd had no voice before,
00:18:20now had someone who represented them.
00:18:23It just feels so good for milk.
00:18:25But when feeling good for milk, you were feeling good for yourself.
00:18:28You know, this was elation.
00:18:29Just absolute elation.
00:18:32Harvey never, ever drank.
00:18:34But that night, you know, the champagne was flowing freely,
00:18:37and he picked up one bottle of champagne
00:18:38and poured it all over himself.
00:18:40It was incredible.
00:18:41We can hear it, we can't really see too much, but it looks and sounds to you, and to me,
00:18:46like New Year's Eve on Market Street, a place called Althez.
00:18:50And the reason for all this merriment and gaiety, if you pardon the pun,
00:18:54is the man standing to my right, the first gay supervisor elected in San Francisco.
00:18:59His name is Harvey Milk.
00:19:01First of all, congratulations, and I've never seen anything like this, Harvey.
00:19:04Oh, it's all over the city tonight.
00:19:06What does this mean, your election, your activity now on the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco?
00:19:11Does that mean, as many states are concerned, that maybe the gays are taking over San Francisco?
00:19:15Are you going to be a supervisor for all the people?
00:19:17I have to be.
00:19:18That's what I was elected for.
00:19:20I have to be there to open up the dialogue for the sensitivities of all people and for all the problems.
00:19:25The problems that affect this city affect all of us.
00:19:28It was really a monumentous occasion.
00:19:31You know, he had been waiting at that point for four years for that victory,
00:19:36and I think it was very sweet for all of us.
00:19:38Thank you, San Francisco.
00:19:40All right.
00:19:49I first met Harvey Milk when I was sent to do a story on this guy out in the Castro
00:19:53who had a camera store who was running for supervisor,
00:19:56and he was getting a lot of attention, so I had to go out there and do an interview with him.
00:20:01And I thought, oh, brother, a guy owns a camera store.
00:20:04You know, what could he know about politics or anything?
00:20:08And I know he was going to be a dud.
00:20:11But I got out there, and he was full of life.
00:20:15He was a great speaker.
00:20:16And I was impressed on the spot, and it made a good story.
00:20:21It's as if he knew, you came here with an attitude that I was just a homosexual with a camera store,
00:20:27and I'll show you.
00:20:29And I thought he did.
00:20:31He was much more impressive than just that kind of image.
00:20:35This will be the first time in many years that we've seen so many relatively new faces
00:20:40on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors,
00:20:42and this is probably because it's the first time in a long time
00:20:45that supervisors have been elected by district instead of citywide.
00:20:49Harvey Milk, a homosexual, the first avowed women's rights advocate, Carol Ruth Silver,
00:20:55the first Chinese-American, attorney Gordon Lau,
00:20:58the first black woman, Ella Hill Hutch,
00:21:01and Dan White, a city fireman who gave up his job to take his seat.
00:21:05After the formal swearing-in ceremony,
00:21:07the board elected Dianne Feinstein to be its new president.
00:21:11In a 6-5 vote, Feinstein beat out Gordon Lau.
00:21:15But then we got the first taste of the new politics.
00:21:18Someone suggested the board vote again to make it unanimous for Feinstein.
00:21:22But newcomers Milk and Silver refused.
00:21:25They stuck to their votes for Lau to cheers from their supporters.
00:21:29And just about everyone at City Hall today was agreeing on one thing.
00:21:33They may be a lot of things, but they probably won't be dull.
00:21:36It was interesting to see that Harvey did not vote for Dianne Feinstein to be president.
00:21:44And it really shocked many of us in the audience
00:21:47because we said,
00:21:49Wow, here was this gay supervisor who really didn't have to do it
00:21:54and maybe might be committing political suicide
00:21:57and yet he was standing up for what he believed
00:22:01and making a very strong statement.
00:22:05And it was clear what Harvey Milk represented on that board.
00:22:10He represented change.
00:22:11He was different.
00:22:12He was different from the conservative majority on the board of supervisors.
00:22:16Lost in the hubbub over the rise of California's first publicly gay official
00:22:22was the election of Dan White, another kind of neighborhood populist.
00:22:27Dan White has worked and lived virtually all his 31 years
00:22:31in this southeastern section of San Francisco.
00:22:34The neighborhood problems are the city's problems.
00:22:37You see, the transportation, the crime, the education, the taxes,
00:22:41these are problems that we're all going to have to solve.
00:22:47Hello, Ann.
00:22:48Come on out here.
00:22:49Come on.
00:22:50Come on.
00:22:51Say hello.
00:22:52Dan White comes across as the kind of son almost any mother would be proud of.
00:22:56Dan was one of my big, big supporters here.
00:22:59A lot of the ladies here getting their hair done.
00:23:03Clean cut, respectful to his elders, and seemingly possessed of small-town values.
00:23:07When was the last time you heard a San Francisco politician
00:23:10talk about setting up neighborhood athletic teams?
00:23:13And then when we get the best team,
00:23:15we will challenge, say, Harvey Milk's district to a game of softball
00:23:18where they have champs out there.
00:23:20In a sense, you could say it's old-fashioned,
00:23:22but it's old-fashioned values that built this country.
00:23:25To me, this is what society is all about.
00:23:29If you see someone in trouble, you go to help them out.
00:23:32Dan White says nobody's going to ignore his corner of the city anymore.
00:23:37Dan White and Harvey Milk became symbols of the new district election system.
00:23:43Dan White, a fireman and native San Franciscan.
00:23:46Harvey Milk, a small businessman and a gay immigrant.
00:23:50Milk's victory sparked euphoria among his supporters
00:23:54and a sense of something new arriving at City Hall.
00:24:00He wanted to meet Carter.
00:24:02He thought that was very important,
00:24:03and I think he even brought a photographer along,
00:24:05even though Carter didn't want to be photographed with a gay person.
00:24:10Ruth Carter Stapleton was the evangelical sister
00:24:17who was carrying on a mission on gays.
00:24:19She told Harvey that she could convert him
00:24:22and that even though he was Jewish,
00:24:24if he gave himself to Jesus Christ,
00:24:26that his homosexuality would disappear or something.
00:24:29And he made a couple of very wry comments.
00:24:32And one of them was that I think they shook hands
00:24:35and he said, I'm surprised that you shook my hand.
00:24:37And she said, why?
00:24:38And he said, because you never know where my hand's been.
00:24:41Wasn't that awful?
00:24:43Well, she just looked at him.
00:24:45She was just starstruck.
00:24:47I mean, what could she say?
00:24:49Before Harvey was elected,
00:24:51I can remember looking at City Hall
00:24:54and feeling like that was not my place.
00:24:57I didn't belong there.
00:24:58I wasn't welcome there.
00:24:59I didn't feel comfortable there.
00:25:02And the people who were on the Board of Supervisors
00:25:04were names you read about in the newspaper,
00:25:05not people you would expect to see in the grocery store
00:25:08or much less have a conversation with
00:25:10on a personal or human level.
