The Facts of the Day
On March 9, the San Francisco Band enjoyed a unique opportunity to reenact its founding in 1978. It was pretty special to us; we love to do events where we are working for the gay community, it’s why we exist. This was special.
On that day we participated in the filming of MILK, a major feature film recounting the story of Harvey Milk. We helped to reenact the 1978 Pride Parade where Harvey appeared as a Supervisor for San Francisco and his speech at the festival afterward.
We had 60+ musicians and about 20 twirlers, banner carriers, and a group carrying “cards” that spelled G - A - Y on one side of the cards and F-R-E-E-D-O-M on the other. People were up until 2 am making these things.
I arrived at 8 am and it was a lot of hurrying up and lots to do. We had to distribute uniform parts (red web belts and visors), do a “70s suitability check” to make sure we looked 1978. I bought some faded jeans and plain white tennis shoes (we were recreating exactly what the band wore in ‘78). For a group of nearly 80 people, this was a task.
One of my jobs was to work with another band member to lay out a strip of tape every 7.5 feet, so that people could practice step length. Then I helped people put their belts on. I spent four years in the Air Force, so I was surprised how many did not know how to assemble and wear a web belt. I got to belt some pretty cute guys… my belting skills were praised… Then we tuned, warmed up, played “San Francisco” half a dozen times.
After a bit we got our authentic original re-creation band T-shirts. Well, the thing is, white is a bit hard on the cameras so they made them faintly pink… but we weren’t complaining!
Cleve Jones is the gay activist who created the Quilt (the Names Project). He was a young student then, part of Harvey's crew as campaign manager, and during the day he told us how he talked to Jon Sims about the band being formed and also how the rainbow flag made its debut that day (a HUGE one hung from the balcony of City Hall behind the podium erected for Harvey’s speech).
When filming finally began they started with the (after parade) speech scene. Sean Penn is playing Harvey; he really looked and acted the part convincingly! Penn climbed up on the stage while we all went wild cheering. He made Harvey’s very short speech, maybe a minute or two long, and went off stage, then into the crowd – and walked right past me.
We did that at least 8 more times. The last two they changed camera angles and asked band members to go fill in another area in the background so I wasn’t next to him for those two takes.
About 2 pm they reset the street to film the parade, and the band got its chance to really shine.
We played “San Francisco” a dozen more times, marched a half-block long parade then walked back to the start of the block to reset the scene and did it again, while extras on both sides of the street cheered us.
Eventually they had us march down the street all alone taking half-sized steps so they could record the sound. We played San Francisco three MORE times.
Then we were filmed “arriving” before the parade – we walked loosely, talking among ourselves, pretending we were going for our very first ever march in 1978. This is, I guess, background footage, something they took advantage of, but might not use.
No idea how much of this will hit the cutting room floor.
Reflections - What the Day Felt Like and What It Meant to Me.
Doing the parade felt great. We get a great reception whenever we march, and this was no different. Much of it was for the cameras of course, but when we were going back to reset a lot of people cheered us then, too.
It really did feel inspiring.
Gay FREEDOM Day 1978 (not Pride, we were looking for Freedom then…)
That day was seminal a lot of ways.
I could remember the things Harvey talked about in that speech, especially John Briggs and the Briggs initiative (many “no on 6” buttons), and Anita Bryant.
Most of this we had to explain to the young people in the band.
You know, that felt pretty weird. On one hand I was sad they didn’t know all this, but then how could they? On the other hand I was so glad they didn’t have to live with the Briggs Initiative, which would have made it impossible for openly gay people to teach in public schools.
I was a 28 year old college student, president of the gay students organization at the University of Arizona when all this happened; for me today was kind of special. I feel like I got a chance to engage in something I missed, something really important: the appearance of the first openly gay elected official in the US.
Part of Harvey’s message was “you’ve got to come out!” He knew that acceptance of gay people ultimately depended on our being known, on our being a part of everyone’s daily life. When that happens, people find it almost impossible to discriminate and villanize and distort us.
And really that’s what has happened. It may be frustrating, the Supreme Court may not be helpful, but we aren’t that far away from having our rights legally guaranteed. Ultimately more important, there are progressively fewer areas where the people of America are comfortable discriminating.
So this wasn’t the Mattachine Society, and it wasn’t Stonewall. It wasn’t the very start. But it was a moment when gay people, in one place, decided to seize political power, to demand acceptance, and to show that it could really be done.
What Was Wrought:
One of the women who carried the band’s banner that day related this story to us:
As I was leaving the protected, closed street area on Sunday, I was stopped by a very tall, very large, very official, age 50+ policeman. He apologized for interrupting me and again if he was out of line for asking, but “Would there be any way I could get a size small t-shirt like that?”
Thirty years ago, if I had been stopped by this guy wearing that shirt, I could expect at the very least, serious grief. Today, well.... It seems his 13 year old son came out, and is trying very, very hard to get into Julliard. The policeman was looking forward to telling his son about the band and the filming and having a shirt would be just wonderful.
Thanks Jon, Thanks Harvey, and thank you band!
Oh, I gave him my shirt and told him to have his son join the band while he waits to hear from Julliard.
This little vignette really sums up what has happened in America in the past thirty years. What we all did, we did for that boy, and for his father, too. This outcome we could probably not even have envisioned in 1978. Yet, here we are.
The role one gay band played in that transformation was small, the role each of us played was small, but Harvey knew what he was talking about. The simple fact is, when people know us they find it hard to hate us. And some found out they loved us.
And there is, after all, “nothing more All-American than a marching band.”
Story of the filming:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=0&f=/c/a/2008/03/10/BA12VGVQB.DTL
The Movie Extras website:
http://www.milkmarch.com/
By Phil Oliver
On that day we participated in the filming of MILK, a major feature film recounting the story of Harvey Milk. We helped to reenact the 1978 Pride Parade where Harvey appeared as a Supervisor for San Francisco and his speech at the festival afterward. 
One of my jobs was to work with another band member to lay out a strip of tape every 7.5 feet, so that people could practice step length. Then I helped people put their belts on. I spent four years in the Air Force, so I was surprised how many did not know how to assemble and wear a web belt. I got to belt some pretty cute guys… my belting skills were praised… Then we tuned, warmed up, played “San Francisco” half a dozen times.
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