Backlash at gays seen

Recent Frisco riots could diminish homosexual community's influence

By Fred Mann

Plain Dealer special

* SAN FRANCISCO-This city's large homosexual community, which has gained a level of social. acceptance and political power unequaled by gays elsewhere, may face a significant public backlash as a result of recent violence over the fate of political assassin Dan White.

The violence, triggered by a jury's verdict that found White guilty of voluntary manslaughter for the deaths of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay. leader Harvey Milk, was the most destructive this city has seen since the days of anti-war protests in the early 1970s.

The manslaughter decisions were the most lenient verdicts possible in the case. The prosecution had asked for the death penalty for White, the former policeman and fireman who admitted committing the murders last Nov. 27. The jury's

decision guarantees that White will serve no more than seven years and eight months in jail. He could be released in little more than three years.

The verdict has outraged many San Franciscans more than anything since the murders themselves.. Gays, who lost their only elected spokesman and a mayor whom they considered a friend, are particularly enraged.

A crowd of some 4,000 demonstrators, mostly homosexuals, responded to the decision Monday night with a march from the city's predominantly gay Castro Valley neighborhood to City Hall, where some protesters broke windows, burned cars and battled riot-equipped police for five hours.

Some leaders of the protest attempted to halt the violence, but were unsuccessful.

Nearly 200 people were hurt, including 59 policemen and, ironically, the only city supervisor who

had testified in court against White. Twenty-five of the city's 200 police squad cars were destroyed by fire.

"I'm afraid that our credibility with the rest of the city has been hurt by this," said June Randolph, a gay protester who attempted to calm the crowd. "Everybody feels cheated right now cheated right now the straights

as well as the gays. We have to be careful not to give those who are against us an excuse for doing further harm to us.

"Letting Dan White off is damage enough," she said.

"The verdict shocked everyone in the whole city," said John Molinari, president of the Board of Supervisors, "but the violence has been just as shocking. Much of what Harvey (Milk) worked for may have gone up in flames."

Milk, who stressed nonviolence, had successfully organized San Francisco's large homosexual

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San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, center, who was named to replace slain Supervisor Harvey Milk, walks down Castro St. with unidentified friends during a birthday celebration by the gay community for Milk, who would have been 49 Tuesday.

Associated Press