00:25:13And Harvey was really part of changing all that.
00:25:16We're interviewing Harvey Milk.
00:25:18What's it like being a so-called in-person
00:25:22as opposed to having been an out-person
00:25:24for a number of years?
00:25:25Being one of them?
00:25:26Yes.
00:25:29Incredible.
00:25:30The establishment, the white power established,
00:25:35non-gay, very wealthy establishment,
00:25:38have to deal with me.
00:25:41It's an incredible position.
00:25:44Excuse me.
00:25:45Cock.
00:25:48I have a slight cold.
00:25:55Take two.
00:25:56Want to repeat that, please?
00:25:57Sure.
00:25:59Go.
00:26:02In San Francisco, as in any place else,
00:26:03you have the blacks and browns fighting
00:26:05and you have the Filipinos not talking to the Asians
00:26:08and they all hate the gays and so forth.
00:26:10And that has existed.
00:26:12And we've had, over the years, have fought for the crumb.
00:26:15But I think because of the election of district elections
00:26:17and this particular board and myself,
00:26:21we're overcoming a lot of those problems.
00:26:23There's tremendous harmony developing.
00:26:26It's not perfect by any means.
00:26:28On a city-wide level, I think it's vital that the minorities,
00:26:32the traditional ethnic minorities,
00:26:35and the gays and the feminists link together.
00:26:40Possibly the rank-and-file union, not the union leaders,
00:26:43the rank-and-file,
00:26:45link together to form a very solid, strong coalition
00:26:50so that we can influence the total direction of the city.
00:26:54As supervisor, Harvey Milk had the political skills
00:26:57to advance the issues that neighborhood people cared about.
00:27:00Rent control, limiting high-rise development,
00:27:04public transportation, and the rights of senior citizens.
00:27:08The biggest crime in this city
00:27:11is the fact that there's some government-elected officials
00:27:14who don't care about senior citizens.
00:27:16And they got news for them.
00:27:18They're going to grow old and be a senior citizen themselves,
00:27:21so drop dead.
00:27:24Maybe I liked Harvey because almost everything,
00:27:26any time he'd make a speech about anything,
00:27:28I agreed with him.
00:27:30So then I thought he was a great man
00:27:31because I agreed with what he talked about.
00:27:34But you could hear where he was coming from.
00:27:37He was coming from people positions.
00:27:40If it had to do with parks or it had to do with schools
00:27:43or it had to do with police protection,
00:27:46anything that affected little people.
00:27:51He wasn't only for gay rights.
00:27:53He was for gay rights because that is a minority.
00:27:57But there's other minorities.
00:27:59There's handicapped people, there's senior citizens.
00:28:02And so there's more and more you start listening to him
00:28:07and getting involved with him
00:28:09because, gee, this is the kind of guy
00:28:10that is going to talk about you.
00:28:13Harvey said that if anyone solved the dog shit problem
00:28:18in the city, that they could be elected mayor.
00:28:21And so he started in the first month of being in City Hall
00:28:24to come up with some kind of ordinance
00:28:26to take care of dog shit.
00:28:28And he knew that the pooper scooper ordinance,
00:28:30along with a few other things,
00:28:32would really give him good press.
00:28:33He was a master at figuring out
00:28:36what would get him covered in the newspaper.
00:28:39And so the day of his press conference
00:28:42for the pooper scooper ordinance,
00:28:43he went out early and planted some shit on the lawn
00:28:47so that after his press conference
00:28:49he knew just where he was going to stand
00:28:51that he would step in it.
00:28:53Supervisor Milk took to the grassy lawn
00:28:55at DuBose Park this afternoon to publicize the new law.
00:28:59Under the ordinance, dog lovers who don't clean up can be fined.
00:29:02I think what happened is what happened in New York,
00:29:05that people use their own ingenuity,
00:29:07their own ideas, their own concepts.
00:29:09Some people are using their pie tins,
00:29:10some people are using the Wall Street Journal,
00:29:13and other people are using doggy-doos and shovels.
00:29:16Milk put his foot down to emphasize
00:29:18that the city intends to enforce,
00:29:20and you guessed it, in Supervisor Milk's words,
00:29:23this really is the bottom line.
00:29:25Harvey Milk's stand on which voting machine
00:29:28the city should purchase was a critical role.
00:29:33At that time, George Moscone favored Votomatic,
00:29:36and Harvey really was quite vocal,
00:29:39and he said the city should go with Votomatic
00:29:42because non-English speaking citizens,
00:29:45particularly those who are elderly
00:29:47and who have experienced discrimination,
00:29:49can exercise their right to vote
00:29:51in the most accessible manner.
00:29:53He locked heads with Quentin Kopp
00:29:57and Dianne Feinstein over the issue.
00:30:00And I was tremendously impressed
00:30:03because Harvey never once called us and said,
00:30:06is this the right machine for the Chinese community?
00:30:10He knew that it was the right machine,
00:30:12and he didn't have to call any one of us and say,
00:30:15gee, I want to remind you folks
00:30:17and I'm doing you this great favor
00:30:18and I want you to be indebted to me.
00:30:20The issue closest to Harvey Milk's heart
00:30:23was a gay rights bill for San Francisco.
00:30:25With the gay rights ordinance in San Francisco,
00:30:28the main focus is to prevent the people
00:30:32who are already employed who are gay,
00:30:35who if they want to come out and break down the stereotypes,
00:30:38prevent them from being fired.
00:30:40For example, you'll see in this gay day parade
00:30:44a group of at least 30 gay doctors.
00:30:47That is the tip of the iceberg.
00:30:50In the Bay Area there are hundreds
00:30:52and hundreds of gay doctors,
00:30:54most of them who are closeted
00:30:55because of a fear of loss of jobs.
00:30:57In San Francisco, they can, quote,
00:31:00come out and not have to worry about their jobs.
00:31:03And that's the main focus of our ordinance.
00:31:05Supervisor White says people are getting angry
00:31:08and he believes that anger could lead to a backlash
00:31:11that will wipe out all of the gains
00:31:13the gays have made thus far.
00:31:15You can have someone that's a transvestite,
00:31:17a man that for his sexual kicks or orientation,
00:31:21whatever you want to call it,
00:31:22loves to dress up as a woman.
00:31:24If he is a qualified teacher,
00:31:26he can go into any school
00:31:28or he can go into any business
00:31:29and they can't refuse him.
00:31:31Ten supervisors voted for the gay rights bill.
00:31:35Dan White cast the only dissenting vote.
00:31:39Mayor Moscone enthusiastically signed the bill into law.
00:31:44We got lots of hate mail.
00:31:47And it started out that the hate mail really upset me.
00:31:51Again, I just was not prepared for that at all.
00:31:54I mean, people saying awful, awful things.
00:31:57Just nasty, disgusting things.
00:32:01And it was Gay Freedom Day.
00:32:04And I was driving the car in the parade
00:32:06and Harvey was in it.
