Invoking the anti-gay rhetoric of the late 1970’s, House Speaker Pelosi Thursday sought to tie the November 1978 murder of San Francisco gay rights activists and Board of Supervisors member Harvey Milk to potential violence today because of heightened rhetoric surrounding Democratic healthcare reform efforts.
Mrs. Pelosi’s histrionic and troubling admonishment to “curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements” on healthcare aside, her thoughts don’t appear to jibe with the recollections of fellow San Francisco Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Last year Feinstein reportedly said former Supervisor Dan White wasn’t driven by anti-homosexual sentiments when he murdered Milk.
According to a November 26, 2008 San Francisco Sentinel article, Feinstein told reporters in her San Francisco office that White did not kill Milk because he was gay, but that White felt betrayed when he was unable to reclaim his seat on the Board of Supervisors after resigning. Feinstein, who was President of the board at the time and found Milk’s body after he and former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone’s shooting, would surely be in a position to know.
She reminisced:
“What people don’t know is that Dan White and Harvey Milk were friends,” Feinstein said, adding they used to meet for coffee in the Castro nearly every week. “Dan White was a troubled man under a lot of pressure.”
So much for dangerous rhetoric.
The original article can be found here.
