I realize that this timeline doesn't look "brief." But it WILL when you see the full timeline at the Lambda Archives!
1917. An ordinance is passed that prohibits sexual activity within the city limits of San Diego, except between husband and wife.
1920s & 1930s. Visitors to Alpine find Julian Eltinge, a respected actor and one of the world’s most renowned female impersonators.
1968. Lesbian enlisted person, Diann Pierce, declares her homosexuality to Navy officials in San Diego and is dishonorably discharged. After lengthy court proceedings, Pierce’s discharge is upgraded to honorable due to her excellent Naval record.
1970. The Women’s Studies Department is founded at San Diego State College. It is thought to be the first such department in U.S. academia.
1971. Gay Liberation Front, founded at San Diego State College, pickets the San Diego Police Department to protest police harassment of gays. It is one of the first organized public gay demonstrations in San Diego.
1974. Two hundred men and women march through downtown San Diego to publicly proclaim they are gay. This is the beginning of the San Diego Pride Parade.
1979. On August 23, Assistant Chief of Police Bob Burgreen announces that San Diego will hire qualified gay and lesbian persons as officers.
Al Best runs for San Diego City Council as the first openly gay candidate for elected office in San Diego. He finishes fifth out of eleven.
First-year SDSU professor Bonnie Zimmerman teaches an experimental class in the Department of Women’s Studies on "Lesbian Life and Literature."
1983. Blood Sisters is founded by the San Diego Democratic Club. The donations of blood create credits for blood to be given to people with AIDS. Nearly 200 lesbians give blood in response to news that gay men are no longer allowed to donate.
1987. The Archives is founded in December to “preserve and teach our history.” It is later renamed Lambda Archives.
1988. As part of its nationwide tour, the Names Project’s AIDS Memorial Quilt comes to San Diego on April 12 and is visited by thousands at Golden Hall.
1990. Frank Buttino, an FBI agent in San Diego for 20 years, has his security clearance revoked in May and is fired for being gay. The Bureau refuses to consider his exemplary record and fires him citing “exploitable sexual conduct.”
Police officer John Graham comes out to the press in October. A highly respected officer, Graham says he felt it was important to come out so that gay men and lesbians could see that they could become successful police officers.
1991. After the murder of John Wear in Hillcrest, The Citizen’s Patrol is founded to protect gays and lesbians from violent acts.
1992. After he comes out publicly as a gay man, El Cajon police officer Chuck Merino is notified by the local council of the Boy Scouts that he is no longer welcome in its program because he does not meet their “high standards for membership.”
Despite a show of opposition, the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education approves a policy prohibiting discrimination against both employees and students based on sexual orientation.
1993. One hundred demonstrators march in Balboa Park on July 4th to protest the ban on gays in the military. Some march in uniform; some wear paper bags over their heads to conceal their identities.
Seventy lesbian and gay couples are joined in a Celebration of Commitment ceremony in Balboa Park on October 11, National Coming Out Day.
1994. The city of San Diego extends domestic partner benefits to all city employees.
A teacher at Oak Park Elementary School reprimanded and then transferred after she explained to her class that gay students do not deserve to be the victims of physical violence.
1997. San Diego Pride for the first time attracts more than 100,000 spectators and makes the front page of the Union-Tribune.
1998. San Diego's 1966 Cross-dressing Law that made it illegal to dress in the clothing of the opposite sex is repealed with a 7-1 vote. The one dissenter, George Stevens, says, "The issue to me is deception. It is a very dangerous thing to cross-dress."
1999. A homophobic observer at the Pride Parade hurls a tear-gas canister at the Family Pride contingent in the parade and then escapes into the crowd.
2000. Openly lesbian Christine Kehoe and Toni Atkins win elections. Kehoe moves to the State assembly and Atkins replaces her as Third District Councilperson.
2001. Bonnie Dumanis is elected District Attorney for San Diego County and becomes the first openly gay or lesbian district attorney ever elected in the United States.
The Union-Tribune publishes its first same-sex anniversary announcement in its “Celebrations” section recognizing the silver anniversary of David Rea and Harry Sillen, the owners of David’s Coffee House in Hillcrest.
2003. Guadalupe Benitez is denied fertility treatments by the North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group of Vista because she is a lesbian.