00:32:07I was terrified.
00:32:08And I was afraid someone was going to take a shot at him.
00:32:11And Harvey said it could happen any day,
00:32:14at any place, at any time.
00:32:16And I'm just not going to worry about it.
00:32:18The statement that the gay day parade is no more,
00:32:21no more we would be harassed.
00:32:22And I was worried about it.
00:32:23And I was worried about it.
00:32:25The statement that the gay day parade is no more,
00:32:28no more we would be harassed.
00:32:31We would be staying in our closet.
00:32:33The people from all over the state and all the country,
00:32:34for them to see 100, 200, 300, 400,000 gay people and friends
00:32:38marching through the downtown area.
00:32:40This is our city too.
00:32:44day-day parade is no more. No more we will be harassed. No more we will be staying in our closet.
00:32:49The people from all over the state and all the country, for them to see 100, 200, 300, 400,000
00:32:55gay people and friends marching through the downtown area, this is our city too. They will
00:33:01go back to Des Moines, Iowa, to Richmond, Minnesota, to Santa Cruz. They will go back and say, my God,
00:33:07300,000 gay people and their friends marching. You know, I almost think I saw my son there.
00:33:14Come on out!
00:33:27Just come on out!
00:33:35What did you see that you thought was obscene? Well, I see naked men walking around, naked women
00:33:39walking around, which doesn't bother me as far as my personal standards of nudity or
00:33:46what, but it's not proper. Many people do not approve of outward displays of sexuality, be
00:33:52it heterosexuality or homosexuality. And this is a point I stand firm on, and I think the
00:33:58gay community themselves would find hard to refute the statements I'm making now. And this
00:34:03is a problem. We wouldn't allow it for any other parade in San Francisco, and it should not be
00:34:07allowed for the gay parade. They want to bring their sin out of the closet and parade it on
00:34:12the street and be called respectable, decent, natural people. It's not decent. It's not
00:34:20respectable. It's not natural. And by the way, God doesn't make people that way. Don't blame God for
00:34:26that. Who wants the children? And I'll tell you who wants your children. The homosexual crowd
00:34:32wants them.
00:34:36In 1977 and 78, gay rights measures were being repealed across the United States.
00:34:44In California, lawmaker John Briggs took a further step. Every homosexual, every lesbian...
00:34:50John Briggs mounted a campaign for Proposition 6, a statewide measure to deny homosexuals their
00:34:57jobs in public schools. Now, what Proposition 6 is really all about is the right of parents
00:35:05to determine who will be teaching their children. We don't allow people who believe in practicing
00:35:12bestiality to teach our children. We don't let prostitutes teach our children. And the reason we don't
00:35:19is because it's illegal to be a prostitute. But it's not illegal to be a homosexual in California.
00:35:25Proposition 6 brought the issue of homosexuality into the homes of millions of Californians.
00:35:32And it thrust Harvey Milk into a statewide spotlight.
00:35:35There are already laws on the books to protect our children.
00:35:40Everybody from the superintendent of schools, Wilson Riles, to Jerry Brown, to newspaper editors
00:35:47across the state, agree that indeed we have the laws to protect our children.
00:35:52I was born of heterosexual parents. I was taught by heterosexual teachers in a fiercely heterosexual
00:35:59society with television ads and newspaper ads. Fiercely heterosexual. A society that puts down homosexuality.
00:36:07And why am I homosexual if I'm affected by role models? I should have been a heterosexual.
00:36:14And no offense meant, but if teachers are going to affect you as role models,
00:36:19there'd be a lot of nuns running around the streets today.
00:36:25Harvey knew that he had to have, or that the gay community had to have,
00:36:29some kind of a repository for money so that groups that were fighting the Briggs Initiative
00:36:34would have the, you know, could get funds in order to do the things that they had to do.
00:36:39And I ended up being his co-chair of the United Fund to fight the Briggs Initiative.
00:36:45And that began our association, which over those months, when Proposition 6 came into being,
00:36:51became a real close association. And I got to know him on a level that I had never anticipated.
00:36:57Well, nobody took Harvey Milk very seriously when he first ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
00:37:02in 1973. But last year, Milk won election to the Board of Supervisors, where he's the first openly
00:37:08gay city official in the United States. And representing the Bay Area Committee against the Briggs Initiative is
00:37:14Sally Gearhart. Gearhart is a lesbian, a former high school teacher, and now a speech professor at San
00:37:19Francisco State University. I remember that just before that debate, we had had a lot of talk Harvey
00:37:25and I about how we would dress. And we had agreed that the image that we wanted to project was sort of
00:37:30Mama and Papa USA, as neat and conservative as we possibly could. So a half hour before we start to
00:37:37leave for the television station, Harvey calls me and says, I've lost my earrings, dear. Whatever
00:37:43shall I do? Right. And I freak out thinking, oh, my soul. You yourself say that the heterosexual is the
00:37:49child molester. And if in your statements here in all these newspapers and tonight that child molestation
00:37:55is not an issue, if it is not an issue, why do you put out literature that hammers at home? Why do you play
00:38:01on that myth and fear? Same thing with VD, Harvey. We put out publications about VD so you can avoid it.
00:38:07This is campaign literature. Yes, we're trying to keep people from falling into that trap. We're trying to
00:38:11prevent it by pointing it out. And by the way, I don't make the statement that 95 percent of all
00:38:15the heterosexuals commit. What percent is it? I don't know. You tell me. The state says 90 to 95 percent.
00:38:20I've never seen that in writing. I don't make those statements. You do. But we're not. You even
00:38:24says here. We are not talking about child molestation. The fact is, at least 95 percent of
00:38:31the people are heterosexual. If we took heterosexuals out and homosexuals out, you know what? We'd have no
00:38:36teachers. We'd have no teachers. No child molestation. So you're saying that the percentage of
00:38:39population is equal to the percentage of child molestation. No. There's no difference.
00:38:43No, I'm not saying that at all. But that's what you just said. No, no. I'm saying that we cannot
00:38:46prevent child molestation. So let's cut our odds down and take out the homosexual group and keep in
00:38:52the heterosexual group. Why I take out the homosexual group is it is more than, you know, overwhelmingly it
00:38:58is true that it's the heterosexual men, I might add, who are the child molesters. I believe that's a myth.
00:39:04I've never seen, I've never seen those figures. Oh, the senators, the FBI, the National Council on
00:39:09Family Relations, the Santa Clara County Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Center, and on and on and on.
00:39:15Sometimes I think what we were faced with in proposition six was not so much a conflict of
00:39:20values as two sets of fears. The incredible fears that the gay community had, all of us,
00:39:27that here we were being stomped on by what was turning out to be the moral majority. I mean,
00:39:31our very lives were being, you know, threatened, the ways that we live, what our lifestyle is,
00:39:36and our reaction was extreme, and it should have been extreme. But then when you get into the other
00:39:41person's shoes, you figure that there was a lot of fear on the part of the fundamentalists as well.
