This is from a photo by Daniel Nicoletta, who was at the time the young friend and cohort of Harvey Milk, working in his Castro Camera store and part of his inner circle cohort helping him run for San Francisco supervisor for his four campaigns (he eventually won in 1978 before being tragically assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, by fellow supervisor Dan White).  Milk founded the Castro Street Fair in August 1974, to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and local businesses, and this third iteration was celebratory and in resistance to the anti-Gay Liberation movement, just before Anita Bryants campaign and Proposition 6 (Briggs Initiative) restricting LGBTQ rights and teachers).  Of the many photos Nicoletta took of this particular day, this is the one that shows the extent of the popularity of the Fair, which continues to this day, and of course, the movement.

While painting, I listened to the Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts and a LOT of 1970’s disco that would have been blasting through loudspeaker (including Sylvester who performed live at these events) and which was the music of my youth.  It was amazing to see the event through Nicoletta’s eyes and remembering as a kid visiting the gay rights fairs in Denver with my sister (who is also LGBTQ+ like myself and lives in SF) and parents.  The extent of the cool bohemian vibe, and the music, which was so good and intrinsic, like the theme of the painting, to my soul. I hope I was able to capture a glimpse of the spirit of the tapestry of the collective group of individuals coming together in color, form, and empowered swagger. How the painting is not like the photo is what is “me” about it, a reflection of my hope that like then, we can all come together to rise above forces that still obviously try to repress us, and all minorities.

Like Milk said at the end of his famous “hope” speech, on the steps of San Francisco City Hall during a mass rally to celebrate California Gay Freedom Day, 25 June 1978:

And the young gay people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, and the Richmond, Minnesotas, who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us’es, the us’es will give up. And if you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.

So if there is a message I have to give, it is that I’ve found one overriding thing about my personal election, it’s the fact that if a gay person can be elected, it’s a green light. And you and you and you, you have to give people hope…”