Background: Attended college in upstate New York, served briefly in the Navy, and then settled down to an inconspicuous life in a New York apartment with a male spouse. He joined a Wall Street firm and campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964.
He moved to San Franscico and opened up a camera shop in Castro Street before the neighbourhood had achieved any renown as the centre of a gay community. He began to get involved in political campaigns and proved to be a shrewd wheeler-dealer, cultivating an improbable but effective alliance with the city's blue-collar unions. On his third try, in 1977, he was elected to the post of San Franscico supervisor. He quickly became a nationally known figure who many believed destined to rise to higher office.
On the Board of Supervisors he was frequently opposed by Dan White. After White first resigned his post and sought vainly to regain his post he decided to shoot Mayor Moscone who had thwarted him. On 27th November, 1978 he shot not only Moscone but also his enemy Harvey Milk.
In his trial Dan White put forward the "twinky defence", claiming that his judgement had been impaired by consuming too much junk food. On 21st May, 1979, the judge sentenced him to only seven years, eight months for manslaughter. That evening, a protest against the verdict and sentence by 5,000 people at San Francisco City Hall became a riot, resulting in the burning of a dozen police cars and the breaking of every ground floor window in City Hall. In retaliation, 24 police officers later descended on the gay Castro disctrict, beating up by-passers and trashing the Elephant Walk gay bar. The evening came to be known as the "White Night Riot" - the first gay riot since the Stonewall Rebellion ten years earlier. After White's release from prison he took his own life.

Greatest Achievement: Influencing gay rights from a position of importance.

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