1978: No Milk/Moscone shooting

POD: Dan White's depression hits faster and harder. He resigns his job as iOTL, but instead of deciding on murder, he spends the next several years at home, eating Twinkies and watching daytime television.

San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk -- the latter being the first openly gay elected politician in US history -- do not die, and their lives go on.

Now what?

1) No martyr for the gay rights movement. No "White Nights Riots" when Dan White is let off with a light sentence. Are gay rights set significantly back? I'm inclined to think so -- the killing was brutal and very high-profile, and attracted tremendous national attention. If the movement is set back, say, five years... gay marriage not yet on the radar, and no Queer Eye or Andrew Sullivan. (Though there's still Dan Savage.)

2) What happens to George Moscone? He was popular in San Francisco, and had easily defeated a recall election a few months earlier. Other hand, he was tainted by association with Jim Jones (he'd appointed Jones to a board position a year or two back) and was probably too liberal for statewide office even in 1970s California. I suspect he'd continue as SF Mayor for another term or three.

Which leads to

3) Dianne Feinstein's career probably stops at City Supervisor. She'd already lost two elections for Mayor. OTL she replaced Moscone, served two terms, and then went on to win election to the Senate in 1992. With the path through the Mayor's Office blocked, I have trouble seeing how she goes much further.

Which of course raises the question: who might replace her, and what difference might it make?

4) Harvey Milk. Smart, energetic, a tireless organizer, he'd surely try for higher office if he lives. (I don't know enough about his private life to judge his AIDS risk, but I have the impression he was relatively monogamous.) Other hand, he was good at making enemies, and politically way too far left for anything outside of San Francisco.

One interesting possibility: he wins Phil Burton's seat in Congress. OTL Burton's widow held it for a year or two, then died, and Nancy Pelosi narrowly won it in a special election. So, possibly we've eliminated Pelosi's Congressional career as well.

Knock-ons? Thoughts?


Doug M.
 
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