Allan Baird has always been a fighter. He made a career in the labor movement keeping companies that employed the Teamsters he represented honest. It was during what was perhaps the biggest fight of his career that Baird would become part of something historic.

Baird grew up in the Castro District of San Francisco. In fact, Baird has lived in “The Castro,” as it is commonly known, for his entire life. The 77-year-old retired President of Teamsters Local 921, which merged into Local 853 in 2002, still lives with his wife in what has become one of the best known gay and lesbian communities in the world.

It was here that the true story behind the critically acclaimed film “Milk” unfolded. It was a story in which Baird played an integral role, a role that he would portray on the silver screen nearly 32 years after Harvey Milk made history.

Making San Francisco A Coors-Free Zone

It was the summer of 1974 and Baird had a problem. He shouldn’t have had one, but he did. He had just settled a five-month strike of more than 1,000 beer drivers from Local 888 and nearly all the beer distributors that serviced San Francisco agreed to a new contract. However, Coors decided to hold out and refused to negotiate with the union.

Baird took action and orchestrated a citywide boycott of Coors products, but the company still refused to bargain. Baird had already garnered the support from business owners and representatives in the black, Asian, Hispanic and Palestinian neighborhoods, but he had not approached what was becoming a growing political force in the city—the gay and lesbian community.

“William Coors wasn’t budging on negotiations,” Baird recalled. “We flew to Golden, Colorado at his invitation, sat down at the brewery and stated our case. In the end, it was just a waste of time.”

Baird knew that Milk, a camera shop owner on Castro St. who was running for city supervisor, had become a real political force not only in the gay community, but in all of San Francisco. Baird told Coors that he was going enlist the help of Milk to expand the boycott.

“Coors looked at me a said, ‘Who the hell is Harvey Milk?’ I told him he would find out soon enough,” Baird said.

After his return from Colorado, Baird sat down with Milk to discuss how the union and his campaign could work together. Baird asked what it would take for Milk to get the gay community to support the boycott of Coors products.

“He told me that we had his support and he only had one request; he wanted the Teamsters to hire openly gay drivers in San Francisco,” Baird said. “I immediately agreed.”

With Milk’s support, the Coors boycott quickly took hold at gay bars and businesses in San Francisco. The boycott would continue for three years and spread across California. While the union ultimately decided to end the boycott in 1976, to this day many businesses in Castro refuse to serve Coors products.

And the union kept its word, hiring gay drivers within a week after Baird and Milk made the pact.

Casting Call

Baird remains to this day a staunch supporter of gay and lesbian rights and the Teamsters Union supported Milk in his successful run for city supervisor in 1977 when he became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. So when representatives from the film “Milk” contacted Baird and asked him to share his story with the cast, he was happy to agree.

“I was invited to dinner with Sean Penn, James Franco and all the actors working on the film,” Baird said. “I told them about the boycott and shared my memories of Harvey. They called me later and asked me to come down and meet the actor that would be playing me in the film.”

Baird went down to Milk’s camera shop on Castro where the crew was shooting the scene. He met director Gus Van Sant who wanted to know every detail about Harvey Milk and the boycott.

“Van Sant decided after meeting me that he wanted me to play myself in the film,” Baird said. “He asked me to come back down to the camera shop and play the role. I was thrilled and accepted.”

Baird and Penn shot a five-minute scene which was edited into a montage of still images in the final theatrical version of the movie. However, an interview with Baird is included in the bonus materials of the DVD release.

“I really enjoyed the experience,” Baird said. “It was great to work on a set and see how much the Teamsters working there were appreciated and how well they were treated. Two historic things happened during this period of history: Harvey Milk was elected and the Teamsters took a huge step to becoming a more inclusive union.”