Video: Gay Men’s Chorus holds 34th anniversary memorial for Harvey Milk’s assassination
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus last night held a memorial and candlelight vigil march to the city’s Castro District, to mark the 34th anniversary of Harvey Milk and George Moscone’s assassination.
The chorus first performed the night the pair were assassinated, after only three rehearsals. The song, Thou Lord our Refuge, a song the chorus sung on the night, has been rearranged by Edwin Morales, a current member of the chorus, and features in the video.
In the video, Robert Rufo, a founding member of the group, reflects on the past 34 years, and memories from the night that Supervisor Milk and Mayor Moscone were assassinated. He says:
“There was that terrible day when Harvey Milk was assassinated, and I was very upset, I did not go to rehearsal that evening. But my partner and I had heard that there was going to be a candlelight march, so we decided to go to that, and 30,000 people showed up for that march.”
“There was a lot of anger, a lot of sadness, and a lot of… what do we do now?”
Appearing in the video from the memorial service in front of City Hall were Supervisor Scott Weiner, Anne Kronenberg, Mayor Ed Lee, former Mayor Willie Brown, Jonathan Moscone and Stuart Milk.
In June 2013, the chorus will be performing a concert named Harvey Milk 2013.
Back in May, it was announced that a two-block street in San Francisco would be named after Harvey Milk, and the unveiling of the street name marked his 82nd birthday.