00:39:46I mean, when you've lived your entire life believing in a certain social structure, believing in certain
00:39:53sex roles, believing in the ways that men and women should relate to each other, believing in the family,
00:39:59you know, believing in what God, what you believe God says, should be the way human beings should
00:40:06relate within the family structure. And all of a sudden, there are these perverts out here
00:40:13saying that there are ways to live that are different from that, and that furthermore it's
00:40:17great and beautiful and true and good, then you're threatened. And the very fabric of what this nation
00:40:22is supposed to be made up of, in the eyes of the fundamentalists, was actually being attacked,
00:40:29or is actually being attacked by gay people.
00:40:32You know about Prop 6?
00:40:33In August, four months before the election, opinion polls predicted that the majority of
00:40:39California citizens would vote for John Briggs' Proposition 6, and against the rights of gay teachers.
00:40:45What do you think about it?
00:40:46We had lost repeatedly. Every time the gay rights had been up for a vote, we had lost
00:40:50around the country, usually by huge margins. Almost everyone thought we were going to lose and lose
00:40:57badly. I don't remember anyone being optimistic. We were so pessimistic, or at least I was,
00:41:04and a lot of other people were, that we thought we might even lose San Francisco.
00:41:07Welcome Briggs' support lies in Southern California, so his appearance here was more
00:41:13symbolic than functional. He called San Francisco the moral garbage dump of the nation.
00:41:18If they're going to lead such an open life of homosexuality that they want, a 21-gun salute
00:41:24every time somebody goes by them, those people are going to be in danger of being removed from their
00:41:28job. People are very emotional. They don't want to listen. Look what happened in Germany. Now,
00:41:33Anita O'Brien already says that Jews and Muslims are going to hell. You know she's got a shopping list.
00:41:37John Briggs said this morning that Dade County, Oklahoma, and St. Paul, Minnesota,
00:41:42were only preliminary battles. He called his California campaign against homosexual teachers
00:41:48the main event. At San Francisco City Hall, Linda Schack, Channel 5 Eyewitness News.
00:41:55This was such a personal issue for me. This is something I did every day.
00:42:00And of course, the gay teacher issue is very volatile. They sit down with somebody who's a parent,
00:42:07and maybe not particularly vitriolic against people, but to really say, look, this is a myth.
00:42:11You know, like I've been teaching him for a long time. I'm not interested in getting in his pants.
00:42:14You know, people didn't want to hear it. You know, I mean, how do you
00:42:18win people over to your side on something that's, you know, so ingrained and so emotional? I mean,
00:42:23they're children. So even though he was a buffoon, and even though he was ludicrous,
00:42:27he was also, at least the people who advised him, you know, were brilliant,
00:42:31because they picked on this particular issue, children.
00:42:34Um, it would be hard for me, if we're talking about schools, to go along with you. I, any other
00:42:41adult thing that you do, the decorator, the hairdresser, whom I love, whom I have, I take
00:42:47him on every vacation that I had, I don't care what he does. You went to people's houses, and you
00:42:51talked to them, and a lot of times, and you didn't have to have a lot of money to do some of the things,
00:42:55or you went to shopping centers, because a lot of it was face to face. And this is a very brave thing.
00:42:59How are you? Uh, we're volunteers working against Proposition Six, the Briggs Initiative. Do you
00:43:05know about the Briggs Initiative? Uh, what is, uh, number six? Six. Smoking? No, that's, that's
00:43:11number five. That's five. Number six would force local school districts to fire any teacher that was
00:43:17gay, or who believed that gay people have rights like other people. And we're concerned that that
00:43:24would be a real attack on, on human rights for everybody. How do you feel about the initiative?
00:43:30on what you do now? Well, we don't know, have any definite opinion on it.
00:43:35No, no, no comment. Could I, could I leave some literature with you so you can learn a little
00:43:40bit more about it? Are you registered voters? Yes, I have registered already. Okay, great. Sorry.
00:43:46I believe this is, uh, kind of personal matter. It sure is, but, uh... Yeah, it's something that we feel
00:43:53real strongly about. A lot of, uh, you know, a lot of my friends are gay teachers and they'll lose
00:43:57their jobs over this. So I really wish you, you know, give, you know, give some thought to it
00:44:02because a lot of people will really be affected very badly by it. Yeah. It's also something where
00:44:06once you set up one kind of thing to discriminate against one group of people, lots of times it makes
00:44:11it easier to discriminate against other groups of people next time around.
00:44:13All right. Well, give it some thought. Okay.
00:44:16Okay. If by their silence and they're doing nothing, Briggs should win.
00:44:23I think a lot of people are going to realize they have to make an ultimate decision. The decision
00:44:27is to go back in their closet real good, slam the door tight, which some will do, or burst down those
00:44:34closet doors once and for all and stand up and start to fight. Because, uh, if we learn from history
00:44:40that the struggle goes on, the eventually we will win. And all the president has to do is, um, well,
00:44:47the governor is to turn the pages of history a little faster.
00:44:49Join me in this message. Jimmy Carter, listen to us. You want to lead? You want to be the world's
00:44:59leader in human rights? Well, damn it, lead! There are 15 million lesbians and gay men waiting to hear your voice.
00:45:13The grassroots no on six campaign was proving effective. One month before the election, the polls
00:45:22predicted a close vote. Many people had come to believe the Briggs initiative would violate
00:45:30constitutional rights. A surprising array of political figures, including former governor
00:45:36Ronald Reagan and supervisor Dan White, went on record against the proposition. President Carter
00:45:43spent less than an hour at this downtown Sacramento rally. As the president left the podium, Jerry Brown
00:45:50whispered to him briefly, and he came back for one more word of advice for voters. And Gordon Reagan
00:45:56already came out against him, so I think it's perfectly safe. I also want to ask everybody to vote against Proposition 6.
00:46:09On November 7, 1978, Proposition 6 was defeated by a resounding 59 to 41 percent.
00:46:17On election night, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk joined the jubilant celebration in the Castro.
00:46:27Harvey Milk was at the height of his political power.
00:46:34Oh, that was one of the most exciting nights in my life. I don't think there's any doubt about it. It must have been
00:46:42for most lesbians and gay men, at least in the state of California, because it wasn't plain even up until
00:46:49the evening of the of the vote that we were going to win. It wasn't plain at all. And then here was Harvey.
00:46:57And who had been the man who had carried the banner for gay people, you know? Who had been the man who had
00:47:03fought all along in his politics on the Board of Supervisors, but particularly during the the sixth
00:47:08campaign. It had been Harvey. He had been the symbol for all of us. He had been the image,
00:47:13and he mounted that platform. And I thought the place was going to collapse. I never heard such
00:47:19cheering in on my life. To the gay community all over the state, my message to you is so far a lot of
00:47:28people joined us and rejected Proposition 6, and now we owe them something. We owe them to continue the
00:47:38education campaign that took place. We must destroy the myths once and for all, shatter them. We must
00:47:46continue to speak out. And most importantly, most importantly, every gay person must come out.
