Speech of San Francis Supervisor Harvey Milk at Gay Freedom Day, June 25, 1978.

Contents:

• HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED
• CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT
• EVERY SF PRI THEME SCE THE FIRST-EVER GAY FREEDOM DAY 1970
• SPEECH OF SAN FRANCIS SUPERVISOR HARVEY MILK AT GAY FREEDOM DAY, JUNE 25, 1978.

HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED

That year at San Francis Pri – then known as “Gay Freedom Day” – Baker and a hort of LGBTQ+ rights advot stched together and hoisted two giant versns above the cy’s UN Plaza, near cy origal flags were nsired to have vanished. The mm’s executive director, Terry Bwick, said the flag, which was unveiled at a ceremony last Friday, was signed as “a symbol that would reprent the full spectm of the LGBTQ muny” two origal eight-lor rabow flags flyg at Uned Natns Plaza 1978 durg San Francis Gay Freedom Day.

They were removed bee hot-pk dye was hard to e by and bee seven strip was cumbersome to reproduce, s creatn – and later the dozens of variatns signifyg var subgroups wh the overall LGBTQ+ umbrella, om trans people to bisexuals to the agenr muny – the bt-known emblem of queerns was the pk triangle, a reclaimed symbol om Nazi Germany’s persecutn of gay symbols have taken on extra visibily and ronance this year.

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?

CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT

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!

We’ve add two new llectns to CHS’s digal library: the Gay and Lbian rights movement ephemera llectn, and the Joe Altman Photographs of the San Francis Gay Freedom Day Para – the event that is known today as the San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Celebratn.

EVERY SF PRI THEME SCE THE FIRST-EVER GAY FREEDOM DAY 1970

We’ve jt add two new llectns to CHS’s digal library: the Gay and Lbian rights movement ephemera llectn, and the Joe Altman Photographs of the San Francis Gay Freedom Day Para – the event that is known today as the San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Celebratn. “Creative Award” wng women’s float, Market St., 1979 June 24; Joe Altman photographs of the San Francis Gay Freedom Day Paras, PC-040; Box 01, Folr 11; California Historil Society. Joe Altman’s photographs of the 1979 Gay Freedom Day para pict marchers and celebrants takg to the streets a ltle more than a month after the voluntary manslghter verdict for Dan Whe the assassatns of San Francis Mayor Gee Mosne and Supervisor Harvey Milk sparked the uprisg agast the San Francis Police Department and Cy Hall known as the Whe Night rts.

The gay and lbian rights movement ephemera llectn nsists of flyers, brochur, announcements and newsletters om lbian and gay rights activist groups workg Northern California the 1970s. Thirty people marched down Polk street as part of the San Francis Gay Liberatn March, acrdg to Mark Sawch om the GLBT Historil Society Mm San forward several s later, crowds have grown om thoands to more than a ln participants paradg down Market Street every year --- at least until the COVID-19 panmic.

SPEECH OF SAN FRANCIS SUPERVISOR HARVEY MILK AT GAY FREEDOM DAY, JUNE 25, 1978.

And went back to 1970, was a two day event that June Here's how to watch 2023 San Francis Pri Para on ABC7Sawch says there was a piic "gay-" gatherg Goln Gate Park's Speedway found TONS of footage our ABC7 News archive datg back to the 1972 para when was lled Christopher Street Wt. Sawch says the tle referenc the street New York Cy's Greenwich Village neighborhood where Stonewall and other tablishments tered to LGBTQ the para's ceptn 51 years ago, the para has gone through several name Origal rabow flag returns home to SF, displayed at GLBT Historil Society1973 -1980: Gay Freedom Day1981 - 1994: Internatnal Lbian & Gay Freedom Day Para1995 - 2013: San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Celebratn2014- to prent: San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Para and CelebratnMORE: San Francis Internatnal Airport opens termal honorg Harvey MilkOf urse, the para is now simply referred to as "San Francis Pri.

"WATCH: LOOKBACK: What gay life was like San Francis 1976Throughout the years, ntgents the para took a stance for eedom of speech, fightg for equal rights and more fundg for AIDS rearch. Is home to the untry’s first PRIDE anizatn (Personal Rights through Defense and Edutn, 1966), first gay para (by the ad hoc Los Angel Commtee to Fight Excln of Homosexuals om the Armed Forc), the earlit known lbian publitn (Vice Versa, 1947), the first documented Supreme Court lg favor of gay rights (One Inc v. Para officials believed the turnout was a rult of the attentn that Ana Bryant was gettg for her anti-gay csa Florida and the murr of a gay cy garner by four youths the prr week.

Willie Brown urged everyone to register to vote, so they uld oppose a statewi iative sponsored by Fullerton Republin Assemblyman John Briggs that would perm public school districts to fire homosexuals. A lot of progrs has been ma toward this goal the last 50 years, cludg a Supreme Court lg jt two weeks ago that gay employe were protected om job discrimatn unr the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the fight is far om over. In 1978, San Francis rint Gilbert Baker stched a new symbol: a striped rabow flag of pk, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue and s first flight above the Uned Natns Plaza durg San Francis’s Gay Freedom Day Para, the rabow flag has grown to global signifince, pated on cy crosswalks, flown at U.