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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.
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