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What Harvey Milk Tells Us About Proposition 8
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California, California Prop 8, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Lgbt, LGBT Rights, Prop 8, Proposition 6, Proposition 8,
Politics News
Thirty years ago on election night Harvey Milk gave an electrifying speech at the "No on Proposition 6" headquarters in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. The results were in: Proposition 6 was going down to defeat.
In 1978, Proposition 6 ( "the Briggs Initiative") was the California ballot measure aimed at preventing gay people and supporters from working as teachers in public schools. Harvey Milk was a San Francisco city council member who had been in office for a mere ten months. Through his role in this campaign he proved himself to be more than just an "elected gay official." He was a leader at the height of his powers. When introduced to the crowd that night by Sally Gearhart (another important figure in the fight against Proposition 6), the response to Harvey was thunderous. He proceeded to give one of the greatest speeches of his relatively short political career.
Although there are many parallels to be made between Proposition 6 (1978) and Proposition 8 (2008) there are also many differences. Unlike Proposition 8, Proposition 6 had a name, a face, and a personality as its figurehead in the person of State Senator John Briggs. Briggs came across as a seemingly opportunistic and somewhat ineffectual politician, but regardless of his baboonery, the issue that he and his supporters tapped into -- "gay teachers" -- was volatile enough to find large-scale support among the electorate. Only one month before the election it looked as if it would be a very close vote, with the majority of California voters in favor of its passage.
On the other side, we had Harvey Milk as our figurehead, a "community organizer" who understood the value and importance of a well-coordinated grass-roots campaign. As a coordinated master plan, Harvey debated Briggs in high school gyms and on TV and radio, while an army of well-trained volunteers went about "canvassing" door-to-door, speaking with people on the streets and in the shopping centers about the potential consequences of the "anti-gay" Briggs Initiative. Eventually, enough voters were convinced that the measure was both unnecessary and a possible violation of constitutional rights. Proposition 6 went down by a resounding 59 to 42 percent.
On election night Harvey delivered his galvanizing speech with gale-wind force:
...to the gay community all over this state, my message to you is, so far a lot of people joined us and rejected Proposition 6, and we owe them something. We owe them to continue the education campaign that took place. We must destroy the myths once and for all, shatter them. We must continue to speak out, and most importantly, most importantly, every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is you must tell your immediate family, you must tell your relatives, you must tell your friends, if indeed they are your friends, you must tell your neighbors, you must tell the people you work with, you must tell the people in the stores you shop in (thunderous applause), and once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all. And once you do, you will feel so much better.
In light of the passage of Proposition 8, Harvey's message of thirty years ago remains as vital today as it was then. It is our responsibility to let our loved ones, co-workers, friends, and neighbors know who we are, so that those who vote in favor of discrimination have our names and faces in their minds eye when doing so.
Although Proposition 8 wasn't exactly a re-make of Proposition 6, it's the same disaster movie storyline pitch: any recognition of constitutional rights for gay and lesbian citizens will somehow destroy the natural order and as a result America's institutions -- be they schools or marriage--will crumble.
Harvey pitched a different storyline: an accommodating democratic society based on constitutional principles, including the separation of church and state, and equality for all its citizens will make our country stronger and freer. But Harvey was more than just a good pitchman. He had an innate sense of history, and as a result he made his mark on history. Three weeks after his Proposition 6 victory speech Harvey was killed, and we're still waiting for another leader of his ilk to emerge. While we may not be able to predict from where or when real leaders come, eventually they do. In the meantime, as we celebrate the election of a man whose own parents' interracial marriage would not have been legal in sixteen states prior to 1967, Harvey we're still waiting.
Rob Epstein is the director of the Oscar winning film The Times of Harvey Milk, and is this years' recipient of the International Documentary Association's Pioneer Award.
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Dear Rob,
Thank you for this article. I followed Mr. Milk's advice and sent a letter to every person I know. You can find it here:
http://blo
The more people know we exist, the more they know who they are hurting.
I hope others will do the same.
Thanks again for your thoughtful blog.
this was a chance for the LDS to align themselves with a major church (the catholics - who they secretly despise). their goal was to finally become "MAINSTREAM" in the eyes of the world.
the goal was to separate themselves from the poligamist
it was to make them appear "normal" in everyone's eyes.
