Castro Street was closed on schedule at 5 p.m., CNN had a live feed on the rally stage, and SF's cohort of openly gay politicians all got up to speak Friday evening, along with other activists, celebrating the major historical milestone of today's Supreme Court decision for federal marriage equality mere feet from where Harvey Milk publicly fought for far more basic rights for gay people forty years ago. The mood, perhaps because of blustery weather conditions or the distractions of the Friday of Pride weekend, was just slightly less giddy than it was two years ago this week when the court issued the landmark decisions that put Prop 8 to rest and struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. In a way, that victory was much bigger for California, and for San Francisco, and today's victory was more about everyone else who'd been left out, and about finally ending a legal battle that feels like it's been going on for decades — though technically it's only been 11 years. And did I mention it was really windy?

Nonetheless hundreds of people gathered to hear brief speeches by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, State Senator Mark Leno, Supervisor Scott Wiener, Supervisor David Campos, and former State Senator and Assemblywoman Carol Migden. Campos called for a moment of silence from the crowd, for everyone, including Harvey Milk, "who fought for this and didn't live long enough to see this day."

I ran into one man named Joel who said, "You're so young. This will show you how long I've been in this fight," showing me a pin that said "Sodomy Repeal / Civil Rights / July 11 1976." He said he was the first openly gay law student at the University of North Carolina, "And back then that meant death threats."

Crowds spilled out of all the bars along the street, and everyone was in a clearly joyful mood. And, much like two years ago, this Pride weekend is sure to be extra crazy, as the Onion has already predicted.

See our images of the scene, before and during the rally, and stay tuned for SFist's coverage of the whole, insane Pride weekend in San Francisco.