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Indybay Feature
White Night Riot Anniversary
San Francisco, May 21, 1979
People had the mayor, the board of supes, the chief of police and three hundred cops holed up in their last stand and surrounded by burning police cars.
It felt like having your first orgasm on Christmas, the Fourth of July and your birthday, all at the same time, right after they announce you've won the lottery, and just then the Big One hits.
Had anybody had the stomach to knock aside the pacifists who linked arms in front of the main door (which was being bashed open with parking meters), the mob would have massacred the whole lot. Everybody was up for a righteous, bloody massacre. Nobody had the stomach to smack aside pacifists, though. Odd thing, that. Sez a lot.
Help arrived, just at that moment. Every cop in an hour's drive, except for the dispatchers, had rushed to rescue their brethren from "a bunch of goddam faggots." The SFPD will never live it down.
Queers started it, alright. There's no mistaking that. But let's not forget the most significant part of the evening: everybody piled on. Everybody! I saw people who looked like they had just left the opera, dressed to the nines, fight the cops alongside teenage Tenderloin homeboys. The cops had clubbed them by "mistake," and they were mega-pissed. I saw an old woman, gray as a tombstone, and kids who couldn't have been twelve. They looked like they lived in the neighborhood. I came all the way from Oakland, and I'm mainly a breeder. Tear gas is addictive.
It wasn't about Harvey Milk. It was about life as we know it. White's sentence was just the last straw.
There are an awful damn lot of us. The powers that be are *scared* of us, damn scared. They barely keep the lid on now.
Something to think about next time a straw breaks.
Not a suggestion.
It felt like having your first orgasm on Christmas, the Fourth of July and your birthday, all at the same time, right after they announce you've won the lottery, and just then the Big One hits.
Had anybody had the stomach to knock aside the pacifists who linked arms in front of the main door (which was being bashed open with parking meters), the mob would have massacred the whole lot. Everybody was up for a righteous, bloody massacre. Nobody had the stomach to smack aside pacifists, though. Odd thing, that. Sez a lot.
Help arrived, just at that moment. Every cop in an hour's drive, except for the dispatchers, had rushed to rescue their brethren from "a bunch of goddam faggots." The SFPD will never live it down.
Queers started it, alright. There's no mistaking that. But let's not forget the most significant part of the evening: everybody piled on. Everybody! I saw people who looked like they had just left the opera, dressed to the nines, fight the cops alongside teenage Tenderloin homeboys. The cops had clubbed them by "mistake," and they were mega-pissed. I saw an old woman, gray as a tombstone, and kids who couldn't have been twelve. They looked like they lived in the neighborhood. I came all the way from Oakland, and I'm mainly a breeder. Tear gas is addictive.
It wasn't about Harvey Milk. It was about life as we know it. White's sentence was just the last straw.
There are an awful damn lot of us. The powers that be are *scared* of us, damn scared. They barely keep the lid on now.
Something to think about next time a straw breaks.
Not a suggestion.
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Pics
http://www.backdoor.com/castro/milk/whitenight.html
John Carrol
http://www.johncarroll.info/WhiteNightRiot.html
Flyer
http://www.shapingsfbay.org/ezine/gay/files/riot79.htm
The Twinkie Defense Page (nice pic of burning police car)
http://www.ohnonews.com/twinkie.html
Obituary of one White Night veteran
http://www.ainfos.ca/99/sep/ainfos00167.htm
http://www.backdoor.com/castro/milk/whitenight.html
John Carrol
http://www.johncarroll.info/WhiteNightRiot.html
Flyer
http://www.shapingsfbay.org/ezine/gay/files/riot79.htm
The Twinkie Defense Page (nice pic of burning police car)
http://www.ohnonews.com/twinkie.html
Obituary of one White Night veteran
http://www.ainfos.ca/99/sep/ainfos00167.htm
Yes..my my how tough you are in a mob- oh those awful pacifists- you try to protest murder with murder? What a hypocrite you are. Where was the gay community as a whole during any other mass protest? Likely driving around in their Porches and eating at some heterosexual WASPY yuppie restaurant.
>you try to protest murder with murder?
We weren’t protesting murder. We were protesting Dan White having gotten away with murder because he had friends in high places.
>Where was the gay community as a whole during any other mass protest?
First, we tried a peaceful, candle light march to protest Harvey’s murder. All we got for it was a slap in the face.
>Likely driving around in their Porches and eating at some heterosexual WASPY yuppie restaurant.
The vast, overwhelming majority of Gay people are working class. The vast, overwhelming majority of ALL people are working class.
Why are you trying to slander us? What’s your motivation?
We weren’t protesting murder. We were protesting Dan White having gotten away with murder because he had friends in high places.
>Where was the gay community as a whole during any other mass protest?
First, we tried a peaceful, candle light march to protest Harvey’s murder. All we got for it was a slap in the face.