2004. The San Diego LGBT Community Wall of Honor is the nation’s only LGBT community memorial display dedicated to honoring and remembering important local LGBT community members.
2005. Mayor Steve Padilla of Chula Vista comes out publicly as a gay man.
2008. Former Marine Sgt. Bob Lehman and City Commissioner Tom Felkner make history as the first same sex couple to get married in San Diego on June 17th.
2007. "Pride Night" is declared at Petco Park as part of the festivities for Pride Week. Despite protestors gathered outside, "Pride Night" attendance is near capacity. The Padres beat the Braves 8-5.
San Diego Pride honors John Dapper and Lyman Hallowell who celebrate their 63rd anniversary, and Donna Phillips and Gladys Langsford who celebrate their 45th.
On November 15, tens of thousands of people take to the streets across America in protest of the passing of Proposition 8 in California. The largest march takes place in San Diego with an estimated 15,000 participants.
2009. A noisy five-hour sit-in at the county clerk’s office is launched when a gay couple is denied a marriage license.
The first Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast attracts a thousand people on Friday, May 22.
For more information on LGBTQ history, including more San Diego history, visit http://lambdaarchives.org.
Showing posts with label LGBTQ History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LGBTQ History. Show all posts
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Harvey Milk: A Timeline
May 22, 1930. Harvey Bernard Milk is born in Woodmere, New York.
1943-1947. Harvey attends Bay Shore High School. He is a basketball player, a linebacker on the football team, and is popular with everyone because of his quick wit and sense of humor. He knows he is gay, but is in the closet. Living so close to Fire Island and New York City, Harvey finds many opportunities to meet other gay young men.
1947-1951. Harvey attends New York State Teachers College at Albany and earns a degree in Mathematics. No one suspects him of being gay. He is described as a “man’s man.”
1951-1955. Harvey serves in the Navy and is an expert deep sea diver on the San Diego-based U.S.S. Kittiwake. He is honorably discharged. Loving a good story, Harvey never contradicts the rumor that emerged during his campaign – that he was dishonorably discharged (like so many others) for being gay.
1956. Milk meets Joe Campbell, a beautiful younger man, whom Harvey courts with love letters. They will be together for six years – Harvey’s longest relationship. Joe Campbell is later immortalized as the “Sugar Plum Fairy” in Lou Reed’s song “Walk on the Wild Side.”
1957-1961. While Joe stays at home as a typical “housewife,” Harvey works as a high school math teacher and basketball coach at Hewlitt High School in New York. When he tires of teaching, he becomes an actuary.
1962. Harvey stops seeing Craig Rodwell, a man he is dating, when he realizes Craig is involved with fighting for gay rights. Harvey prefers to live a peaceful, closeted life.
1963. Harvey begins working in a Wall Street investment firm. His math skills, his quick thinking, and his ability to visualize and predict social trends, enable Harvey’s success. He settles into a new short-lived “marriage” with Jack McKinley, a stage manager for Hair.
1970. After nearly a decade of living with the influence of young hippies, Harvey is fired from his job in finance when he refuses to cut his long hair and burns his BankAmericacard. Craig Rodwell hardly recognizes his formerly conservative friend.
1972. Harvey and his new boyfriend, Scott Smith, move to the Castro in San Francisco. The neighborhood has been a gay mecca for less than a decade.
March 1973. Harvey opens Castro Camera with Scott. The store becomes a place that people go for help. Cleve Jones says, Harvey “was just always helping people, fixing problems.”
1973. Harvey helps the Teamsters union with their Coors boycott, convincing all Castro bar owners to remove the beer – in exchange for jobs for gay deliverymen.
November 1973. Angry about the way San Francisco is seemingly controlled by real estate moguls and huge corporations, Harvey runs for supervisor for the first time. He is not backed by most of the gay political clubs and organizations that think that Harvey wants too much, too soon. He loses.
1974. Harvey organizes the Castro Village Association of local merchants, and helps launch the first Castro Street Fair.
November 8, 1977. Milk is elected to the Board of Supervisors for District 5 in his fourth run for elected office. He is the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. Harvey insists on being sworn in the steps of City Hall surrounded by his supporters (including a new boyfriend, Jack Lira) who march from the Castro for the event.
