Know Your SF History: The White Night Riots
San Francisco has long taken a socially open-minded attitude toward homosexuality. Its earliest settlers were mostly men who migrated west to make their fortune prospecting for gold, resulting in a disproportionately high ratio of men to women. Over the decades however, tensions arose between the gay community and the City’s less tolerant residents, like the San Francisco Police Department.
For instance, gay and trans people who patronized Compton’s Cafeteria, formerly located at 101 Turk Street, were frequently harassed by staff and local police. The conflict came to a head one hot August night in 1966, when a riot ensued. More clashes between the LGBT community and the police occurred well into the next decade.
RELATED: Step Back In Time, Experience the Compton Cafeteria riots
Despite the ongoing conflicts, in November 1977, Harvey Bernard Milk became the first openly gay elected city supervisor in California, and was inaugurated the following January.
Unfortunately, he would not live to see the next election.
On 10 November 1978, fellow city supervisor Dan White resigned his post, citing disagreements with Harvey Milk and other colleagues on the board, as well as the job’s lower pay compared to his previous positions as police officer and fireman. He was indignant that despite his prominent opposition to a gay rights bill that Milk introduced, he was outvoted by Milk and the rest of their colleagues, being the lone dissenting vote.
Four days later, White changed his mind and wished to rescind his resignation. Unfortunately for him, Mayor George Moscone ultimately rejected his bid for reinstatement. Milk was among the supervisors who influenced the mayor’s decision.
On 27 November 1978, White entered City Hall through a window, bypassing metal detectors that would have revealed the .38 Special revolver he was carrying. Again he asked Moscone to reinstate him. Moscone refused, and Dan White shot him four times, killing him. He reloaded his weapon with expanding hollow-point rounds, went to Harvey Milk’s office, and emptied the gun into Milk. White fired the last two rounds into Milk’s head at full contact.
Dan White surrendered to police immediately. His attorneys contended that his depression had rendered him incapable of premeditation, therefore not guilty of first-degree murder. Forensic psychiatrist Matin Blinder, called as a witness for the defense, noted that a symptom of White’s depression was excessive consumption of sugary junk food, such as Twinkies and Coca-Cola, which in turn, according to Dr. Blinder, could have exacerbated White’s mood swings. Almost immediately, the media seized upon this information, coining the incredulously derisive phrase, “Twinkie defense.”
Ultimately, on 21 May 1979, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison.
San Francisco’s gay community was outraged. An overwhelming majority believed the Police Department and District Attorney’s office had conspired to provide White a disproportionately lenient sentence. Many also believed the jury’s decision was motivated by homophobia. In fact, the jury was predominantly white and conservative. Gay rights activist Cleve Jones led a march through the Castro, down Market Street and on to City Hall, with protesters eagerly joining the ranks until the crowd grew to roughly 5,000 people.
At City Hall, demonstrators broke windows on the first floor. Several police and civilian vehicles were set on fire. Though police were outnumbered, they assaulted protestors with teargas and batons, covering their badges with electrical tape to avoid identification. The crowd fought back with tree branches, pieces of chrome trim ripped from Muni buses, and chunks of asphalt. Sixty officers were injured and roughly two dozen demonstrators were arrested.
Hours later, once the mood around the Civic Center had died down, a fleet of police cars sped to the Castro, ignoring orders otherwise. There, the officers sought revenge. They raided the Elephant Walk, smashing the bar, brutalizing patrons. For two long hours, cops indiscriminately attacked gay men on Castro Street until Police Chief Charles Gain arrived and ordered his men to leave. Though a civil grand jury was unable to single out the individual who ordered the attack on City Hall, a settlement ultimately covered personal injury claims and property damages.
By 1982, a combination of legislative measures, voter initiatives and judicial decisions severely narrowed the scope of diminished capacity defenses in the state of California.
In 1984, Dan White was paroled after serving five years. According to SF Police Detective Frank Falzon, who took White’s initial statement following the murders, White admitted post-release that not only were the assassinations premeditated, but that he also planned to kill Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver and California Assemblyman Willie Brown, who had been in a meeting with Mayor Moscone immediately prior to the shootings.
White finished his parole in Los Angeles and returned to San Francisco in early 1985. That October in the Excelsior neighborhood, he ended his life by carbon monoxide poisoning. His lawyer Douglas R. Schmidt declared this event to be a vindication of his controversial plea of diminished capacity.
Milk and Moscone did not die in vain. Following their deaths, San Francisco’s LGBT community gained more political traction. Dianne Feinstein appointed a gay-friendly police chief and vowed to choose more gay people for public office. Now that the City acknowledges queer people comprise many of their constituents, no politician can succeed here without engaging with the LGBT community.
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