San Francisco's gay rights movement and its protests

The rise of the gay rights movement in San Francisco is part of a broader movement advocating for the inclusion, recognition, and rights of LGBTQ people, with the common goal of equal rights for LGBTQ people.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 1 hr 9 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   the rise of the gay rights movement in san francisco · Wikipedia · 60+ min read

   In San Francisco, LGBTQ youth organization Vanguard was formed by Adrian Ravarour to demonstrate for equality, and Vanguard members protested for equal rights during the months of April, July 1966. The protests were followed by the August 1966 Compton's riot, when transgender street prostitutes in Tenderloin rioted against police harassment at Gene Compton's Cafeteria. Harvey Milk, elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, became the first openly gay man in the State of California elected to public office. Former city supervisor Dan White assassinated Milk in 1978. Some historians posit that a new era of the gay rights movement began in the 1980s with the emergence of AIDS. As gay men became seriously ill and died in ever-increasing numbers, and many lesbian activists became their caregivers, the leadership of many organizations was decimated.

2. Read
   

   What Were the White Night Riots? | HISTORY · HISTORY · 3 min read

   The rise of San Francisco's gay rights movement met a flashpoint on May 21, 1979, when thousands of members of the predominantly gay Castro District community protested Dan White's lenient sentence for murdering Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Their anger, combined with police actions, boiled over into rioting.

3. Watch
   

   Harvey Milk's radical vision of equality - Lillian Faderman · YouTube · 5 min watch

   Harvey Milk, a naval officer, high school teacher, bit-part actor and wandering hippie, started fresh in San Francisco and ran for office in the Castro, where his belief in a more personal approach to local government led him to run. Lillian Faderman details his tenacity and courage as California's first openly gay public official.

4. Book
   

   City of Night · Bookshop.org

   City of Night by John Rechy follows a young man traveling across the country as a hustler in the 1960s, with chapters set in places including San Francisco.

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