Harvey Milk's Castro Street camera store was a hub of political activity for San Francisco’s growing gay population in the mid-1970s

In one of my earliest memories, I’m standing outside in a line with classmates at the George Peabody Elementary School in San Francisco’s Richmond District. When a solemn teacher asks if anyone knows why the flags in front of us are at half-staff, I raise my hand and say, “Because the mayor was killed.”

The mayor was George Moscone, slain by former Board of Supervisors member Dan White in San Francisco’s City Hall. After killing the mayor, White sought out Supervisor Harvey Milk and fired five bullets into the man best known as the nation’s first openly gay elected official.

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The 1978 assassinations of Moscone and Milk rocked my city, which is probably why I remember some of the aftermath decades later. People cried in the streets and marched by the thousands in candlelight vigils. Even a first-grader couldn’t help but be aware of what had happened.

I was reminded of it all as I learned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to rechristen the Navy ship named in 2016 for Milk, which was the first such honor for a gay........

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