Giving Thanks For Harvey Milk

Today, millions of families will sit down to the obligatory feast with all its fixin's and rejoice to be reunited with their loved ones. Or not. For thousands of gay teens too terrified to come out of the closet, this family gathering will mean tip-toeing through the minefield of aunts and uncles saying things like "You're such a nice-looking young man, why don't you have a girlfriend?" Legions of lesbians have brought their partners home for the holiday masquerading as their "roommate," a charade deemed necessary to preserve domestic harmony.

How many tormented young gay people commit suicide every year rather than risk rejection by their friends and families? How many more are singled out and savaged for being "different"?

The number of such tragedies is fewer today than it was a generation ago, thanks in part to Harvey Milk, America's first openly gay politician. Though the office he held was minor--he served on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in the late seventies--he became a powerful advocate for gay rights, giving untold numbers of tortured young men and women the hope that they could lead a life free of persecution.

This Thanksgiving also happens to be the thirtieth anniversary of Harvey Milk's assassination at the hands of an unstable colleague. Gus Van Sant's brilliant biopic Milk, which just opened, achieves a breathtaking authenticity in its recreation of Milk's extraordinary life (and death), thanks to a phenomenal performance by Sean Penn, a terrific supporting cast, and painstaking attention to detail.

The most poignant aspect of this period piece, whose sets and costumes evoke the era of Milk's ascendance perfectly, is that the story it tells--of the fight against ignorance and intolerance--is, unlike the hairdo's and the Haight couture--all too current.

Even as we're grappling with the aftermath of the passage of Proposition 8 in California, denying gay couples the right to marry, Milk takes us back to Proposition 6, a 1978 ballot initiative sponsored by a conservative Orange County politician named John Briggs that would have banned gay teachers--or possibly even any public school employees who supported gay rights--from teaching in California's public schools.

Milk and his fellow activists galvanized opposition to the initiative, rallying the support of everyone from Ronald Reagan to then-president Jimmy Carter. Proposition 6 lost by a million votes despite vigorous campaigning by anti-gay crusader and citrus industry sweetheart Anita Bryant. The previous year, Bryant had succeeded in repealing a Florida ordinance that banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, calling her campaign "Save Our Children."

Part of Bryant's legacy was a Florida law passed in 1977 that banned adoptions by gays and lesbians. Yesterday--three decades later--a Miami-Dade judge declared the law unconstitutional, stating that "The best interests of children are not preserved by prohibiting homosexual adoption."

Yes, and the best interests of families are not preserved by preventing committed partners from benefitting, if they so desire, from the covenant of marriage. Someday, gays and lesbians will enjoy the same rights as the rest of the human race. In the meantime, give thanks for the Harvey Milks of the world, who really want to save our children, be they gay or straight.

Comments

[M1]

If only the theater in my town, Livermore, CA, would play the movie. The management at Livermore's Cinema West said they are not playing it because some parents group asked them not to play it. Since the no on prop 8 rallies served to connect the Gay community together we Livermorian gays are now joining together to make our voices heard in opposition to Cinema West's voluntary ban on the Movie MILK. For now, we must drive out of town to see the film.

[kellygrrrl]

if men like Dan White and Larry Craig and Mark Foley could get passed their self-hatred and feel comfortable living an honest life, the world would be a better place.

[hiprogloho]

I'm losing track of all these Milk tributes that bypass the fact that Mayor Moscone was also killed because he made a Harvey Milk possible. When the fight for fairness and diversity leaves out other heroic players, then that's when it becomes more of an exclusive selfish agenda rather than a collective shared history.

[Eric8869]

Mayor Moscone is not left out of any discussion, documentary or film about Harvey Milk. It is just that when talking about the symbol of the gay rights movement - it was Harvey.

Lots of people in American didn't know who Harvey Milk was and didn't remember this story. They will now.

[kellygrrrl]

it's so interesting to look back at the time and see so many other connected stories like Jonestown and then the battle in Senate between DiFi and Larry Craig over gun control.

[Bitsko]

Well said, Ms. Trueman.