June 25, 1978. Harvey rides in the Gay Freedom Day Parade, urging bystanders and television viewers to come out to their families, friends, and coworkers. Harvey himself never comes out to his parents.
May 21, 1978. The day before his 48th birthday, Harvey dresses up like a clown as part of a promotional publicity campaign for Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. He runs all over town telling people he’s an elected official.
March 7, 1978. Harvey serves as Deputy Mayor for a day. Art Agnos (a future mayor of San Francisco) tells Harvey he has the potential to be mayor within ten years.
April 1978. George Moscone signs the San Francisco Gay Civil Rights Ordinance – a bill that Harvey introduced.
November 7, 1978. Proposition 6, which would have authorized the firing of gay teachers and their supporters, is defeated due in part to Harvey’s diligent campaign against it.
November 10, 1978. Dan White, Harvey’s fellow supervisor, resigns, claiming that he cannot support his family on his salary. He later asks for his job back, but is refused.
November 27, 1978. Dan White assassinates Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone at City Hall. That night, more than 30,000 people peacefully march from the Castro to City Hall and hold a candlelight vigil.
December 2, 1978. Milk’s friends scatter his ashes, along with Kool-Ade and bubble bath, into the Pacific Ocean.
May 21, 1979. Dan White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison. Thousands of furious people converge upon City Hall, throw rocks, break windows, and set police cars on fire. Later that evening, several police cruisers filled with officers wearing riot gear arrive at the Elephant Walk Bar on Castro Street, storm into the bar and beat patrons at random. These incidents become known as the White Night Riots.
1982. The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, by Randy Shilts is published.
January 7, 1984. Dan White is released from prison – after serving just five years – and moves back to San Francisco with his family.
March 25, 1985. The Times of Harvey Milk wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Director Rob Epstein thanks his partner in his speech.
October 21, 1985. Dan White commits suicide in his garage.
June 14, 1999. Time Magazine names Harvey Milk one of the “Time 100 Heroes and Icons” of the 20th century.
May 22, 2008. On what would have been his 78th birthday, a sculpture of Milk is unveiled in the Ceremonial Rotunda of City Hall – where wedding ceremonies are held.
September 30, 2008. California State Assemblyman Mark Leno’s bill to mark Harvey Milk’s birthday, May 22, as a state day of special significance, which has been passed by the State Assembly and State Senate, is vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
February 22, 2009. After being nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant, wins Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black) and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Sean Penn).
2009. The ACLU steps in when a Ramona 6th grader, Natalie Jones, is barred from giving a presentation on Harvey Milk. The principal and district superintendant later apologize and allow Natalie to present her report.
1943-1947. Harvey attends Bay Shore High School. He is a basketball player, a linebacker on the football team, and is popular with everyone because of his quick wit and sense of humor. He knows he is gay, but is in the closet. Living so close to Fire Island and New York City, Harvey finds many opportunities to meet other gay young men.
1947-1951. Harvey attends New York State Teachers College at Albany and earns a degree in Mathematics. No one suspects him of being gay. He is described as a “man’s man.”
1951-1955. Harvey serves in the Navy and is an expert deep sea diver on the San Diego-based U.S.S. Kittiwake. He is honorably discharged. Loving a good story, Harvey never contradicts the rumor that emerged during his campaign – that he was dishonorably discharged (like so many others) for being gay.
1956. Milk meets Joe Campbell, a beautiful younger man, whom Harvey courts with love letters. They will be together for six years – Harvey’s longest relationship. Joe Campbell is later immortalized as the “Sugar Plum Fairy” in Lou Reed’s song “Walk on the Wild Side.”
1957-1961. While Joe stays at home as a typical “housewife,” Harvey works as a high school math teacher and basketball coach at Hewlitt High School in New York. When he tires of teaching, he becomes an actuary.
1962. Harvey stops seeing Craig Rodwell, a man he is dating, when he realizes Craig is involved with fighting for gay rights. Harvey prefers to live a peaceful, closeted life.
1963. Harvey begins working in a Wall Street investment firm. His math skills, his quick thinking, and his ability to visualize and predict social trends, enable Harvey’s success. He settles into a new short-lived “marriage” with Jack McKinley, a stage manager for Hair.
1970. After nearly a decade of living with the influence of young hippies, Harvey is fired from his job in finance when he refuses to cut his long hair and burns his BankAmericacard. Craig Rodwell hardly recognizes his formerly conservative friend.
