The Anniversary of the White Night Riots

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the White Night Riots, a series of demonstrations that took place in San Francisco after the man who murdered Harvey Milk and SF Mayor George Moscone, Dan White, was given a very lenient voluntary manslaughter conviction.  It was the lightest possible sentence that White could have received, after gunning down the mayor and Milk in cold blood in city hall, and brought to a head the ongoing tension that San Francisco's LGBT community felt toward the police and the criminal justice system in the city, which had for years actively discriminated against the LGBT population.

What followed after White's conviction was announced, the White Night Riots, brought out thousands upon thousands of LGBT people and allies into the streets.  Demonstrators were outraged that White was given such a small sentence for murdering two people.  As activist Cleve Jones said at the time:

Today, Dan White was essentially patted on the back. He was convicted of manslaughter—what you get for hit and run. We all know this violence has touched all of us. It was not manslaughter. I was there that day at City Hall. I saw what the violence did. It was not manslaughter, it was murder.

The demonstrations caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the city of San Francisco, and numerous injuries were reported.  But the riots also showed the raw political power and mobility of the LGBT population, and influenced SF politics for years to come.

Today is now the 30th anniversary of those riots.  Tomorrow (May 22) would have marked Harvey Milk's 79th birthday.  And within the next two weeks, California's Supreme Court will rule on the future of Prop 8.  Which is more of a coincidence than anything, but certainly makes one think about what role Harvey Milk might have played in combating Prop 8 had he not been murdered.