BUT THEIR PLAN BLEW UP IN THEIR FACES !
they are absolutely stunned at the backlash and are really freaking out. now they're in "damage control mode".
they have all their little "grassroots" devils all over the internet. (we all know how organized and hard-working they are). the mormon volunteer recruits (like "proudmormon") are trying to explain themselves.
and they are also watching all the sites and all the posts to get a "heads up" on any protests that will be happening or any posts that might cause them any trouble.
the mormons are watching you.
"proudmormon" is one of them.
Let them watch. Watch us defeat them.
They're going down . . . and not in a good way.
The proudmormon is a real charmer. Have you ever heard someone who says they're religious behave so hat efu lly? It's a piece of work.
What have I EVER said that was hateful?
Let's see the quotes.
You're just mad because they were smart, organized and a powerful lobby. Their views were no different than the rest of the 52% who voted for prop 8. BTW Obama is against gay marriage. Who's the real bigots?
Enjoy your weekend and your civil rights.
I'VE SEEN the TIMES OF HARVEY MILK,,,great film and we all --nationwide--need to view it again as the 30th anniv of the tragedy of MILK and SF MAYOR MOSCONE nears.....
Milk ilk is gone forever. Gay leaders now are milksop. The ranting and raving here displayed "Watch us defeat them" etc., are easy stands taken in front of a computer screen, but where are those willing to bite a bullet----a real bullet.
I saw the trailer for "Milk" in the theater and was completely blown away by it. Sean Penn will WIN the Oscar for his work in this film. This is a perfect time in history to tell this important story. Thank you for it.
The timing seems providential.
What a great article.
the LDS stuck their noses in where their noses didn't belong. MY BEDROOM.
mormons did all the leg work. mormons donated a MAJORITY of the money to yes on 8. they had all their little devils doing all the grassroots work. knocking on doors. calling everyone they knew in california. they even had yes on 8 signs in their yards IN UTAH !!!! the church TOLD every single member to donate.
the church's little minions have been working overtime on these boards all week trying to fuel a fire to DEFLECT BLAME onto others (like the blacks and latinos).
but we know their tactics, and it won't work.
LATTER DAY DEVILS. THEY ARE BIGOTS THAT NEED TO LEARN TO MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS AND KEEP THEIR FETID , PHONEY "RELIGION" OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR THE LATTER DAY DEVILS TO HAVE THEIR TAX EXEMPTION STATUS REVOKED.
prop 8 does not restrict what you do in your bedroom. you just can't be married. you are so intolerant of other views. we all have the same rights under the law--opposite gender marriage. NO ONE can marry som one of teh same gender under the law, so we are all equal. Sexual preference
Do you realize that in many states, a gay couple can adopt children TOGETHER, as a couple, but they can't legally marry? Does that make sense to you? The same same sex couple who are deemed a stable enough couple to adopt and raise children, including infants, are not allowed to legally marry.
BTW, years ago, blacks could not marry whites. Women couldn't vote either. Those laws affected ALL women and ALL inter-racial couples equally - and they were still wrong and still stupid and still overturned.
I'm afraid your backwards Bu.sh-logic will no longer serve you. This is 2008.
Do you want to marry someone of the same gender? Neither do I. However I would never take away their right to do so. If I got to decide who got to get married on my comfort and imagination, there would be a lot of caterers going bankrupt.
It is none of your business.
What is your business is how you treat your fellow man, regardless who they love.
That's a ridiculous argument.
At it again, eh?
This story isn't about the LDS church, but here you are bashing away. It's strange that you would condemn LDS people as bigots when you harbor such clear bigotry against LDS people yourself.
Please tell me, who was it again that spent more than $20 million on pushing Prop. 8 through? Oh, that's right, it was the LDS church. So, it looks like this IS about the Mormons.
BTW, I don't know how you can be a "ProudMormon" when your church spent that kind of money trying to prevent equal rights for ALL Americans. You should be ashamed to call yourself a Mormon. That money could have been spent HELPING people in need.
Who's asking to take the LDS rights away? We might not want you to mind our business, but we're not taking away your rights. Keep it up. We all know how unhappy you are. Keep talking.
When gays and lesbians en masse spend money and time in a campaign to take away the civil rights of Mormons, then you would have a point about "bigotry". But that isn't going to happen because we don't work that way.