00:47:58As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family, you must tell your relatives,
00:48:05you must tell your friends, if indeed they are your friends, you must tell your neighbors, you must tell
00:48:11the people you work with, you must tell the people in the stores you shop in, you...
00:48:26And once they realize that we are indeed their children, and we are indeed everywhere,
00:48:32every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all. And once you do,
00:48:42you will feel so much better.
00:48:54Four days after the Briggs initiative lost, Dan White engineered his own defeat. Surprising
00:49:01everyone, he resigned from the Board of Supervisors. In the last year, Dan White had left a secure job as a
00:49:08fireman, been elected a city supervisor for little pay, launched a risky new business, and become a
00:49:15father for the first time. Dan White had entered City Hall an idealist. Unlike his flourishing counterpart,
00:49:23Harvey Milk, he was often frustrated by the job. White had never learned to operate in City Hall's
00:49:29atmosphere of back scratching and compromise. White's resignation left Mayor Moscone with the task of
00:49:37finding a replacement. Mr. Mayor, what's happened since Dan White has resigned? I understand you've
00:49:45been getting a lot of phone calls and such. The phone calls and cards and letters have been coming.
00:49:49I will tell you, as Dean Martin used to say, I was lobbied from just about the evening that Dan White resigned,
00:49:56all the way through the weekend, and the phones have been ringing off the hook today.
00:50:00This is Supervisorial District 8, Dan White's former district. As you know,
00:50:05most people were very surprised when Dan quit last Friday. No one seemed to know. He didn't tell any of
00:50:10his fellow supervisors, nor did he tell any of his political supporters. Obviously, you know, if
00:50:15the time I spent to become elected, the time I spent down at the board, the hours, the many hours I've spent,
00:50:20uh, I don't want to see wasted. But for now, uh, I can only deal with my family's responsibilities.
00:50:27Many don't agree with Dan White. They say he gave up all of his political chits when he resigned so
00:50:31quickly without making any arrangements for someone whom he liked and supported to take over this
00:50:36district. In Supervisor District 8, I'm David Fowler, Channel 5 Eyewitness News.
00:50:41Well, now it starts all over again, because this morning, former Supervisor Dan White says he wants
00:50:48to be called Supervisor one more time.
00:50:52I didn't run for election to resign 10 months later. I worked awfully hard. My wife and my supporters
00:50:57worked awfully hard, uh, so that I would be elected. And it was a major decision, as you can all understand,
00:51:03on Friday that I had to come, uh, to arrive at. But since that time, uh, people unknown to me, plus my
00:51:09family and friends, uh, have come to me and stated that they want me to stay in office, that they supported
00:51:15me to stay in office. Mayor Moscone learned from the city attorney that Dan White could not take back
00:51:20his resignation. It was up to the mayor to decide who would get the District 8 seat. Harvey Milk lobbied
00:51:29hard against reappointing Dan White. Harvey's story was that the mayor was thinking of reappointing Dan,
00:51:37and that Harvey went in and said, how can you possibly do that? Dan is the sixth vote on the board we need.
00:51:43And certainly Harvey was courageous in that stance, because no one else was doing it. And there were
00:51:48other supervisors on the board who felt just as strongly, but they weren't going to get involved in
00:51:53that. I mean, what if Dan got reappointed? You know, think of the animosity.
00:51:59Moscone started to get word from his coalition of neighborhood groups and ethnic voters.
00:52:04Most of the problems of the people here tonight were that they were not consulted.
00:52:08They might have helped, and the fact that they weren't even given the dignity of, uh, of, uh,
00:52:12his concern bothered him. So that's obviously not the best way to go. I think a 10-month
00:52:17supervisor can be excused for political naivete. I'm simply saying that it may not have been the best
00:52:23way to go, but the issue is bigger than his style. The issue is what's fair, right, and just for the
00:52:29people of the District 8. White was at City Hall with his group of backers, some citizens, firemen,
00:52:36and a delegation representing large real estate firms. I'm overwhelmed that your support that
00:52:41you would take time out, you know, to come down here on a Friday at this time, uh, to show not only
00:52:46me but the people of my District and the people of San Francisco, uh, that you approve of the way I'm
00:52:51conducting myself. But then Dan White and the shambles of his political career were upstaged by
00:52:57chaos of an entirely different order. The city learned of the murder-suicide of some 900 people,
00:53:05most of them San Franciscans, in Jonestown, Guiana.
00:53:11On Monday, November 27th, Mayor Moscone planned to announce District 8's new supervisor.
00:53:18It was not going to be Dan White.
00:53:22Good evening to outsiders and even to some San Franciscans. It must appear the city has gone
00:53:27a little insane. Just as everyone is beginning to come to grips with the mindless murder-suicide
00:53:33of over 900 members of the San Francisco-based People's Temple, word screams out over the radio,
00:53:38the television, the newspapers, that another tragedy is upon us.
00:53:49Code 3, room 200. Come in the mayor's office.
00:53:57Okay, everyone. 1023 for one moment. We're trying to ascertain what is happening.
00:54:03Room 237, please.
00:54:06Get an ambulance over here. A unit over here.
00:54:08Yeah, where are the victims going? I don't know if they're going anywhere.
00:54:19They're supposed to be Harvey Milk and the mayor is supposed to be DOA.
00:54:24As president of the board,
00:54:25it's my duty to make this announcement. Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk
00:54:40have been shot and killed.
00:54:42Oh! Jesus Christ!
00:54:44The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.
00:55:02Is he in custody?
00:55:06He's not at this time. Thank you very much.
00:55:08No question.
00:55:08Attention all units. Suspect named Dan White.
00:55:13White male adult. 32 years.
00:55:16Six feet. 185 pounds.
00:55:19On a three-piece brown suit.
00:55:21Considered armed and dangerous.
00:55:30Attention all units. Former Supervisor Dan White is now in custody.
00:55:33Repeating. Former Supervisor Dan White is now in custody.
00:55:37KMA 438, clear.
00:55:40Dan, why are we doing it?
00:55:43Dan, why? Why?
00:55:45Why?
00:55:58Okay, that's it. That's it. That's it.
00:55:59That's it.
00:56:00At approximately 10.45 a.m., realizing he was not going to be reappointed,
00:56:08Dan White went directly to the mayor's office, unannounced.
00:56:13There was a brief argument. Dan White pulled out a gun and shot George Moscone.
00:56:19The mayor fell, and White fired two more bullets into his head.
00:56:25White then reloaded his gun. He walked to the other side of City Hall and into Harvey Milk's office.
00:56:32Five shots rang out. According to the coroner's report, Harvey Milk was rising, both hands out in front of him when the first shot hit.
00:56:41He fell. White fired three more times. He leaned over, and from above, put the gun nearly against Harvey Milk's head and fired. A last time.
00:56:53The day that Harvey was killed, I was flying up to Seattle to visit my folks.
