tonight on a second look, four decades of pride. we trace the history of san francisco's gay pride parade and tell you about the 1977 crime that brought the entire city together behind the gay community. plus we take you back in time to a san francisco institution. the nokios a place where things were not always what they seemed. and we tell the story of oakland native gertrude sign

who said there is no their there. when she said it and what she meant. good evening i'm julie haener and this is a second look. san francisco held its gay pride today. it's an event that traces its roots back to 1970. as it has grown over the years so has the political and economic influence of san francisco's gay community. but it wasn't always so. in 2000, ktvu's bob mackenzie brought us a look at how things have changed for both the parade and the community. >> reporter: gay and lesbian people wouldn't have dared marched together in the street 15 years ago, let alone carry

signs and wear the clothing. he says there was not hard finding gay bars. to go t.o. gay bars or to a gay party was to live dangerously. but the danger then was not of violence on the street. gay bashing was rare. the danger was of exposure. of having your cover ripped away. of having your name printed in the paper, of losing your friends or family. a lightly organized motly ban of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals and hippies marched to the wonder and displayed of a still shockable public. while the ash bury had been getting all the attention, the city had also become a

destination for gay men and women. as their numbers grew so did their boldness. for the first time many felt safe in being publicly safe. even flamboyantly gay. according to susan striker executive director of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgenter historical society, the flamboyant was not just the median but the message. >> a lot of the things they say is they are too showy, they are too visible. they don't look like everybody else. i think the extravagance of the gay parades is so what, what's wrong with being flamboyant. by the second year of the parade, some of the organizers had decided that the first event was too flamboyant, that all those drag queens and butch lesbians had sent the wrong message. a message that represented a

lot of the gays and lesbians. so the cross dressers were not invited. >> i think that was a misconception of the transgender people. >> still that parade shocked straight men who believed in using quiet persuasion to gain acceptance for homo sexuals. one of them was thomas lucas who in the 1950s had been one of the founders of the madechine society. this was at a time when gay sex was against the law, and homosexuals lived private lives. >> they had to hide the fact that they were gay because there was such a stigma

attached to it, you could not get a job. you had to have a wife to climb up the ladders in the companies that the time. >> reporter: in the time, gay men and women did their socializing in private, in their own homes. even there they had to be very careful. >> you could even lose the place you in which you were living. if you were renting. >> just for being gay? >> just for being gay. no reason. the gay bars would be raided. your name would be in the paper and that was it. that's why there were an awful lot of suicides. >> reporter: partly because of the quiet work done by men such as lucas, a large proportion of the bay area public was ready in the 70s to hear the message of gay pride and gay rights and to accept in good humor the antics of the parade marchers.

>> my message is freedom and peace and love. nothing else. >> as the parade became an annual fixture, the cross dressers were invited back. the costumes and the antics got wilder. was it a celebration or a protest march? >> at one point in the 1970s someone tried to introduce like carnival style rides at the festival after the parade and they were loudly criticized for you know pulling the political things out of this event. and they were declawing the movement that it was all about celebration and not about politics. >> reporter: in the 1980s the festive move was squashed. not but politics but by an infectious virus turns strong young men into dead young men. >> the parade became a little more quiet as aids was taking

its toll. >> reporter: in the 1990s, a new generation took over. a generation that included racial and social issues of all kinds. the generation xers were savvy about fund raising and opened the doors to commercial fund raising. some believe the parade is losing it's punch. >> i think if you're betting at bringing resources to the table that you have a chance to affect more things in the world. on the other hand if you sell out your message and water down what you're doing, then you've lost something. >> reporter: times change and so do messages. but the freedom rights parade has established a permanent play in bay area culture. still to come on second look, we recount the crime that brought straight and gay communities together. and a little later, for the

second straight decade the nokios bring their show to san francisco. sir. it's personnel on the telephone. [ laughing ] it's computer time... it's personnel on the, on the, on the desks. we can't afford to do this for free, your honor. jury? guilty. [ cheering ] [ male announcer ] don't pay a change fee on top of a fare difference. fly southwest, the only major airline that never charges change fees.

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this is pride weekend in san francisco. capped off with today's annual gay pride parade. it has become an enormous event with more than a million people expected to attend this year. one event in 1977, an attack on a gay man galvanized both the gay and straight communities. and the size of the crowd doubled in a single year. in 2004, ktvu's bob mackenzie told us what happened. >> reporter: just a few days before the gay freedom day parade in 1977, two men stopped on their way home for burgers here at this drive in in the mission district. one put his arm around the other. four young men from daley city saw that. followed the two home and jumped them when they were a few steps from their apartment. one of the two managed to

outrun the gang and get away. 33-year-old roberts hillsboro could not escape his attackers, he died that night. >> he was stomped in his face and his chest 15 times by a gang of men screaming fagets. gay men and lesbians are his survivors. >> reporter: by then police had arrested 19-year-old john cordova the man with the knife. they'd seized the other three young men police say were with him. those arrested not in the meetings and protests in san francisco. people said it was time to stand together. >> gay people realize that they can't do it alone. >> reporter: he also ordered

police to saturate the parade rout. the police squads stood ready. organizers asked the gay community to remain calm. that sunday an estimated 200,000 people turned out to march in the parade or watch from the sidewalk. double the number who had shown up the year before. the women who called themselves dykes with bikes were back. and men dressed to be admired but paradegoers said there was a difference this year. >> i think the big key was you're going to see all gays of

