Would Harvey Milk Be Proud of Us?

Shortly before he died in 1978, openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk made some extraordinarily prescient audio recordings. On one recording, he famously said, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let it destroy every closet door."

Today would have been Harvey's 79th birthday but for Dan White's bullet.

May 22nd, Harvey Milk Day, is a good time to reflect on whether we have heeded his call to live openly and fight hard for true equality. Would Harvey be proud of where we are in 2009? The truth is I think he'd be celebrating on Castro Street some days and marching up the National Mall on others:

· Today, many Americans are protected from job discrimination based on sexual orientation, but in dozens of states it's still legal to fire someone simply for being gay or lesbian. Even fewer jurisdictions bar discrimination based on gender identity.

· Gays and lesbians can marry in five states and a handful of others extend some sort of partnership rights, but more than 20 states have written discrimination into their constitutions.

· The U.S. military is still kicking out patriotic, well-trained servicemembers who tell the truth about who they love, even though scores of former military officers and an overwhelming majority of Americans think that policy is wasteful and wrong.

Harvey Milk was the fifth openly gay person elected to public office in America. Today, more than 440 out officials are serving at all levels of government, but five states still have no out elected officials whatsoever, and another 15 have no out state legislators. While that number -- 440 -- may seem impressive, a little perspective is in order; there are more than 500,000 elective offices throughout the United States.

In many of those places where we are represented in government by an openly LGBT official, real progress is being made. In just the past few weeks -- in places like Maine, Vermont, Washington State, New Hampshire, New York, and Connecticut -- the presence of openly gay or lesbian state legislators is making a difference in the fight for same-sex partnership rights.

For out lawmakers, fighting for equality is personal. When they stand up to speak openly and honestly about their own lives and ask colleagues to treat them fairly, their authenticity changes hearts and minds, and sometimes it even changes votes.

That's what Harvey had in mind when he asked all of us to come out to our parents, our siblings, our friends and our co-workers--not because it would make us feel better about ourselves, but because of the power he knew it could unleash. That power is on display in those state houses, as it was on the streets of California last November and on the battlefields abroad when brave soldiers gave honest answers to simple questions about loved ones back home.

This Harvey Milk Day, I think Harvey would be proud of our progress so far, but I'm absolutely sure he wouldn't be satisfied by it. He faced a bullet. We have only to face down our own fears, come out and speak up.

Comments

[Sally Read]

I am a 67-year old straight grandmother and, while I don't know about Harvey, I am deeply disappointed and angry with the Supreme Court of California. It is OUTRAGEOUS that some of our citizens are not allowed to marry just because of who they love! Such bigotry should be illegal, not marriage.

And, yes, May 22 should be Harvey Milk Day.

[averygard]

I only got to see the film 'Milk' a few days ago and one of the things that was most striking to me is how similar the situation is still in terms of small-minded bigots out there still having significant followings, and still having to fight so hard for basic civil rights. WTF?! Why?

[Paulied]

I find it absurd to pose the question of whether or not Harvey Milk would be proud of the advancement of LGBT rights without even a passing mention of the AIDS crisis in the intervening years. The deaths of huge numbers of gay men - particularly in San Francisco, the obscene lack of early response from the government, and the enormous setback to our rights caused by the fear and stigma of the disease all seem issues very germane to the question at hand.

[truthartbeauty]

he would be sad at how little progress has been made. thanks a lot catholics and mormons. real morality in action for sure! change is slow. the ignorance of the church is the enemy of all good things.

[Kevlar]

Correction: There is No official "Benjamin Franklin Day" in San Diego.

[Kevlar]

Yesterday was such a momentous day. Yes, the city council of San Diego, California declared Friday May 22nd to be "Harvey Milk Day".
Thank you San Diego.
Not content to wait for the State of California to make AB 2567 "Harvey Milk Day" official, San Diego has placed Harvey Milk where he belongs.
Yes, in honor of his great accomplishments Mr. Milk is remembered alongside George Washington, Martin Luther King, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln.

[Reighben Labilles]

Harvey Milk may not be a historical luminary as great as the Founding Fathers and Martin Luther King but he is no less than a Martyr for LGBT rights in the US. He was killed for the sake of equality and his dream to end bigotry. He might not have invented bifocals or helped found a country or draft a constitution but he empowered a people and a movement that only seeks harmony, progress, equality, unity, and liberty. He rallied people, he strengthened people during the times we LGBTs had powerful forces openly oppressing us.

He deserves a Day of Memorial. It reminds us LGBTs of the sacrifices and dangers in this struggle for equality--a struggle that, I pray, would someday be completely successful.

I hope you can understand this.

[YouCanKeepYourChange]

Most American's could care less.

[wereeverywhere]

I think you mean 'couldn't' instead of 'could. ' If so, it's their loss for missing out on an interesting and heroic legacy.

[lylo]

I'm pretty sure you are wrong, given all the discussion about gay rights in our culture.

[Usama]

Yeah, white men who prefer each other are indeed drawing a lot of attention to their sexual practices. Meanwhile, only 48% of black and latino males graduate from high school.
There sure is a balance of media attention to the real crises facing America.

[JohnJames]

Like you, for example? Do you make a habit of posting on topics you couldn't care less about? You dizzy homophobes just can't make up your minds. One day gays are going to destroy civilization and the next the subject is utterly unworthy of mention. Which is it?