1972. Harvey and his new boyfriend, Scott Smith, move to the Castro in San Francisco. The neighborhood has been a gay mecca for less than a decade.
March 1973. Harvey opens Castro Camera with Scott. The store becomes a place that people go for help. Cleve Jones says, Harvey “was just always helping people, fixing problems.”
1973. Harvey helps the Teamsters union with their Coors boycott, convincing all Castro bar owners to remove the beer – in exchange for jobs for gay deliverymen.
November 1973. Angry about the way San Francisco is seemingly controlled by real estate moguls and huge corporations, Harvey runs for supervisor for the first time. He is not backed by most of the gay political clubs and organizations that think that Harvey wants too much, too soon. He loses.
1974. Harvey organizes the Castro Village Association of local merchants, and helps launch the first Castro Street Fair.
November 8, 1977. Milk is elected to the Board of Supervisors for District 5 in his fourth run for elected office. He is the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. Harvey insists on being sworn in the steps of City Hall surrounded by his supporters (including a new boyfriend, Jack Lira) who march from the Castro for the event.
June 25, 1978. Harvey rides in the Gay Freedom Day Parade, urging bystanders and television viewers to come out to their families, friends, and coworkers. Harvey himself never comes out to his parents.
May 21, 1978. The day before his 48th birthday, Harvey dresses up like a clown as part of a promotional publicity campaign for Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. He runs all over town telling people he’s an elected official.
March 7, 1978. Harvey serves as Deputy Mayor for a day. Art Agnos (a future mayor of San Francisco) tells Harvey he has the potential to be mayor within ten years.
April 1978. George Moscone signs the San Francisco Gay Civil Rights Ordinance – a bill that Harvey introduced.
November 7, 1978. Proposition 6, which would have authorized the firing of gay teachers and their supporters, is defeated due in part to Harvey’s diligent campaign against it.
November 10, 1978. Dan White, Harvey’s fellow supervisor, resigns, claiming that he cannot support his family on his salary. He later asks for his job back, but is refused.
November 27, 1978. Dan White assassinates Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone at City Hall. That night, more than 30,000 people peacefully march from the Castro to City Hall and hold a candlelight vigil.
December 2, 1978. Milk’s friends scatter his ashes, along with Kool-Ade and bubble bath, into the Pacific Ocean.
May 21, 1979. Dan White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison. Thousands of furious people converge upon City Hall, throw rocks, break windows, and set police cars on fire. Later that evening, several police cruisers filled with officers wearing riot gear arrive at the Elephant Walk Bar on Castro Street, storm into the bar and beat patrons at random. These incidents become known as the White Night Riots.
1982. The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, by Randy Shilts is published.
January 7, 1984. Dan White is released from prison – after serving just five years – and moves back to San Francisco with his family.
March 25, 1985. The Times of Harvey Milk wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Director Rob Epstein thanks his partner in his speech.
October 21, 1985. Dan White commits suicide in his garage.
June 14, 1999. Time Magazine names Harvey Milk one of the “Time 100 Heroes and Icons” of the 20th century.
May 22, 2008. On what would have been his 78th birthday, a sculpture of Milk is unveiled in the Ceremonial Rotunda of City Hall – where wedding ceremonies are held.
September 30, 2008. California State Assemblyman Mark Leno’s bill to mark Harvey Milk’s birthday, May 22, as a state day of special significance, which has been passed by the State Assembly and State Senate, is vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
February 22, 2009. After being nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant, wins Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black) and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Sean Penn).
2009. The ACLU steps in when a Ramona 6th grader, Natalie Jones, is barred from giving a presentation on Harvey Milk. The principal and district superintendant later apologize and allow Natalie to present her report.
Monday, September 7, 2009
November 27, 1978
The following videos include media coverage the day that Harvey Milk and George Moscone were shot.
The media announces the breaking news story - Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk are shot.
NBC NEWS November 27, 1978
The media announces the breaking news story - Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk are shot.
NBC NEWS November 27, 1978
Thursday, August 27, 2009
SD LGBTQ History in 8 Minutes
This brief, eight-minute look at the history of the Pride movement in San Diego includes the Gay Liberation Front, Anita Bryant, John Briggs, Lambda Pride, and others.