00:57:03And it's really, I think it was the first time I had seen them since our talk about coming out.
00:57:12I got on the plane at 11.15 in San Francisco. Harvey was killed at 11.10, but I had no idea.
00:57:20And so I screamed, and I came back up Van Ness Avenue, and I remember thinking,
00:57:24people are going about their business in an ordinary way. How dare they go about their business in an ordinary way?
00:57:29Don't you realize the course of history has been changed?
00:57:32We had a black and white television, and we turned it on in the office, and I think it was just too painful.
00:57:39You know, I mean, it was clear that he was, both of them were dead, brutally assassinated, and I, you know, I,
00:57:47you know, I walked out of the office.
00:57:57And I had the radio on, and the guy came on, and he said it with such a certitude, you know,
00:58:04like sometimes, you know, you hear things on the news, and they're not going to be true.
00:58:06And he just said it, and I knew it was true. In fact, I, it's interesting, later I thought,
00:58:11but I've always kind of thought this might happen, and never dwelled on it, or, and here it was happening.
00:58:16You know, Harvey Milk and, uh, uh, George Bascotti were shot, and killed by damn right.
00:58:22And I just screamed, went, no! Like that, it just kind of came out, and people looked,
00:58:25but I had a feeling that people knew why I was screaming. So I drove down to City Hall.
00:58:29I mean, I wasn't going to sit here and go crazy. And, uh, in, in looking for parking, I had to park far away.
00:58:33So I walked past this entrance that I ordinarily would not walk, uh, you know, past. And, uh,
00:58:39they were bringing out, uh, the body's dead, which, you know, it kind of, uh, well, I mean,
00:58:45you know, you can think somebody's dead, but, I mean, there, and I knew it was Milk because I knew
00:58:49how tall he was, you know, and, uh, they hadn't covered, uh, you know, part of his feet or something.
00:58:54And, uh, you know, you trip out on different things, and you think, God, what a Bigfoot Harvey.
00:58:57I never really said such a Bigfoot. And, uh, so, um, then I, I went around to, to City Hall,
00:59:03in the front, and there were these, um, a lot of media people. And, uh, the thing, the thing that
00:59:10struck me the most was, I don't know, I guess, again, this expressive Southern Italian background
00:59:14I have, you know, I don't know, I saw people going, ah, but instead it was quiet. It was silent.
00:59:33We got back, and my roommate picked us up to the airport, and he said,
00:59:40there's going to be a candlelight march. Do you want to go to it? And we said, of course.
00:59:44So he said, well, by now it's probably reached City Hall, so we drove directly from the airport
00:59:48to City Hall. And there were maybe 75 people there. And I remember thinking, my God, is this all that
00:59:54anybody cared, you know? And, um, somebody said, no, the march hasn't gotten here yet. So we
01:00:03then walked over to Market Street, which is two or three blocks away, and looked down,
01:00:08and Market Street runs in a straight line out to the Castro area. Um, and as we turned the corner,
01:00:15there were people, um, as wide as this wide street, as far as you could see.
01:00:45Thousands and thousands of people, and that feeling of such loss, having lost someone who was so
01:01:07important and something, you know, Harvey stood for something more than just him.
01:01:15A combination of, uh, Harvey and Kilbin, a combination of going down with all those people,
01:01:36uh, I don't know if you call it expressing your grief or what it was, but being with all those people,
01:01:42uh, it's nighttime in San Francisco, and a bunch of strangers around you, and you feel as safe as
01:01:48if you're doing your own home.
01:01:50And there was this black man, uh, on the corner of whatever, Noe there, and he kept shouting,
01:02:17Where is your anger? Where is your anger? Where is your anger? And, you know, I didn't know where it was.
01:02:23I think that all of us at that time were in such a, uh, uh, a state of shock, you know, that, um,
01:02:30uh, I don't know if it was numbed or we were, uh, I guess certainly I was angry, but it, it, it seemed appropriate to do this,
01:02:38uh, I don't know, you know, peaceful kind of internalized thing, and out of some kind of respect for the enormity of what happened.
01:02:46It was one of the most eloquent expressions of a community's response to violence that I've ever seen.
01:02:52And, uh, I think we as lesbians and gay men and all of the straight people who were marching with us that night,
01:02:59and there were thousands, uh, I think we said it. I think we said a message to the nation that night about what our immediate response was.
01:03:08Not violence, but a certain, uh, respect for Harvey and, and a, and a deep, a deep regret and feeling of tragedy about it.
01:03:20Because Moscone had been our friend as well.
01:03:22And then going down to City Hall, that tremendous expanse of people.
01:03:39And I turned to John and I said, Harvey would have loved this.
01:03:43When we kind of tried to get close to the stage and I saw friends up there and I thought, oh, I just can't go face anybody.
01:03:49You know, I started to cry and everyone started to cry.
01:03:52It was just, it was just so touching.
01:03:54I'm going to start to cry now.
01:03:56But the, um, there's a statue down there and everyone put candles.
01:04:13You know, several people right that following week came out of the closet because they had been there.
01:04:18And they had seen, you know, all of the people and they had felt that they had been living a lie.
01:04:27Sorry, bitter stuff.
01:04:28I don't know if I can, they really felt, uh, so moved that they came out to people and said, did you know that I, that I'm gay?
01:04:37And, um, I was so touched by it because that's what Harvey said stood for.
01:04:44And then it took his death for, for them to, to realize that, that they, that they, they just came out.
01:04:51No one would fire them from their jobs because it's against the law and they could still live a life.
01:04:56And they could still live a life.
01:04:57And yet that part of our society, this is very closed could open.
01:05:01. . . .
01:05:10. . . .
01:05:15To be continued...
01:05:45On January 30th, George Moscone's funeral was held at St. Mary's Cathedral.
01:05:51On Saturday, December 2nd, Harvey Milk's ashes were scattered into the Pacific by his friends.
01:06:06Today we went looking for clues to why White would kill the mayor who refused to reappoint him to his post
01:06:12and a supervisor who opposed him politically.
01:06:15We didn't find any.
01:06:17For many years, the Whites lived on London Street in the southeast sector of San Francisco,
01:06:22which White served during his few months on the board and where he was raised.
01:06:26Among their neighbors on London Street were the Cooks.
01:06:29I don't know.
01:06:31I don't know.
01:06:31He must have went off to deep end or something because he was just a nice guy.
01:06:37Did he ever show any signs of crack?
01:06:38No.
01:06:39No.
01:06:40He was an all-American boy as far as I was concerned.
01:06:43I never did see him really argue with anybody.
01:06:45I think he was a very family-oriented man, Catholic.
01:06:48He went to church all the time.
01:06:50He was very devoted to the job.
01:06:53And I don't think he had any grudge towards anybody.
01:06:56I don't think anybody disliked him that I knew of.
01:06:58Everybody back up, please.
01:07:00Five months after the assassinations, Dan White went on trial.
01:07:07Couldn't see how the trial would last more than a day.
