Crowds gather at Harvey Milk Plaza to commemorate a slain supervisor

The first openly LGBTQ-identified person to hold public office in California and one of the first in the United States, Harvey Milk served less than 11 months as a San Francisco Supervisor before his death at the hands of an ex-colleague.

Former Supervisor Dan White assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone inside City Hall on Nov. 27, 1978, and a candlelight vigil has been held at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro every year since to acknowledge that tragic event.

Sunday evening’s crowd honored Milk’s legacy amid a rise in political violence and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide. The gathering came only a month after an attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband and barely a week after a gunman opened fire at a queer bar in Colorado, killing five and injuring 18.