Is It Pride Really?

To fully understand looking back to a similar event in 1978 provides both a reality and a contrast to what it's all about. In June, 1978, Harvey Milk was the city's first openly gay supervisor. "Come out, come out," he proclaimed. It was this June parade which provided the opportunity to, indeed, come out as a gay man or lesbian.

Majestically moving from a side street to Market Street, a young very attractive school teacher from Kansas led a band put together at rehearsals conducted on the dance floor of the Trocadero, one of those famed disco dance palaces.

The man was Jon Sims. The song was "California, Here I come," and musicians called themselves the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps.

The premier entertainer at the Trocadero and other dance pavilions like the I-Beam and Buzzbys was Sylvester. His music survives from an incredible concert at the War Memorial Opera House. It was the west coast version of "Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall."

It was also the time for sorting out the response to the gay bashing murder of Robert Hillsborough on a Mission District corner. On November 27, this same community would mourn the assassination of Milk and then mayor George Moscone.

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