[tbrnotb]

I think Harvey would have been a bit disappointed by the lack of action by the leaders of our LGBT Community. DADT has been around for 16 years and I see very little action taken.

I believe he would have proposed a more militant reaction to many issues as opposed to the "button-down, corporate" views of many of our community leaders.

On the other hand, when you look at what has been accomplished, it is quite a lot. I guess I'm just impatient. I think an entire generation as been effected by an apathetic view. Hopefully these hard times will be be an impetus for change!

[Steamboater]

Harvey woul dhave been disappointed. Leaders of LGBT shoul dbe protesting and very loudly too outside the White House for a the change Obama promised us DADT as well as his very weak stand on marriage.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

Lets put things in a little perspection.

Harvey would be shocked and deeply saddened knowing 60% of us on the West Coast and 50% of NYC had died of a pandemic. and over 25% of us in the rest of the country. WE would have HAD our equality decades ago, but we had some stuff to DEAL WITH, when for three years the rest of the country was FINE with us dying in the streets.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

Prop 8 decision
May 26 TUESDAY

http://www.dayofdecision.com/

BE THERE

[rbarry647]

Planning on it here in Chicago

[jamessch]

Repeal DoMA!
Pass The Uniting American Families Act!

Will Obama at LEAST fight for Civil Unions?

[BeninOakland]

part 4

I would re-phrase that for gay people. "I have been fed up all my life, as far back as I can remember, with being treated as less than a whole person, as not good enough, not citizen enough, not human enough, to allow me the simple dignity and respect of living my life in peace. Well, actually they will allow that, as long as I don’t demand equality before the law -- or respect, or dignity, or to live my life in peace."

[BeninOakland]

part 3: Are we still afraid to call the people prejudiced who have slandered us for two millennia especially since we know it is true? Whether it is presented as sincere religious belief, or admitted for what it is, it is still prejudice. Why can we not say that absent a compelling, factual, and real reason, our equality before the law cannot be compromised by someone else's prejudice? As far as I am concerned, if we are willing only to be silent about it, we are consenting to it. We can be polite, but we have to start being truthful. The closet depends on both lies and silence for its power over gay people and its support from heterosexuals. We don't have to call people bigots. We do have to start talking about bigotry. We are not responsible for how people to react to us. We are only responsible for who we are, and to tell the truth.


This is what Rosa Parks had to say about the consent of silence: "It’s not that I was fed up (that day). I was fed up all my life, as far back as I can remember, with being treated as less than a free person . . . as long as we continued to comply with these rules and regulations that kept us crushed down as a people, then the power structure would always say: ‘Well, they are not complaining, and they accept this, so they are satisfied with it.’"
end part

[BeninOakland]

Part 2: One lie, that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death, as told in the Gospel of John, ultimately led to centuries of anti-Semitism, the murder of six million Jews, and 250,000 murdered gay people as an afterthought. John was, of course, justifying the Jewish heresy that became Christianity, and was sticking it to the Jewish authorities of the time. The Christians won and the Jews lost. Another lie, that gay people are responsible for child molestation, has impeded so much progress in the battle to protect our children. After all, if you can blame it on the queers, you don't actually have to look at child molestation and where it actually occurs most often-- the family.

There is only one answer to a lie, and that is the truth. By hiding us, hiding our families, we are complicit in this lie. Jesus said "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." So when do we start telling the truth? I, for one, wish to be free.


For 2000 years or more, gay people have been subject to a vicious, virulent, and consistent prejudice. We have been imprisoned, slandered, criminalized, degraded, pathologized, and murdered for being different. There are many people who deem it a good thing to make our lives as difficult and unpleasant as possible, often under the guise of "We love you" and "This is for your own good". That this prejudice exists is beyond all doubt.

end part 2

[johnbdonovan]

The big lie is that anyone has been slandered. It's only the behavior that is rejected.

[Steamboater]

Harvey Milk would have been proud of us. If Obama doesn't reverse DADT and suspend it fast at least, which he can do, then come 2012 I'll wrote in Milk's name for president. Better dead hero than a wuss who promised a lot and gave us nothing back.

[Tim Roberts]

I agree with coloredqueer and I think Harvey Milk would NOT be proud of the Top Heavy White inactive LGBT organizations in this nation that have evolved (or devolved) since his Day. They are lead by and listen to upper middle class whites.

He was about energizing individuals to be part of the solution - organizations like Human Rights Campaign are about fundraising, selling t-shirts and being so enmeshed into the political machine that they compromise away ever major issue.

[wereeverywhere]

I'm glad Human Rights Campaign is there myself- which is not a comment on your critique. There's a broad enough front in this war that we need all the help we can get, without abandoning any principles of course. There are similar splits in the environmental movement, too. We have to keep the pressure on re: DADT and marriage, but we're making progress.

[Awake-and-Sing]

I agree. If we waiting for the Human Rights Campaign to tell us when to press for equality, we'd wait for the next 50 years, less they sacrifice their "access" in D.C.

[diogenes1967]

I totally agree with you. Milk, like MLK and like Chavez and like Obama worked across racial and class dividesand he worked from the bottom up (grassroots organizing) and not from the top down.