Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold public office California, was assassated 1978. His advocy helped brg LGBTQ Amerins out of the closet and to the streets.
Contents:
- HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED
- BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
- US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK
- HARVEY MILK BE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE CALIFORNIA
- THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK
HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED
Forty years ago, on Nov. 27, 1978, California's first openly gay elected official was assassated. Harvey Milk champned gay rights and challenged the LGBTQ muny to be out and proud. * harvey milk gay rights *
Wng a seat on the cy’s Board of Supervisors, he emerged as one of the untry’s preement openly gay elected officials, spearheadg an important anti-discrimatn measure. The send son of William and Merva Milk, he me om a fay wh proment ti to the muny: His Lhuanian-born grandfather Morris owned Milk’s Dry Goods, which beme the largt partment store on Long Island, and had helped anize the area’s first realized he was gay at an early age, and reportedly was dulgg his sir wh illic trysts by his early teens. ”Mayor of Castro Street Milk moved back to San Francis for good late 1972, and wh a few months he opened a mera shop on Castro Street, the heart of the gay muny.
BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
Harvey Milk, Amerin polician and gay-rights activist. His electn to the San Francis Board of Supervisors 1977 ma him one of the first openly gay elected officials U.S. history. In 1978 Milk and San Francis mayor Gee Mosne were shot and killed by Dan Whe, a nservative former cy supervisor. * harvey milk gay rights *
Partly spired by what he viewed as an unfair tax on small bs, he cid to n for a seat on the San Francis Board of Supervisors was spurned by much of the cy’s more fluential gay electorate, who felt the outspoken New Yorker should tone down his act and wa his turn.
Addnally, Milk fed an alliance wh the Teamsters Unn by supportg a boytt of Coors beer, and the unn returned the favor by promisg to hire more gay drivers. Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagSupervisor Harvey Milk Undnted by his electn loss, Milk found the San Francis Gay Democratic Club to garner more polil support, and succsfully phed for a reanizatn of the Board of Supervisors electn om a cywi, at-large format to a geographil district format.
Returng to the mpaign trail 1977, he sought to broan his appeal beyond the gay muny through promis to reform the tax to boost dtry, create low-e hog and tablish day re centers for workg mothers. That November, an historic electn that also saw the first Che Amerin and the first Ain Amerin woman elected to the cy’s Board of Supervisors, Milk beme one of the untry’s first openly gay elected Rights Legislatn Demonstratg his penchant for urtg publicy, Milk -sponsored a “pooper-soper” ordance that required dog owners to clean up after their pets. As supervisor, he also dove to more personal matters by spearheadg a bill to ban discrimatn employment, hog and public acmodatns based on sexual orientatn, one of the natn’s strongt gay-rights measur to date.
US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK
* harvey milk gay rights *
Followg California State Senator John Briggs’s troductn of the Proposn 6 ballot iative, which sought to ban gay teachers and anyone supportg gay rights om workg California schools, Milk spent much of the summer and fall of 1978 mpaigng agast the iative. This time, the reactn was far ls peaceful: Outraged protters stormed Cy Hall and set police rs on fire, and the SFPD rpond by smashg up gay bars and beatg patrons. ”Legacy: Harvey Milk Day Although he spent ls than a year office, Milk’s brief time the public eye marked an important steppg stone the battle for gay rights.
” Addnally, more elected officials, cludg Massachetts Congrsman Gerry Studds and Barney Frank, me forth to acknowledge their homosexualy durg this subsequent years, Milk’s name was attached to a seri of schools, buildgs and public centers throughout California. In California at that time, a nservative state senator named John Briggs was phg a statewi ballot measure, Proposn 6, to ban gay and lbian teachers. San Francis Supervisor Harvey Milk, left, who was openly gay, talks wh Gwenn Craig and Bill Krs, -ordators of the San Francis No on Prop 6 program San Francis on Nov.
—died November 27, 1978, San Francis, California), Amerin polician and gay-rights graduatg om the New York State College for Teachers Albany (1951), Milk served the U. His populary grew when he challenged the cy’s gay learship, which he thought was too nservative s attempts to ga greater polil rights for 1973 Milk ran for a seat on the cy’s Board of Supervisors but was feated. Navy vsel to be named for an openly gay person, and at the ship’s christeng Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said, “For far too long, sailors like Litenant Junr Gra Milk were forced to the shadows or, worse yet, forced out of our beloved Navy.
HARVEY MILK BE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE CALIFORNIA
Five months before his assassatn 1978, Harvey Milk lled on the print of the Uned Stat to fend the rights of gay and lbian Amerins. * harvey milk gay rights *
When he won the electn to the San Francis Board of Supervisors 1977, Harvey Milk ma history as the first openly gay elected official California, and one of the first the Uned Stat. Durg his tenure as supervisor, he helped pass a gay rights ordance for the cy of San Francis that prohibed anti-gay discrimatn hog and employment.
THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK
A Navy ship named for gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was ma to rign om the force bee of his sexual orientatn, was lnched San Diego Saturday. * harvey milk gay rights *
Marks Ridger, ed., Speakg for Our Liv: Historic Speech and Rhetoric for Gay and Lbian Rights (1892-2000), available as an eBook (2012) through Howard Universy Librari. “I fully realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, be the target or potential target for a person who is secure, terrified, aaid, or very disturbg, ” Milk said the tape. ”Born on Long Island 1930 and raised a tight-kn Jewish muny, Milk knew om a young age that he was gay, but spent much of his adult life figurg out how out of the closet to be.
Milk served the Navy the 1950s, but was discharged after beg qutned about his sexual orientatn. He beme the first openly gay elected official California before his ath 1978. * harvey milk gay rights *
Milk was mted to attag public office, and spent years buildg his crentials, foundg the Castro Street Fair and the San Francis Gay Democratic Club, and nng several tim for office throughout the ’70s before his 1977 of Milk’s biggt acplishments happened before he ever took office, back when he was lled the “Mayor of Castro Street. Coors was tryg to stop the hirg of unn drivers to transport their beer, and Milk agreed to try and throw the weight of San Francis’s LGBTQ muny behd the strike, exchange for Baird phg the Teamsters to support the hirg of gay tck drivers.
A Southern California school board has bee the latt proxy for culture wars brewg across the untry after a nservative bloc voted to formally reject state-endorsed curriculum that would have mentned gay rights figure Harvey Milk. * harvey milk gay rights *
Milk began his mpaign wh an appeal his regular lumn the Bay Area Reporter, wh the headle “Teamsters Seek Gay Help, ” and ma an argument for solidary across inty l: “If we the gay muny want others to help our fight to end discrimatn, then we mt help others their fights. ”Farman wr Harvey Milk: His Liv and Death that aln-buildg was central to his polics:“Gay people mt build bridg wh workers and racial mori, he clared.
The U.S. Navy christened a new supply shipped named after Harvey Milk, the gay rights lear who had been forced to rign om service bee of qutns over his sexual orientatn. * harvey milk gay rights *
Not only was the morally right thg to do, but workers and racial mori were ‘’s wh gays, he said, bee they all had mon enemi—the ‘them’s who wanted to keep the powerls their place. ”Milk helped nvce gay bar owners to stop sellg Coors solidary wh the Teamsters strike, brgg media along to photograph bar owners dumpg out the beer ran for office four tim San Francis, cludg twice for the Board of Supervisors and also the California State Assembly, and was fally elected 1977 to the Board after his send n. ” Ste noted that electoral reprentatn has been a key path to power for the LGBTQ his brief time office, Milk was a stnch advote for gay rights at a moment when the polil climate was eply hostile towards LGBTQ people.