>Likely driving around in their Porches and eating at some heterosexual WASPY yuppie restaurant.
The vast, overwhelming majority of Gay people are working class. The vast, overwhelming majority of ALL people are working class.
Why are you trying to slander us? What’s your motivation?
>Why are you trying to slander us? What’s your motivation?
Given the defense of pacifists combined with slander of the gay community? I'd guess either a right-wing troll or someone on goverment payroll. Sit back and watch them shit-talk me for saying this. It's amazing how so-called pacifists start to froth at the mouth when they're typing away -- kinda makes you wonder what they're supressing, hmmmm?
Not that other anon, this anon -- or am I? You figure it out,
anon
Given the defense of pacifists combined with slander of the gay community? I'd guess either a right-wing troll or someone on goverment payroll. Sit back and watch them shit-talk me for saying this. It's amazing how so-called pacifists start to froth at the mouth when they're typing away -- kinda makes you wonder what they're supressing, hmmmm?
Not that other anon, this anon -- or am I? You figure it out,
anon
>>Yes..my my how tough you are in a mob- oh those awful pacifists- you try to protest murder with murder? What a hypocrite you are. Where was the gay community as a whole during any other mass protest? Likely driving around in their Porches and eating at some heterosexual WASPY yuppie restaurant.<<
Yay, ad hominem attacks! My favorite. Not.
Why is "the gay community" any more liable than any other grouping of people? Your homophobia is showing, I suggest you get it removed. It amazes me how quickly many straight folks are quick to judge the entire queer community for being yuppie sellouts, as if every gay (read: LGBT) person was a David Geffen clone. Tell that to poor and working class dykes in Oregon. Tell that to trans sisters in the Tenderloin, and in Brazil. Tell that to the boys working for tricks on the NYC piers. Tell that to Brandon Teena, Rita Hester, and Matthew Shepard, while having the decency to never forget James Byrd.
Get over yourself -- white night was a beautiful thing. In my opinion, we need more white nights, not less. Feel free to run back to your self-hating Log Cabin or wrap yourself in your american flag while you fondle your Lou Sheldon fan club membership. You need to wake up -- while we're all being monitored, surveilled and evaluated for a potential long-term stay at the Guantanamo Hilton, you're calling names and possibly taking them. Wake up, dammit, and spit up the blue pill! Damn. It's just sad that we're still having this tired pacifism/violence argument while the 4th Reich is on the rise. Where's the French Resistance, OK?
Will riot for food
Yay, ad hominem attacks! My favorite. Not.
Why is "the gay community" any more liable than any other grouping of people? Your homophobia is showing, I suggest you get it removed. It amazes me how quickly many straight folks are quick to judge the entire queer community for being yuppie sellouts, as if every gay (read: LGBT) person was a David Geffen clone. Tell that to poor and working class dykes in Oregon. Tell that to trans sisters in the Tenderloin, and in Brazil. Tell that to the boys working for tricks on the NYC piers. Tell that to Brandon Teena, Rita Hester, and Matthew Shepard, while having the decency to never forget James Byrd.
Get over yourself -- white night was a beautiful thing. In my opinion, we need more white nights, not less. Feel free to run back to your self-hating Log Cabin or wrap yourself in your american flag while you fondle your Lou Sheldon fan club membership. You need to wake up -- while we're all being monitored, surveilled and evaluated for a potential long-term stay at the Guantanamo Hilton, you're calling names and possibly taking them. Wake up, dammit, and spit up the blue pill! Damn. It's just sad that we're still having this tired pacifism/violence argument while the 4th Reich is on the rise. Where's the French Resistance, OK?
Will riot for food
Will riot for food
your comments are immature and hurtful to the community. you show disrespect for your peers and fellow city residents. you need to step back and enhance your calm.
then try to be a little more politically sensitive to those around you.
your comments are immature and hurtful to the community. you show disrespect for your peers and fellow city residents. you need to step back and enhance your calm.
then try to be a little more politically sensitive to those around you.
>your comments are immature and hurtful to the community. you show disrespect for your peers and fellow city residents. you need to step back and enhance your calm. <
Repeat after me:
"Why are you so angry?"
"You're so negative all the time"
"When you talk about homophobia, racism, or sexism, I feel like you're blaming me"
"Well, that's just reverse descrimination -- you're as bad as they are"
Kelly, I've heard what you're saying before, and quite frankly, it ain't right. There is this thing called "righteous anger". What makes you think I'm not calm? All due respect, I would apprectiate it if you didn't judge those who are different than you -- I was responding to an accusation of class priviledge across the board, which I take as an attack on my community. There are people with class priviledge who are gay, for sure -- *and* there are people whose queerness combined with their lack of class priviledge makes them an instant target. As such, I will *never* step back when my community is under attack, unless my intuition tells me to, and it's not. Besides, homophobes are not part of my community. Are they part of yours?