01:07:11Such a cut-and-dried thing.
01:07:14You know, you follow the newspapers, but no big deal.
01:07:18He was automatically going to be guilty and go to San Quentin the rest of his life.
01:07:23Anybody knew that.
01:07:24As the trial and the jury selection started,
01:07:34I sort of developed this sense of doom
01:07:38that justice was not going to prevail
01:07:41because the jury selection process
01:07:45excluded gay people,
01:07:49minority residents,
01:07:50and anyone who may have had
01:07:52a political point of view
01:07:55that would be different from Dan White.
01:07:58And I don't want to knock the jury system
01:08:00because I do believe in the jury system.
01:08:04But once you knock all these people out,
01:08:08what does that leave you with?
01:08:10We had turned this over to be taken care of
01:08:12to a system that was actually, in many ways,
01:08:16responsible for these assassinations.
01:08:18So there's this little feeling in your stomach, you know,
01:08:20when you get afraid and you think,
01:08:22well, what am I going to do?
01:08:23You know, personally, what are we going to do?
01:08:24I mean, he's in the hands of the cops.
01:08:26The prosecution argued a simple motive, revenge.
01:08:31Detailing the facts of the crime,
01:08:33the state spent three days proving that Dan White committed the murders.
01:08:38White's own lawyers had already admitted this in their opening statement.
01:08:42To prove its case,
01:08:45the prosecution played a tape of Dan White's confession.
01:08:49But the tactic backfired.
01:08:52Some of the jurors wept in sympathy for White.
01:08:55I've been under an awful lot of pressure lately.
01:08:59Financial pressure because of my job situation.
01:09:05Family pressure.
01:09:07Not being able to have the time with my family.
01:09:11The man never called me.
01:09:14He told me he was going to call me before he made any decision.
01:09:17He never did that.
01:09:19It was only on my own initiative when I went down today to speak with him.
01:09:24I was troubled.
01:09:29The pressure of my family came.
01:09:32My son's out to a babysitter.
01:09:35My wife's got to work.
01:09:37Long hours.
01:09:40You know, I just was going to the mayor to see if he was going to reappoint me.
01:09:46Just all the time knowing he's going to go out and lie to the press and tell him.
01:09:51You know, I wasn't a good supervisor and that people didn't want me.
01:09:55And then that was it.
01:09:58Then I just shot him.
01:10:02And then it struck me about what Harvey had tried to do.
01:10:06And I said, well, I'll go talk to him.
01:10:09I said, you know, at least maybe he'll be honest with me.
01:10:12And he was all smiles and stuff.
01:10:14And I went in.
01:10:14Well, he knew I was going to be in the morning.
01:10:17And he just kind of smirked at me.
01:10:22I said, say, too bad.
01:10:26And then I just got all flushed and hot.
01:10:32And I shot him.
01:10:34Now, if Dan White wants to save himself from the death penalty, he's going to have to prove that he didn't plan to kill anyone that day.
01:10:43Prosecutors say he did premeditate the murders because on that day, he put his gun on and he put a bunch of extra bullets into his pocket.
01:10:50Then he got into City Hall here by climbing in this window, knowing that he couldn't get his gun past the metal detector in the main entrance.
01:10:58Prosecutors say this shows he was planning to do something suspicious.
01:11:03Now, White's lawyer claims it's common for people to try to get into City Hall this way, that Dan White was only carrying a gun to protect himself,
01:11:10and that other supervisors, including Feinstein, have carried guns for protection.
01:11:15But if he was only trying to protect himself that day, why did he put all those extra bullets into his pocket?
01:11:22It will be interesting to see how the defense tries to explain that.
01:11:25You told the jury that although he had the gun with him, the .38, he had no intention of shooting anyone at City Hall.
01:11:33Is that correct?
01:11:34That's correct.
01:11:35And that other supervisors carried weapons with permits?
01:11:40That's correct.
01:11:40Well, I didn't mention with permits, but I did say that other supervisors and perhaps other City Hall personnel do carry firearms presently and have carried them in the past.
01:11:49Do you know if the other people who do carry weapons also carry 10 extra rounds in their pockets?
01:11:54I think ex-police officers and certainly police officers on or off-duty carry extra ammunition, yes.
01:12:03And that is also why you say he reloaded after shooting Mayor Moscone?
01:12:08That is what I said, yes.
01:12:10Clarify that, though, because of his experience as an ex-police officer.
01:12:13Yes, I think it was more instinctive than anything else.
01:12:17White was portrayed as an idealist, disgusted with the corruption of politics, a man who felt the city was deteriorating as a decent place for San Franciscans to live.
01:12:28Defense attorney Doug Schmidt told the jury, good people, fine people with fine backgrounds simply don't kill people in cold blood.
01:12:39It just doesn't happen.
01:12:42A key witness for the defense was Dan White's wife, Mary Ann.
01:12:46I knew the types of pressure that Danny was under.
01:12:53I felt the pressure myself.
01:12:56And I think when this occurred, I felt more for Danny than I did for myself or anyone else.
01:13:03I really did.
01:13:03I just felt so much that I wanted to do something for him.
01:13:06Do you foresee a point in the future where your life can return to some degree of normalcy?
01:13:13Oh, yes.
01:13:15I firmly believe that there's something for us good that will come out of this.
01:13:23White's lawyers introduced the testimony of five psychiatrists to prove that he acted while in a state of severe depression,
01:13:31induced in part by consuming too much junk food.
01:13:34His attorneys argued that he had killed Moscone and Milk in the heat of the moment
01:13:40and that under the law, charges against him should be reduced from murder to manslaughter.
01:13:47The trial concluded in just 11 days.
01:13:51You do expect surprises and to be ready and open-minded for surprises.
01:13:56Shocking fact that he did this.
01:13:59They might also have the shocking fact that there was some extenuating circumstances
01:14:03or some reason why he was innocent.
01:14:05So you're ready for that kind of possibility.
01:14:08But I thought he might get the chair.
01:14:11I remember rushing out of the courtroom and the news was on live waiting for the verdict.
01:14:15And I remember thinking to myself, try to look like you're not so shocked.
01:14:19White murder trial, Janine Yeomans, right here.
01:14:21What is it?
01:14:21Yes, the jury has found Dan White guilty of voluntary manslaughter
01:14:25in the killings of both George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
01:14:29That's a verdict that carries two, three, or four years on each of those counts.
01:14:34He also could receive two years each for using a gun in the commission of the crime.
01:14:39And once again to repeat, that is the verdict that White's attorney, Doug Schmidt,
01:14:43had asked the jury to return.
01:14:44Dan White could now receive anywhere from four to 12 years in prison
01:14:48with a possibility of parole after two-thirds of the sentence.
01:14:52We have received a word that a demonstration has been called for 8 o'clock this evening
01:14:55in front of City Hall to protest the Dan White verdict.
01:15:00I was really outraged.
01:15:02And I was going to go down to City Hall.
