Police cruisers afire during the White Night Riots, San Francisco, California, May 21, 1979. Photo b
Police cruisers afire during the White Night Riots, San Francisco, California, May 21, 1979. Photo by Eric Stein. [Post 3 of 4]. Despite its image as a safe-haven for LGBTs in the post-World War II era, San Francisco was home to the same institutionalized homophobia as other major American cities. Thus, although pioneering organizations (e.g., Daughters of Bilitis, Committee on Homosexual Freedom) and individuals (e.g., Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Jose Sarria, Harvey Milk) called San Francisco home, the LGBT community faced daily harassment, entrapment, and violence at the hands of the city’s police force. On May 21, 1979, as demonstrators protested the leniency shown Dan White, a former San Francisco police officer, for his killing of Harvey Milk, city police violently descended on the crowd; this time, however, the gay community fought back. As police and protesters fought in San Francisco’s Civic Center, one demonstrator kicked in the window of a parked police car, lit a pack of matches, and set the upholstery on fire, ultimately igniting the car’s fuel tank; as the last of twelve other police cars similarly were ignited, a protester shouted “Make sure you put in the paper that I ate too many Twinkies,” alluding to Dan White’s “Twinkie defense.” As the riot at the Civic Center died down, police launched a raid on the Elephant Walk, a popular Castro Street gay bar, beating the occupants among chants of “sick faggots”; after approximately fifteen minutes, the police withdrew from the bar and joined other officers on a two-hour rampage through the Castro. By the early morning, over two hundred protesters and Castro Street patrons had been injured, along with sixty police officers; the city ultimately settled a large personal injury suit brought in the wake of the Elephant Walk raid. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #queerhistorymatters #haveprideinhistory (at San Francisco Civic Center Courthouse) -- source link
#lgbthistory#haveprideinhistory#lgbtpride#queerhistorymatters#lgbttheirstory#lgbtherstory