From "The Memoirs, Chapter 12" -

            That was the year our good friend and long time AAA member, Tommy Ammiano decided to run for the School Board of San Francisco.  He had been an elementary school teacher for years, as had his lover Tim, and they had been some of the first “out” gay teachers in, well, the country, and Tommy got himself on the front page of the chronicle.

            I hadn’t had much to do with his campaign until he came to me one day and said Bill, I want to do a float for the gay parade this year, you know, to promote my campaign.  Do you think we could do it?

            Well, we all said, Yeah, of course, let’s do it!

            Tommy managed to borrow an old flatbed truck and we covered it with a big cartoon, cardboard school bus, all yellow and black.  We filled the windows with kids from his school and put Tommy on top like a giant Cowboy!  Now I don’t say we were crucial to his campaign, but he went on to win what would be his first public office in a long career.  We’ve always been proud of our Tommy!

* * *

            Wheee!

*  *  *

(NOTE:  See lots more in AMMIANO, TOM in my ENCYCLOPEDIA OF IMAGES.)

   ...NEXT:  VALLEJO GARAGE