>then try to be a little more politically sensitive to those around you. <
Why? I think you're confusing being politically correct with sensitivity. Next thing, you'll be telling me to be more "politically sensitive" to John Ashcroft -- I mean, he has feelings too, you know? Please. You think you're playing nice, but you're not. Check yourself.
Will riot for food
>you need to step back and enhance your calm.<
Sorry, I just had to respond to this. Step back and enhance my calm? Now that is laughable. I'm not trying to insult you, but that's just absurd. New age rhetoric will not change the fact that we are in hard, difficult and dangerous times, and it definitely is not going to produce more awareness, spiritual or otherwise, in you or anyone else to follow the path you propose.
My suggestion to you is to stop looking for easy answers, and to consider that some hard problems merit hard replies. If you are calm right now, you are in trouble. Centered, grounded and at peace with yourself? Sure, I hear that, and practice that. But calm? Please, wake up, wake up, wake up. You think you're enlightened, but the rocks sleep less soundly than you. What you propose is nothing more than another drug while Babylon burns, prozac with words to silence a generation looking for answers. No thanks.
Cough up the blue pill (watch Matrix 1, you'll see),
Will riot for food
Sorry, I just had to respond to this. Step back and enhance my calm? Now that is laughable. I'm not trying to insult you, but that's just absurd. New age rhetoric will not change the fact that we are in hard, difficult and dangerous times, and it definitely is not going to produce more awareness, spiritual or otherwise, in you or anyone else to follow the path you propose.
My suggestion to you is to stop looking for easy answers, and to consider that some hard problems merit hard replies. If you are calm right now, you are in trouble. Centered, grounded and at peace with yourself? Sure, I hear that, and practice that. But calm? Please, wake up, wake up, wake up. You think you're enlightened, but the rocks sleep less soundly than you. What you propose is nothing more than another drug while Babylon burns, prozac with words to silence a generation looking for answers. No thanks.
Cough up the blue pill (watch Matrix 1, you'll see),
Will riot for food
Will riot for food
your thoughts are angry, as are your words.
close your eyes..
breath deeply..
go........to your calm place...
relax..
breath..
relax..
now..it is time to relate with your inner child
ask him/her why is your inner child so angry so angry?
what does your inner child say to you?
you need to calm your inner child
when you are calm with your self , then you can be calm with the world.
and in harmony with the earth.
your thoughts are angry, as are your words.
close your eyes..
breath deeply..
go........to your calm place...
relax..
breath..
relax..
now..it is time to relate with your inner child
ask him/her why is your inner child so angry so angry?
what does your inner child say to you?
you need to calm your inner child
when you are calm with your self , then you can be calm with the world.
and in harmony with the earth.
Dan White got away with murder because he had friends in high places. I that doesn't make you angry, then you're a moral cripple.
you need two calm and collect, feel the breeze. and let your inner child know you are safe, and go to your calm place. have you tried anger management ?
No one could possibly be this insipid, you're just making this shit up. Oh wait, this is the bay area, never mind. Later.
WRFF
WRFF
>>so where were all of the queers during our last bunch of riots???<
Well, some of us were out there, you need to look more closely next time. Not everybody who is queer lives their lives preening themselves in the Castro, you know.
My question to you is: where were all of the straight people -- you know, the millions of them who live in the bay area? I hope you realize how silly this "where were all of the queers" business is.
WRFF
Well, some of us were out there, you need to look more closely next time. Not everybody who is queer lives their lives preening themselves in the Castro, you know.
My question to you is: where were all of the straight people -- you know, the millions of them who live in the bay area? I hope you realize how silly this "where were all of the queers" business is.
WRFF
In a world where people like Dan White can get away with murder, simply by having friends in high places, you are NOT safe.
One thing I've been wondering about, which I hope someone who was alive in that year can fill me in on, is that this murder of Moscone and Harvey Milk occurred during the same week that Jonestown massacre happened in Guyana. And the Jones church of course had a lot of connections with San Francisco politics. What exactly triggered Dan White.. was there anything he was ticked off about that week, or it was that he is a republican and was generally prejudiced and happened to decide to act on his inner-urges that week?
"so where were all of the queers during our last bunch of riots???"
I really couldn't say where ALL of them were, but there were more than a couple in the black bloc, and there was the pink bloc as well.
I really couldn't say where ALL of them were, but there were more than a couple in the black bloc, and there was the pink bloc as well.
You mean those namby-pamby, reformist demonstrations, characterized by nonviolent compliance with the arresting officers, and totally lacking in violence and distruction?
If you call those "riots," you've obviously never seen the real thing. In a REAL riot, banks burn and cops get hurt.
If you call those "riots," you've obviously never seen the real thing. In a REAL riot, banks burn and cops get hurt.
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