For more on LGBTQ history, visit San Diego Lambda Archives.
For more on LGBTQ history, visit San Diego Lambda Archives.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
A List of Resources
I have begun a list of books and films about Harvey Milk and LGBTQ history that I have seen/read and liked. The list includes the easiest (and cheapest) ways to access these resources for San Diego State students. 
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Elaine Noble: A Pioneer in Public Service
Although Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States he was not the first openly gay person to be elected.
In 1974, Elaine Noble ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the Fenway and Back Bay neighborhood district of Boston. She won with 59 percent of the vote, becoming the first openly gay person elected to public office. In 1976, she was reelected with 90 percent of the vote.
To read a more detailed biography of Elaine Noble, visit the online GLBTQ encyclopedia.
To read two short interviews with Elaine Noble detailing her successes in the House as well as the difficulties she faced, including harrassment and threats, visit MetroWeekly and OUThistory.org
In 1974, Elaine Noble ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the Fenway and Back Bay neighborhood district of Boston. She won with 59 percent of the vote, becoming the first openly gay person elected to public office. In 1976, she was reelected with 90 percent of the vote.
To read a more detailed biography of Elaine Noble, visit the online GLBTQ encyclopedia.
To read two short interviews with Elaine Noble detailing her successes in the House as well as the difficulties she faced, including harrassment and threats, visit MetroWeekly and OUThistory.org
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Lambda Archives: Preserving LGBT History
The Lambda Archives (formerly the Lesbian and Gay Archives) of San Diego was created in 1987 with the goal of collecting, preserving, and teaching the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the San Diego and Northern Baja California region.LASD contains:
- Records and personal papers of local LGBT activists, organizations and political campaigns
- Virtually all San Diego and Tijuana (and some significant regional or national) LGBT periodicals, most of which are not available elsewhere
- Newsletters for more than 40 local LGBT organizations
- Video and tape interviews, LGBT music, educational films, and footage of numerous Pride parades.
- Ephemera such as flyers, announcements, bumper stickers, buttons, calendars, catalogues, flyers, posters, and t-shirts,
- Thousands of photographs and slides
- Digital materials and records
- Over 2000 books (which members can check out)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Boogie Nights Blog
Last night my roommate Megan and I sat down for my first viewing of the epic cinematic adventure that is Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights.” I fell in love with this movie, in case you were still wondering.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is a story about people who work in the adult film industry in the 1970’s. Even for those who don’t wish to watch a movie of that particular subject matter, no one can deny that this is, at least, a fantastic period piece worth watching.
Mr. Anderson, who wrote and directed the film, does a dazzling job of representing the sexual revolution as such an important time in history. He shows the wide sexual attitudes that our society once possessed and also touches upon the gay community in the Seventies and the sudden emergence of men and women living open lives as members of the LGBT community.
During the movie I had a train of thought that made me press pause. I realized that these characters were the people who would eventually grow into their Thirties and Forties in the Eighties and Nineties.
It reminded me of every time anyone in the gay community, who lived through that era, talks about experiencing friends and lovers "dropping like flies" around them during the AIDS epidemic.
These people, who are living in an era of such unquestioned sexual promiscuity and drug use will, without warning, fear death and change their lifestyle immediately in order to survive. These are also people who would eventually grow angrier and angrier, questioningRonald Reagan, who ignored the virus for seven years.
The whole very idea of living through a shock resulting in an abrupt cultural u-turn has to be devastating. All the while, attending funerals three or four times a month for friends who had died of a “gay disease” that had taken over cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City.
When I pictured San Francisco in the 80’s, I immediately thought of Cleve Jones. I think this cultural attitude change may be one of the reasons why Cleve Jones began his activism for HIV/AIDS research. He lived the dramatic cultural change in San Francisco, just two years after Harvey died.
Many believe that Harvey Milk could have gone on to be a large political influence on HIV/AIDS Research and Awareness. The truth is that after assisting on Harvey’s campaigns for four years, Cleve went on to do just that himself. He continued Harvey’s legacy of leading the LGBT civil rights fight in San Francisco, but instead of working alongside Harvey, working towards fighting AIDS.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is a story about people who work in the adult film industry in the 1970’s. Even for those who don’t wish to watch a movie of that particular subject matter, no one can deny that this is, at least, a fantastic period piece worth watching.