01:15:06And I didn't go to City Hall because I had to run home to take care of our kids.
01:15:11But I had this strong sense.
01:15:13I said, you know, someone has to say something.
01:15:16That's our justice system. He got away with it.
01:15:19Eight years.
01:15:20If you kill a public official, especially if I did, what would I get?
01:15:23I'm an old lady. I won't be here very much longer.
01:15:27And I would not like to be here and see him walking the streets.
01:15:31You don't want him to get out?
01:15:32No. After killing two men. No.
01:15:35It was a challenge to your own personal value system.
01:15:38Again, well, you know, politically correct, I'm against capital punishment.
01:15:41I mean, my goodness.
01:15:42And then all of a sudden, you know, all you want is blood revenge.
01:15:45Certain people who were considered leaders, certain men and women of the gay community
01:15:48who were saying, now, now, calm down.
01:15:50You know, justice will be served.
01:15:52Oh, come on. Stop it. Stop it.
01:15:55City Hall, City Hall, City Hall.
01:15:57You know, it was like a beat, a rhythm.
01:15:59And going down Market Street, disrupting traffic.
01:16:02We want justice.
01:16:24We want justice.
01:16:24The people united will never be defeated.
01:16:30The people united.
01:16:34Almost like a terrible situation.
01:16:37Get in touch with all of this state.
01:16:38Just find out if you've got any more squads.
01:16:40Send me more help.
01:16:41Go for fire!
01:16:43Go for fire!
01:16:45Go for fire!
01:16:51Right by 1120, things have gone from good to bad
01:16:54to good and to very bad.
01:16:56There is a narrow perimeter of shaky policemen
01:16:58on my left over here in front of City Hall.
01:17:01Behind them are the demonstrators
01:17:02and sometimes in the midst of them are the demonstrators.
01:17:04Every once in a while a demonstrator, a protester,
01:17:06will come out of the crowd,
01:17:07throw a piece of burning material into a police car
01:17:10and start it on fire.
01:17:24You'll get a brick in the head
01:17:31and you'll never know what hits you.
01:17:33If you look that way, you can see it coming
01:17:35and get out of the way.
01:17:40What we have tonight is a mob out of control.
01:17:44I think it's a tragedy.
01:17:45I think it's going to set back the fight for human rights
01:17:49a great deal and I must tell you
01:17:53that if persons are arrested for the crimes
01:17:55that have been committed tonight,
01:17:57my office is going to prosecute them
01:17:58to the fullest extent of the law.
01:17:59If you remember, the violence that started all this
01:18:02was Dan White's violence.
01:18:04I feel that the jury was violent this afternoon
01:18:06by treating Dan White in a way
01:18:09that nobody is ever going to believe
01:18:10they would have treated a black person
01:18:12or a gay person
01:18:13or someone who did not fit Dan Type's image.
01:18:16they were saying that the spirit of Dan White
01:18:19with all of its pettiness, all of its meanness
01:18:21and all of its violence right below the surface
01:18:23is okay.
01:18:25And in so doing, we're very violently attacking
01:18:28the memory of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
01:18:31We're reacting with anger because we are angry.
01:18:46And we're in fine ways.
01:18:49We're dealing with anger because we are tied to him
01:18:51and gently attacking and the vitamin
01:19:04and USB-CAM falando specifically.
01:19:07We're dealing with anger because
01:19:08we aren't even living with anger.
01:19:10Don't dare Pokemons
01:19:12People were outraged because it was property, you know, this great institution of the free
01:19:27world.
01:19:28We dared.
01:19:29You know, you can replace a goddamn glass door, you can replace a chandelier, right?
01:19:34You can replace a police car, but you can't replace Harvey.
01:19:42Feeling the rage and the extreme emotions that seem to be coming from all of those folks,
01:19:51I was right with them.
01:19:53I was right with them in saying, you know, there is no justice, you know, here today and
01:20:00anything that we do is absolutely fine.
01:20:02And then I thought, you know, that's not it.
01:20:05That's not the way.
01:20:07And something of a bit of a cooler head came upon me.
01:20:11I guess I thought about Harvey, who had said many times that he didn't want violence to
01:20:15follow in the footsteps of anything, you know, that happened to him.
01:20:18What the verdict did to our sensitivity was to say, you know, it's not important to be civil
01:20:23in American society.
01:20:24And it's not important to honor other people's rights as long as you are white.
01:20:28and you uphold certain white middle-class rights as long as you are white.
01:20:29And you uphold certain white middle-class rights as long as you are white.
01:20:33and you uphold certain white middle-class values because you're going to get away with murder.
01:20:38You're going to be condoned.
01:20:39You're going to be condoned.
01:20:40I think if it had just been Moscone that got killed, I think he would have been guilty of
01:20:44murder.
01:20:45And, uh, been in San Quentin the rest of his life.
01:20:46But, sad to say, I think that it wasn't just the risk of murder.
01:20:47And you'd have been guilty of murder.
01:20:48And it's not the right to be civil in American society.
01:20:49And it's not important to honor other people's rights as long as you are white and you uphold certain white middle-class values.
01:20:58values because you're going to get away with murder you're going to be condoned i think if
01:21:02it have just been musconi that got killed i think he would have been guilty of murder and
01:21:10been in san quentin the rest of his life but sad to say i think there's a lot of people in this
01:21:16world that still think if you if you kill a gay you're doing a service to society i think i'd
01:21:24have felt that way too if i hadn't been associated with harvey and and the gay community i probably
01:21:30would have felt the same way it was up till that time i thought that the guy that was gay was just
01:21:37he's not uh you know he's not us and uh remember i used to hear the the cops would go into gay bars
01:21:47years ago and kind of rough up the gays and i thought what's wrong with that you know that's
01:21:53that's okay and i think majority of people felt that way and i think a lot of people still feel
01:21:59the same way and it's a shame dan white was released from prison on january 7 1984. he served five and a
01:22:10half years and received no psychiatric treatment in prison
01:22:14somewhere in des moines or san antonio there's a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that
01:22:27she or he is gay knows that if the parents find out to be tossed out of the house the classmates
01:22:35were torrent the child and the anita bryans and john briggs are doing their bit on tv and that child
01:22:42had several options staying in a closet suicide and then one day that child might open up the paper
01:22:49and it says homosexual elected from san francisco and there are two new options the option is to go to
01:22:55california
01:23:02stay in san antonio and fight two days after i was elected i got a phone call
01:23:08and the voice was quite young it was from altoona pennsylvania and the person said thanks
01:23:17and you've got to elect gay people so that that young child and the thousands upon thousands like
01:23:25that child know that there's hope for a better world there's hope for a better tomorrow without
01:23:33hope not only gays but those blacks and the asians the disabled seniors the usses the usses without
01:23:45hope the usses give up i know that you cannot live on hope alone but without it life is not worth living
01:23:53and you and you and you and you you've got to give them hope thank you very much
01:24:12you
01:24:23you
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