Harvey Milk’s Gay Freedom Day Speech: Annotated - JSTOR Daily

Contents:

• WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS? ‘MILK’
• BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
• HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED
• 40 YEARS AFTER ASSASSATN OF FIRST OPENLY GAY ELECTED OFFICIAL IN CALIFORNIA

WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS? ‘MILK’

That’s why San Francis cy supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office  California and who was assassated ls than eleven months to his first term, remas a qutsential Amerin hero who fought and died not jt for his own rights but for the rights of others. ” It’s through the foc on visibily and polil actn that Milk tablished himself a lear the muny, later a martyr for the gay rights e, and ultimately an important historil figure who was posthumoly honored wh the Printial Medal of Freedom 2009. In the first, he tells him over the phone that he wants to kill himself bee his parents are planng to send him to be cured of his homosexualy; he laments his abily to n away om home bee he is wheelchair-bound.

) In the send, on the night that Milk’s efforts to block the Ana Bryant-backed Briggs Iniative (which would have fired any homosexual teachers California, as well as any teacher who exprsed support for their homosexual -workers), the same kid lls aga to exprs his gratu and and to tell Milk that he succsfully fled to Los Angel. The SOMOSGAY Center Paraguay, which ho Montania's origal mural, serv as a public health rource and cultural center for LGBT Paraguayans, acts as a center for grassroots LGBT groups whout tradnal quarters, and works to promote a "supportive, pluralistic, mocratic, equable and clive Paraguayan society which lbian, gay, bisexual and trans live happily wh full equaly their hom, schools and workplac. Durg his sgle year office, Milk formed a rilient, anized rponse to the Briggs Iniative, known as Prop 6 and spearhead by California state reprentative John Briggs, who aimed to legalize the termatn of gay teachers and teachers who supported gay rights.

— A Southern California school district will receive social studi books om the state to replace the texts nceled by three far-right school board members over a mentn of a gay rights activist, Gov. The district board has yet to approve replacement textbooks after rejectg the curriculum bee optnal supplementary materials for a fourth-gra history textbook clud a half-page b of Harvey Milk, a San Francis supervisor and gay-rights activist who was assassated 1978. Though Milk was assassated 11 months after he was elected to office, his legacy of fightg for gay rights has spired a new generatn of civic activists across the Uned Stat, fightg for sexual equaly and the expansn of civil liberti for gays and lbians.

BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI

Acrdg to Milk, “There is a major difference – and remas a val difference – between a iend and a gay person, a iend office and a gay person office…It’s not enough anymore jt to have iends reprent .

HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED

After losg his first three mpaigns, Milk was elected Supervisor of the cy of San Francis 1977, and as the first openly gay man elected to public office the Uned Stat, Harvey Milk had already reached a tone the fight for gay rights. Milk sought not only to change the stereotyp that existed about gays, but to also promote a legal amework that supports gays, cludg the passage of a gay rights bill, and speakg out agast a barrage of legislatn which would rtrict gays’ civil and polil liberti. Once Milk was swept up the unter-culture of the 1960s and the gay rights liberatn movement 1972, he was surprised that spe the large gay populatn San Francis, immense equali still existed.

Perhaps the bt example of this me durg a speech Milk ma at the June 1978 Gay Freedom Day Para, where he clared, “On the Statue of Liberty says: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled mass yearng to be ee…’ In the Declaratn of Inpennce, is wrten: ‘All men are created equal and they are endowed wh certa alienable rights…’ And our Natnal Anthem, says: ‘Oh, say do that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave over the land of the ee.

To highlight his unrlyg drive for equal opportuny, Milk would often reference two gay teenagers who ntacted him om Richmond, Mnota and Altoona, Pennsylvania: “The only thg they have to look forward to is hope. Even though Jimmy Carter had bee print 1976 on a platform that supported human rights, and many stat had place laws that protected gays and lbians om discrimatn, a nservative opposn began to rerce anti-gay stereotyp.

40 YEARS AFTER ASSASSATN OF FIRST OPENLY GAY ELECTED OFFICIAL IN CALIFORNIA

Th, the gay rights movement lnched a grassroots effort to elect Milk to San Francis’s Board of Supervisors; while his first attempts were unsuccsful, Milk gradually began growg a base of support. Bee the iative vered the whole state of California, Milk unrstood that the only way to nvce Californians that gays should not be fired simply bee of their sexual orientatn was for closeted gays to e out.

” Milk would e his soap-box and bullhorn, rallyg the gay muny wh the slogan “My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to rec you” to march thoands through the cy of San Francis, but he never let his supporters get out of ntrol. Milk quickly disvered that his fight for equaly was supported by not only gays, but also straight workg-class, elrly and mory voters, who reprented a signifint chunk of the votg populatn San Francis.

Acrdg to the gay muny magaze Advote, “[Milk] mold the gay muny to a uned votg bloc, and his populist agenda—which attracted straight fai, workg-class voters, and senr cizens—gave him a powerful base.

It was this kd of operatn that led to Milk’s and the gay muny’s succs; acrdg to gay activist Cleve Jon, a close iend of Milk’s, “In each muny, he found a handful of people who were willg to ve to their livg rooms and church to talk. The two most visible figur behd the legislative manvers were John Briggs, a state Senator California, who sought to remove openly lbian and gay teachers wh Proposn 6 (the phrase “public homosexual” repeats throughout the proposn); and Ana Bryant, whose “Save Our Children” anizatn succsfully helped overturn equal rights ordanc Miami, Florida; Eugene, Oregon; Wicha, Kansas; and St. And fally, I want to tell the John Briggs and the Ana Bryants that they talk about the myths of gays, but today I’m talkg about the facts of heterosexual vlence and what the hell are you gog to do about that?

If you do not speak out, if you rema silence, if you do not lift up your voice agast Briggs, then I ll upon lbians and gay men om all over the natn, your natn, to gather Washgton one year om now on that natnal day of eedom, the fourth of July…the fourth of July, 1979…to gather Washgton on that very same spot where over a ago Dr. I ll upon all mori and pecially the lns of lbians and gay men to wake up om their dreams…to gather Washgton and tell Jimmy Carter and their natn: “Wake up…wake up, Ameri…no more racism, no more sexism, no more ageism, no more hatred…no more! Gav Newsom and sla gay rights lear Harvey the ne-hour Temecula Valley Unified meetg, which ran past midnight, some parents spoke support of the nservative majory on the school board and s buckg of state standards for clive and diverse pated Newsom — who plans to send textbooks that reference Milk to Temecula stunts fiance of the board — as a “tyrant” who “forc his le” upon a district he knows nothg about.