Harvey+Milk

Harvey Milk (1930-1978) was a San Francisco city supervisor and the city’s first openly gay officer (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer [glbtq], inc). 

Harvey Milk was born on May 22nd, 1930 at Woodmere General Hospital in New York to owners of a successful retail clothing company, William and Minerva Milk. His nickname was Glimpy Milch for his “unlikely appearance”, like his big nose, ears and feet (Shilts, 1982). Despite his awkward looks, Milk was well liked in high school for being an athlete and jokester and loved being the center of attention. (Cloud, 1999). Out of college he joined the Navy as a deep-sea diver during the Korean War. Later, Milk worked in the insurance industry. He was also an “avid patron of the arts” and coupled this passion with his financial experience to become an associate producer for Broadway productions in the 60’s. It was during a tour with //Hair// to San Francisco that he fell in love with the city. He quickly adopted the “Guatemalan peasant shirts and ripped blue jean” vibe of the area and opened a camera store on Castro Street (glbtq, inc). It made sense when Milk first ran for office in 1973 for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He eventually won a seat in 1977. He ran as an openly gay candidate, economically conservative and socially liberal (Clendinen & Naguorney, 1999). During his campaigning, he convinced the growing gay community that they could have a role in city leadership, as they turned out to form “human Billboards” along major roads in support of Milk. This allowed community members to out themselves in an unthinkable way (Cloud, 1999). Harvey held office for 11 months, during which time he became a “city hall player” by uniting the gay community and attracting other voters, including straight families, working-class voters, and senior citizens. He introduced two pieces of legislation during his run, including banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (Martin, 2008). Milk also used his position to campaign against Proposition 6, “which would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in California public schools”. On November 27, 1978 former supervisor Dan White assassinated Harvey Milk. White resigned after Milk’s gay rights ordinance was passed (glbtq, inc).
 * Harvey Milk **

**Homosexuality in the 1970’s** In the 1970’s psychiatrists referred homosexuality a mental illness and in 1978 the Supreme Court refused to overturn a prison sentence for a man convicted of having consensual sex with another man. Cases like this were routine during the decade. Therefore, as a youth in the 1970’s, realizing you were gay “was to await an adulthood encumbered with dim career prospects, fake wedding rings and darkened bar windows” (Cloud, 1999, Para 3). Harvey Milk’s election into office during this period was crucial as he suspected “emotional trauma was gays’ worst foe – particularly for those in the closet” (Cloud, 1999, Para 5). However, while being openly gay during this time was rare, San Francisco in the 70’s was a “conveyor belt” of young men who looked for good times and sexual opportunities (Clendinen & Magourney, 1999). In fact, San Francisco was one of the major cities in the US that served as a birthplace for the gay/lesbian movement. The early 1970’s also marked a transformation of society in which “affirming gay identity and celebrating diversity” were main goals in the gay identity movement. This new “gay power” sparked an increase in the number of non-profit organizations in San Francisco (Armstrong, 2002). Harvey Milk’s inauguration in 1978 was a symbolic accomplishment for the gay movement (glbtq, inc).

**Discovering Sexuality** Harvey Milk always remembered feeling different. The first real discussion of homosexuality, however, came from his mother Minnie. Milk’s ideas of what “homosexuality” meant were formed from her description of homosexuals “[hanging] around the train depot and [doing] thing to little boys”. His mother never gave any more explanation, but the tone in which she discussed the topic made Harvey realize that what these men did was so bad it should not be talked about (Shilts, 1982, p. 6). His first homosexual experience was as a teenager in the balcony of the Met in Manhattan. In the dark section of the audience, young men had wandering hands and experimented with touch. He would also find himself hanging around the gay section of Central Park, where he was arrested for taking off his shirt when he was 17 (Cloud, 1999). His sexual endeavors continued in the Greenwich Village part of New York during his young adult years, befriending and having sex with many “scruffy radicals, drug-addled theater queens and goofy twentysomethings fleeing Midwest bigotry” (Cloud, 1999, Para 8).

**Sexual Legacy** Harvey Milk has been deemed a “saintly martyr for the gay liberation struggle” (glbtq, inc). He once said, “if a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door” recognizing his risk for assassination (Cloud, 1999, Para 10). While today’s society is still not completely accepting of a homosexual lifestyle, as much as it is a heterosexual one, the legacy that individuals like Milk left have created great strides toward a more open and agreeable future. For this reason Milk remains to be a “symbol of what gays can accomplish and the dangers they face doing so” (Cloud, 1999, Para 13). Some believe that if Milk had not been assassinated, he would have been the leader in getting money to fight AIDS and would have immediately worked for an understanding of what the disease is about, beyond the gay male community (Martin, 2008). Overall, a movement for sexual equality is ongoing, “though with every gay character to emerge on TV and with every presidential speech to a gay group, its eventual outcome favoring equality seems clear” (Cloud, 1999, Para 2). There is a Harvey Milk School for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer students in New York and Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco (glbtq, inc).

__References__

// 1) An encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, & queer culture // . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/milk_h.html  Armstrong, E. (2002). //Forging gay identities: organizing sexuality in san francisco, 1960-1994//. Chicago, IL: The University Of Chicago Press.

2) Clendinen, Nagourney, D, A. (1999). //Out for good: the struggle to build a gay rights movement in america//. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

3) Cloud, J. (1999, May 14). The pioneer harvey milk. //Time//, Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991276-3,00.html

4) Cloud, J. (1999, May 14). Harvey milk. //The Time 100//, Retrieved from []

5) Martin, M. (2008). The RESURRECTION of HARVEY MILK. (Cover story). Advocate, (1019), 32-44. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

6) Shilts, R . (1982). //The mayor of castro street//. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.