Mr. Anderson, who wrote and directed the film, does a dazzling job of representing the sexual revolution as such an important time in history. He shows the wide sexual attitudes that our society once possessed and also touches upon the gay community in the Seventies and the sudden emergence of men and women living open lives as members of the LGBT community.
During the movie I had a train of thought that made me press pause. I realized that these characters were the people who would eventually grow into their Thirties and Forties in the Eighties and Nineties.
It reminded me of every time anyone in the gay community, who lived through that era, talks about experiencing friends and lovers "dropping like flies" around them during the AIDS epidemic.
These people, who are living in an era of such unquestioned sexual promiscuity and drug use will, without warning, fear death and change their lifestyle immediately in order to survive. These are also people who would eventually grow angrier and angrier, questioningRonald Reagan, who ignored the virus for seven years.
The whole very idea of living through a shock resulting in an abrupt cultural u-turn has to be devastating. All the while, attending funerals three or four times a month for friends who had died of a “gay disease” that had taken over cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City.
When I pictured San Francisco in the 80’s, I immediately thought of Cleve Jones. I think this cultural attitude change may be one of the reasons why Cleve Jones began his activism for HIV/AIDS research. He lived the dramatic cultural change in San Francisco, just two years after Harvey died.
Many believe that Harvey Milk could have gone on to be a large political influence on HIV/AIDS Research and Awareness. The truth is that after assisting on Harvey’s campaigns for four years, Cleve went on to do just that himself. He continued Harvey’s legacy of leading the LGBT civil rights fight in San Francisco, but instead of working alongside Harvey, working towards fighting AIDS.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Before and After Stonewall
Most Americans have a sizable gap in their historical knowledge when it comes to the history of gays and lesbians in the United States. Before Stonewall (1984) and its sequel After Stonewall (1999) each clock in at about 90 minutes, but this cumulative three hours provides viewers with a wealth of information about the triumphs and tragedies of gays and lesbians over a span of 80 years, and serves as a quick start to further research.
Before Stonewall is not only a powerful documentary, but also a priceless historical artifact. The film is rich with interviews of those who were gay and lesbian adults as far back as the 1920s. Many of the the men and women who tell the stories of visiting speakeasies in the 20s and serving in WWII in the 40s are not alive today, 25 years after the film was made. The film describes a time when gays and lesbians were closeted and invisible and just beginning to find each other and themselves. Although, the U.S. still has far to go in granting equal rights to gay and lesbian citizens, it is heartening to see how far the country has come due to the brave struggles of those in the early 20th century.
After Stonewall, continues the story where Before Stonewall left off - at the Stonewall Riots in 1969. The interviewees tell the story of the great leaps forward in the gay movement, such as electing openly gay officials to public office and repealing anti-gay laws. But they also describe the heartbreak of the massive setbacks, such as the growth of the religious right and AIDS.
Both films are entertaining, educational, and incredibly moving. They are available in VHS format at the San Diego Public Library. Check the website for locations: http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/. As a Netflix subscriber, I watched the films instantly online (in bed, on my laptop!) The DVD and VHS can also be purchased new and used from Amazon.com.
Before Stonewall is not only a powerful documentary, but also a priceless historical artifact. The film is rich with interviews of those who were gay and lesbian adults as far back as the 1920s. Many of the the men and women who tell the stories of visiting speakeasies in the 20s and serving in WWII in the 40s are not alive today, 25 years after the film was made. The film describes a time when gays and lesbians were closeted and invisible and just beginning to find each other and themselves. Although, the U.S. still has far to go in granting equal rights to gay and lesbian citizens, it is heartening to see how far the country has come due to the brave struggles of those in the early 20th century.
After Stonewall, continues the story where Before Stonewall left off - at the Stonewall Riots in 1969. The interviewees tell the story of the great leaps forward in the gay movement, such as electing openly gay officials to public office and repealing anti-gay laws. But they also describe the heartbreak of the massive setbacks, such as the growth of the religious right and AIDS.Both films are entertaining, educational, and incredibly moving. They are available in VHS format at the San Diego Public Library. Check the website for locations: http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/. As a Netflix subscriber, I watched the films instantly online (in bed, on my laptop!) The DVD and VHS can also be purchased new and used from Amazon.com.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thirsty for Milk after some Twinkies?.....
