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.
Contents:
- BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
- HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED
- GAY RIGHTS
- HARVEY MILK – THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON TO BE ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE CALIFORNIA
BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
In 1977, San Francis polics was taken by storm when gay rights activist Harvey Milk was elected to the Board of Supervisors. As the first openly gay man elected to public office the Uned Stat, Milk’s electn was a triumph over anti-gay stereotyp. Milk’s abily to mobilize gays and straights alike rulted the feat of a statewi proposn to severely * harvey milk gay rights movement *
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. [1] The rts that followed the raid, which beme known as the Stonewall Rts, led to the public exposure of police btaly, sparkg the first gay rights anizatn the U.
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
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. * harvey milk gay rights movement *
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.
GAY RIGHTS
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 movement *
State and lol ernments passed laws that shut down bars terg to homosexuals and performed “sweeps” to rid neighborhoods and lol hangouts of gay men and women. 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. He nvced the growg gay mass of ‘Sodom by the Sea’ that they uld have a role cy learship, and they turned out to form ‘human billboards’ for him along major thoroughfar.
HARVEY MILK – THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON TO BE ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE CALIFORNIA
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 movement *
”[11] 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.
* harvey milk gay rights movement *
”[12]Proposn 6 was feated by over one ln vot on November 7, 1978, wh the support of both Ronald Reagan and Print Jimmy Carter, heraldg a new tolerance for gays natnwi. ”[14] 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.
The gay rights movement is the stggle for equaly and marriage rights for gay, lbian and transgenr people. Learn about the Stonewall Rts, Harvey Milk, the Pri flag and more. * harvey milk gay rights movement *
For example, lol workers’ unns had attempted to boytt the Coors beer pany for years bee of non-unn stat, while the gay muny faced employment discrimatn by the pany. 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. 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.
Harvey Milk, an in the gay rights movement, was assassated his San Francis Cy Hall office 1978. His prence is pecially felt durg Pri Month. * harvey milk gay rights movement *
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.
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.
The first openly gay elected official the natn had jt one day San Francis's mayoral office 1978, but the meang of that moment will echo for generatns. * harvey milk gay rights movement *
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. 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.