On this day, 21 May 1979, the White Night riots occurred in San Francisco when LGBTQ people reacted angrily to the killer of Harvey Milk not being convicted of murder. Milk was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the US, who was shot and killed along with the mayor George Moscone, by former police officer Dan White, using his service revolver.
Numerous serving San Francisco police officers wore t-shirts declaring “Free Dan White”, and contributed to his defence fund, which reportedly raised up to $100,000. Despite later admitting that the murders were premeditated, in court White used his now-infamous “Twinkie defence”, which was that eating junk food showed he was in a poor mental state. So rather than being convicted of murder, he was only convicted voluntary manslaughter.
Upon hearing the verdict, a crowd of 500 mostly LGBTQ people began marching down Castro Street calling others to join them and heading to City Hall. By the time they arrived, the crowd had grown to include thousands of people, and they attacked the building, smashing windows. Police waded into the crowd, beating people with batons, and the crowd then began burning police cars. As one man set light to a vehicle, he told a reporter: “Make sure you put in the paper that I ate too many Twinkies.”
In retaliation for their humiliating defeat, police attacked a gay bar later that night, screaming homophobic abuse, shattering windows and beating drinkers and passers-by, injuring many. By the end of the night’s events, 61 police officers and over 100 members of the public had been hospitalised. Dan White ended up serving only five years in prison, but he killed himself shortly after his release.
For more LGBTQ history, check out our podcast series: https://workingclasshistory.com/tag/lgbtq/
Pictured: rioters in foreground with burning police cars in background https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1431292987055847/?type=3
It’s still insane to me that there are dozens if not hundreds of teams working separately to develop the vaccine because of bullshit involved in medical patents and the hopes of pharmaceutical firms to get 10 metric fuckloads of money from making the first vaccine rather than having cooperation to speed up development and prevent redundancies. But what do I know, I’m just a stinky doodoo commie
Found at Deir el-Medina (limestone),in the lower register depicting an anonymous couple worshiping “The Cat of the god Ra", and “The Great Cat, the peaceful one, in his perfect name of Atum” - two aspects of the same solar divinity, both shown facing each other in the upper register. New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1292-1189 BC. Now in the Ashmolean Museum.