Twinkie Defense.
What is it? Thirty years ago anyone in California would be able to answer that question without thinking, but now society's knowledge on Harvey Milk's death is minimized to what is fed through the film MILK. Here is an article describing what specifically the Twinkie Defense is and why such an absurdly titled event led to the production of violence now referred to as the 'White Night Riots'.
What is it? Thirty years ago anyone in California would be able to answer that question without thinking, but now society's knowledge on Harvey Milk's death is minimized to what is fed through the film MILK. Here is an article describing what specifically the Twinkie Defense is and why such an absurdly titled event led to the production of violence now referred to as the 'White Night Riots'.
Myth of the 'Twinkie defense' (as written by Carol Pogash of the San Francisco Cronicle, November 23, 2003) :
Ask anyone who's heard of Dan White -- and there are fewer and fewer people who have -- how it was that the clean-cut, conservative San Francisco supervisor received such a light sentence in the shooting deaths of progressive San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay Supervisor Harvey Milk 25 years ago, and it brings an automatic response: the "Twinkie defense." The impressionable jury, they'll say, swallowed the defense contention that Dan White gobbled Twinkies, which blasted sugar through his arteries and drove him into a murderous frenzy. About as simple as: "Eat a Twinkie, commit a murder."
As Thursday's 25th anniversary of the killings approaches, what survives is a shared understanding of the gross miscarriage of justice: that an angry young man many thought should have received the death penalty instead was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and got a meager sentence of less than eight years (with time off for good behavior, he would end up serving only five years, one month and nine days).
The "Twinkie defense" is so ingrained in our culture that it appears in law dictionaries, in sociology textbooks, in college exams and in more than 2, 800 references on Google. Only a few of them call it what it is: a myth.
"I don't think Twinkies were ever mentioned in testimony," said chief defense attorney Douglas Schmidt, who recalls "HoHos and Ding Dongs," but no Twinkies. In fact, the cream-filled confections were mentioned, but only in passing. Junk food was an insignificant part of the defense. The matter was raised briefly in testimony by Marin psychiatrist Martin Blinder, one of five defense therapists. Today, the entire episode is characterized by Schmidt as "a throwaway witness . . . with a throwaway line.''
The main focus of the defense's case in May 1979 was diminished capacity -- that White had suffered from periodic bouts of depression, amounting to "a major mental illness." That, along with "the machinations of dirty politics at City Hall," White's co-counsel Stephen Scherr said in a recent interview, "drove him 'round the bend."
During his day on the stand, Blinder, a former mayor of San Anselmo and a onetime teacher at UCSF's medical school and at Hastings College of the Law, characterized White as his family's black sheep, a man with rigid values and locked-up emotions. In a recent interview, Blinder said his intent was to explore, "What is it that makes a good man kill?"
In his daylong accounting of how White's life "unraveled," one small aspect of something Blinder said -- "two minutes of a greater part of the day on the stand" -- was later turned into the irrational explanation for everything that came after. "Studies show," he said recently, "that if you have a general predisposition to bipolar mood swings, things you ingest can play a part." In the days leading up to the killings, the psychiatrist told the jury, White cast aside his normal habits and grew slovenly, quit working, shunned his wife, grew a stubble beard and rather than eat his healthful diet, indulged in Twinkies and Coke -- all symptoms, Blinder testified, of depression. The junk food, he said, only made White more depressed, which caused him to binge even more.
The gay community's agony spewed out onto the streets of San Francisco. During what came to be called the White Night riot, protestors set fire to police cars and stormed City Hall. The violence was in marked contrast to the day Moscone and Milk died. Then, a candlelight march flowed quietly and peacefully from the Castro district to City Hall.
All that many people remember about the case that still engenders such anger and passion is that jurors succumbed to the defense claim that a politician ate Twinkies and then executed the mayor and a fellow supervisor.
"America loves labels," said Dr. Alan Dundes, UC Berkeley professor of anthropology and folklore. He compares our belief in the "Twinkie defense" to the conviction that George Washington cut down the cherry tree. He didn't. Folklore trumps history.
"I don't care if the 'Twinkie defense' has any validity or not," he said. "People think it was a factor. And thinking makes it so."
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