all time. you're not going to see the screaming cross dressers. >> well you've seen some of them today. >> well, you've seen some of them but you're going to see less. >> i enjoyed this extremely. >> reporter: do you support gays? >> yes i do. >> i don't attempt to understand it at all. >> reporter: police said they had only the usual problems with traffic and crowds. >> today everybody is wearing a chastity belt. i don't think there'll be any problems because we keep our backs to the wall. >> reporter: the crowd at the rally after the parade seemed relaxed. a makeshift memorial grew on the sidewalk as they gathered to hear speakers remember the murder of robert hillsboro. the one politician who addressed the crowd then san

francisco assemblyman willie brown told the crowd they were beautiful. then asked for silence. >> one moment of silence for the young man who died. >> reporter: did the death of robert hillsboro bring people out of the closet and into the streets? a local political lobbyists said that the sheer number of people who came out of the parade gave them political clout. people who were afraid to come out were now asking, are you with us? a large public funeral was held the day after the parade. he was a man who was described as working for the works

department and who had no interest in politics. the man who stabbed robert hillsboro was convicted of second degree murder the next year. cordova served five years in prison. cordova has served time since then on two other convictions. and most recently was booked under his new name, trudy cardova. his parol officers say cardova was living as a woman when he was discharged from parol four years ago. when we come back on a second look, why is bob mackenzie dressed up as a woman? it all has to do with a san francisco institution called the nokios. remembers bay area natives gertrude kline who's gallery is back in san francisco this summer.

for more than 60 years, the nokios is a bay area

constitution. it offered a one of a kind show where looked like it seemed. the nokios closed and before they did, bob mackenzie visited. >> reporter: it is the longest running show of its kind in the world. this week after 63 years of amusing and often amazing visitors to san francisco. the nokios will close its doors, for angela moore that will mean a glamorous end for his second life as an entertainer. in his day job he works at a restaurant. jobs like this one aren't easy

to find. this is his first job as an entertainments. >> i entertainment. >> i do it so i can entertain people. that's the first thing, i like to entertain people and that's a nice place to do it. there's no other place like this in san francisco. so i'm kind of sad it's closing. >> reporter: but if you are frank rodriguez who has danced in the nokio show for 14 years, the demise of the show is devastating. he has no other career. >> a little sad, but i have to survive and do something different. >> reporter: eve penokio who's husband joe started the show says the rent has wiped out the traffic. the show no longer draws visitors the way it used to. the performers think that's

because there hasn't been any advertisement. >> i have more foam pad, tufted cushions in here. i'm like a five piece sexual. i guess that makes me a homosexual. >> it's all part of people's memories and it's going to be gone. a piece of their lives is going to be gone. when we lose things in our lives we naturally move on. but why lose it if you don't have to? it's a learning ground, almost a school. because when you were hire at p

ed, it's still a name that if it's on a resume will still get you some where. >> a very special guest this evening, from channel 2, the reporter who turns out so so beautiful. bob mackenzie ladies and gentlemen. bob mackenzie from channel 2. >> thank you all very much. i've got to be the special privilege of being backstage tonight. i saw all the performers with their clothes on, believe me you don't want to know about that. finally there's no show like

this one when san francisco loses pinoquios it's going to lose something quite irreplaceable i'm sure you're going to agree with me, right? >> when we come back on a second look, the life and sometimes of oakland's gertrude stein. the woman who said of her town, there is no their in there. what she meant, coming up. [ beep ] [ male announcer ] new toothbrush, for that killer smile: $4. ♪ home cooked meal: $28. [ beep ]

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a famous female writer once said of oakland there is no their there. but who was that woman? who was gertrude stein. visitors to the art museum can see her art collection. she once said america is my country, but paris is my hometown. she grew up in oakland, in 2001 bob mackenzie had this look at her life. >> reporter: unless you're a

student of 20th century literature you probably have never read anything by gertrude stein. the american writer who meant most of her time in france. but you probably know what she said of oakland, there is no their there. gertrude stein grew up in oakland from four to 14. for a while the family lived here at 1640 tenth avenue. little gertrude was an avid reader. by the age five she was reading

shakespeare. they found what they were looking for in paris. where new art, new literature, new ideas of how to live. the cafes were full of talk and every chair was filled by a poet, a writer, a painter or a patron of the arts or by someone posing as one or the other. writers wrote in public. painters painted in public, art was in the streets, and radical new books were everywhere. and gertrude stein apartment became one of the centers. she didn't announce that she was a lesbian but sheer she did not have to hide it. pablo picasso painted a picture of her, when she said it didn't

look like her. he said don't worry it will. ernest hemmingway was an admirer. you are all a lost generation she told them. another reader dreamed of the avid life in paris. she was alice, when she made a daring trip to paris, she met stein. stein proposed to alice.

at older age,gertrude looked less and less like a female. and toward the end of their tour, gertrude took alice on a nostalgic visit to oakland. it was supposed to be nostalgic: but the town had become a city and everything had changed. she later wrote about this visit in a book called the auto biography of everybody. and it was in this book that she wrote the famous dictum about oakland. but according to katherine giovanni. she didn't mean the comment as

a -- but more as a lament. >> what she meant meant by there was no there, there is that if you didn't feel like you where from there, you are not there. [ male announcer ] in here, small business solutions from at&t can get you there. like the at&t all for less package, starting at just $70 per month, voice plus broadband. it's the at&t network. helping you do what you do... even better.