[rabidralph]

Despite his wishes, gay activist and politician Harvey Milk, publicly proclaimed Sipple a "gay hero" and said his act "will help break the stereotype of homosexuals."

A few years later, Harvey Milk and SF Mayor Moscone were gunned down by disgruntled employee Dan White (not the Cowboys QB). This act propelled Dianne Feinstein to the mayor's office and then to the US Senate.

[Tenniel]

To bring things full circle in re unbalanced assassins, the Dan White trial also gave us the Twinkie Defense (diminished capacity due to spongecake-induced hyperglicemia).

Not that it did White much good; he was convicted, not of first-degree murder but of manslaughter -- to the great annoyance of the city's gay community -- and served five years in prison. He committed suicide in 1985, two years after being paroled.