It just happened to be living in a certain place at a certain time most of it is the reason. I worked right near City Hall and it was very scary times indeed. When Dan White was at large, the building I worked in went into lock-down mode.
Then you heard about what happened later via the now Mayor Feinstein (that's how she got her start in politics being the mayor of San Francisco).
As for Harvey Milk, he was an interesting man and he had a fine sense of humor I remember. That was why his campaign for supervisor had some aspects to it that many thought were highly funny yet necessary at the time too.
I was greatly saddened by the deaths of both Milk and Mayor Moscone and to have that horrible Guyana/Jim Jones thing happen right after that was just a bit too much for me and yes, I would have gladly passed on most of these events as they all involved murder en mass.
I view myself as being no hero, I was just there at that time and invited to go to this event with a friend I knew that was active in the gay community and local politics as well. Come to think of it, he was on Harvey Milk's campaign committee.
Just know that things have indeed changed.
At least the chant of "Out of the closet and into the street!" isn't often heard these days. 
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