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From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: net.motss,net.movies
Subject: Re: motssbox
Message-ID: <1461@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 17-Jun-85 10:15:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncca.1461
Posted: Mon Jun 17 10:15:30 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Jun-85 07:36:45 EDT
References: <482@rtech.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
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Robert Orenstein's bigoted assertions speak for themselves.  His speculation
that White did not kill Milk because he way gay runs counter to the entire
political environment of that time: for example, the behavior and senti-
ments of the SF police, fire dept. and other peers and close friends of
White before, during and after the murders paint quite a different picture
other than mere political infighting.  These are covered in Randy Shilts
THE MAYOR OF CASTRO STREET and can also be traced via articles in the
San Francisco press.

But the main point here is that the mere existence of stress or inter-
personal hostility hardly serves to fully explain an act as extreme as
brutal multiple murder: I doubt many San Franciscans could be persuaded
to believe that White would have killed anyone if there had been no gay
Board members.

Apart from whether the Milk-White relationship can be so characterized,
political intrigue and personal feuds are hardly unknown in the City's
politics; but they don't usually lead to murder & assassination.  For
example, Quentin Kopp, the Supervisor from Sunset (a middle class resi-
dential neighborhood pretty much out of touch with the rest of San Fran-
cisco), an incorrigible conservative & often White's sole ally on the
Board, is no stranger to political bickering and backstabbing.

According to the accounts I've read and what I saw & heard at the time
(I lived in SF from 1977-1979), Ornstein's description is not only off
the wall, but contains a murderous variety of homophobia, a kind of
kneejerk compulsion to find apologies for any homophobic act, however
vicious, under the guise of "understanding motivation" or "rising
above partisan interpretations" (but what political coloration does
Ornstein's reference to "Moscone's whoremongering" represent---neo-
Puritan?).  

					Ron Rizzo