The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
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On November 27, 1978, San Francisco mayor George Moscone was fatally shot in his City Hall office by a disgruntled city supervisor. An openly gay official, Harvey Milk, was also slain that day. The perpetrator, a conservative, homophobic former police officer, Dan White, objected to the citywide reforms that the Moscone Administration had implemented since 1975. Mayor Moscone was a Democrat and well-liked former state senator who altered the municipal election process, which forced candidates to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to be far more involved in the neighborhoods they sought to represent. Milk, an activist from the Castro Street area, became the city's first openly gay elected official.
Just a few days before the City Hall shootings, 911 members of Jim Jones's People's Temple had committed suicide in Guyana. The cult was originally based in San Francisco, and some of its members had worked for Moscone's mayoral campaign. The event shocked the city, and to conservatives like Dan White, it symbolized the unwholesomeness of Moscone's liberal politics. White had quit his supervisor post a few weeks earlier but came to Moscone on November 27 to request reinstatement.
During his 1979 trial, White's lawyers claimed that he was addicted to junk food and was mentally incapacitated because of it at the time, which was mocked as the "Twinkie Defense." He was convicted of manslaughter, which angered the gay community in the city to the point of riot. Paroled in 1984, White committed suicide a year later.