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

Contents:

• HARVEY MILK BE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE CALIFORNIA
• HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED
• BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
• THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK
• 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 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. 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. 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.

HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED

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.

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. ” 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. The first and, for years, most visible openly gay polician Ameri, Milk was a longtime activist and pneerg lear of San Francis’s LGBT servg the Navy durg the Korean War, Milk held several whe-llar jobs New York Cy.

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

Inially nservative and reluctant to advote for gay rights, Milk’s views changed around the time he and his then-partner opened a mera shop on Castro Street, the heart of the San Francis’s LGBT muny, many bs owners and cizens of the largely-gay Castro District, Milk was harassed by police and lol officials. Still, Milk and the Castro’s rise to power cid wh the rise of anti-gay reactnari like Ana Bryant, and Milk unrstood both the power and the danger of his posn as facto lear of the largt gay muny Ameri.

On the nth anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, shortly after his partner mted suici and the face of nservative backlash across the untry, Milk addrsed San Francis’s gay pri para, begng wh his tchphrase “My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to rec you” and endg wh a msage of “Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to e to if the prsur at home are too great.

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.

THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK

“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 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.

US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK

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. 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. ” “This one has teeth; a person n go to urt if his rights are vlated once this is passed, ” Milk told the Tim of the Milk at the Gay Pri Para rryg a si readg, “I'm om Woodmere, New York”. “This is perhaps a perd when lbians and gay men were at their most divid, as lbian femists are g to their own and llg gay men out on sexism, and even the term ‘lbian’ me to much greater populary the ’70s as distct om women llg themselv ‘gay women, ’” Ste said.

Ste scribed Milk’s relatnship wh fellow San Francis LGBT in and close iend Sally Gearhart, a lbian activist, as proof of Milk’s effectivens at workg across differenc and buildg and Gearhart’s close relatnship was part of a movement to build nnectns between gay men and lbians that had grown by the late 1970s. “Before Harvey, I thk that most groups that were gay or lbian, homosexual groups, or homophile groups, as they lled themselv at one pot, uld not have dreamt of havg rourc for teenagers. 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 here, so-lled liberal San Francis, we have a lumnist for the San Francis Examer, a lumnist named Kev Starr, who has prted a number of lumns ntag distortns and li about gays. 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! 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. 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.

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 . 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.

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.

” Milk reached out to anyone his district who would listen by nvassg neighborhoods, turng his mera store to an official voter registratn post while leadg multiple ralli for gay rights. In November 1978, after Milk took office, he was nonted wh a piece of anti-gay legislatn known as the Briggs Iniative, or Proposn 6, which would bar gays om teachg schools.

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.