Friday evening, on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall, approximately 500 people gathered in a solemn ceremony to honor Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were shot 30 years ago.

People lit small candles near the gilded dome of the City Hall and then prepared to keep vigil in the Castro, which is the neighborhood that Milk served as representative for on the board of supervisors back in 1978.

Ever since Harvey Milk died, a ceremony to remember him has been held each year, but events in 2008 such as the release of the Hollywood movie „Milk” and the ban on gay marriage in California, with Proposition 8 having passed, lent increased significance to the celebration.

Thirty years ago, on Thursday, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were gunned down by former Supervisor Dan White, who was also a police officer, because Moscone had refused to reappoint him after he had resigned. Moreover, Milk also opposed his reappointment.

In November that year, thousands of people attended the candlelight vigil in the Castro.

During the ceremony, everybody remembered the legacy the two left to the people and the politics of San Francisco, honoring Moscone for having been the first mayor to appoint large numbers of women, gays and lesbians and racial minorities to city commissions and advisory boards.

As for Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, his nephew Stuart Milk stood in front of the crowd gathered at the City Hall and said that people should follow his example of courage and send in their turn, a message of hope.