Even though most people think that Mormon theology is wacky, looney, blasphemous and downright ridiculous, few of us would be motivated to donate our life savings in order to fund a campaign directed solely at harming Mormons.
But that is exactly what happened to the gay and lesbian community. Mormons, who think that homosexuality is a sin, etc., pulled out all the stops in order to take away an already established and recognized right, from specifically homosexuals. No other group was their target, just gays and lesbians. There was nothing in Prop 8 that would address the skyrocketing rates of divorce and spouse abuse that are RAMPANT among heterosexuals. Nothing in Prop 8 made it harder for heterosexuals to get married. So the only point and purpose of Prop 8 was to legalize discrimination against one group: gays and lesbians.
I know that Mormons were not alone in these efforts. There's plenty of blame to go around. But as someone who always stands up for peoples' right to speech, freedom of religion, etc. I am utterly sickened by what Mormons collectively did in order to harm people like myself.
Always remember: Mormonism/
Calling out the bigoted actions of the Mormon Church -- and others -- and expressing outrage at the targeted campaign to take away the civil rights of lesbian and gay citizens doesn't make one a bigot. Nice try, but ppl here are smarter than that.
From its public and well-funded actions, one has to conclude the LDS church wanted this spotlight. Well, here it is. We're on to you. And you don't have cause to be proud.
But you can change if you want to. Let go of the fear and the religious programming. We're all equal no matter what any religion says or does. Your roadblocks are temporary.
Beg to differ "proudMorm
in WHAT bizarro-verse can't we hold those fomenting hate accountable for it?
Watching you squirrel-cage-logic religious waterheads try to juxtapose
YOURSELVES as the victims here is a dance that the Limbo, the Mambo,
& the Flamenco combined can't match for fancy footwork!!!
Like the Catholics with their sordid tradition of pedophilia, the Mormons have their own rich tradition - of plural marriages and child brides. Why is it that the religions with the most baggage of their own are so quick to stick their noses into something they have no business meddling in? Oh, I know. It's called DISTRACTION.
Ironic that religious groups that have themselves faced predjudice in their histories because of their beliefs, are so unwilling to accept the validity of the beliefs of others.
Who was the people that spent money putting Prop 8 on ballot ? Oh thats right, White people .
Not Black or Latinos...
If you want to make this out to be a race or go right ahead..idi
Pardon me. You need to read her post again. Not one word about race. Now apologize.
"In the meantime, as we celebrate the election of a man whose own parents' interracial marriage would not have been legal in sixteen states prior to 1967, ... "
Not all Gay people are celebrating completely. When Obama puts his religion apart from our struggle for equal rights, then and only then will we celecbtae his presidency. As it is, he wants us seperate but equal, having the right to civil unions, which are not marriage. Some change huh?
I wish my gay brothers and sisters would stop criticizing Obama for this--yea, politically expedient but perhaps necessary-
Yes, I think civil unions/marriage distinction is back-of-the-bus status. But don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It is up to us to do the work, kill Prop 8, help spread same-sex union recognition to all States--and most important make our families visible to Americans so they can see we are far from a threat but are a positive force in American life.
But lay off Barack, huh? Our focus should be elsewhere. Want to know a secret? OHB and HRC and even Governor Conan really believe we should have real marriage recognition. Sorry, but they are just too timid to say it, and the reasons are yes, political. But these are not our real enemies.
Gay people are NOT politically expedient. Talk is cheap. If he wants to do away with DADT for example he can sign an Executive Order doing it. I'm not optimistic at all about his real concerns for Gay rights. Actiuon speaks louder than words and I want to hear him suppport same sex marriage and he won't.
Funny, Schwarzenegger isn't too timid to publicly support the post-election effort to get the courts to throw out Proposition 8. But Obama apparently is.
What ever became of David Mixner?
He's still at it, activistically.
http://www
HOORAY!! AT LAST!! HARVEY MILK is RECOGNIZED for being the leader he REALLY was!!
Footnote: And WHO do you think became MAYOR of SAN FRANCISCO after George Moscone was killed along with Milk? DIANNE FEINSTEIN---that's WHO!! Yep--SENATOR Dianne Feinstein!
Now--the question of Prop.8 is about to be reheard in the Cali. Supreme Court. WHAT is the GLBT community DOING to prevent what looks to be yet another 'backlash' in March? We have THREE MONTHS to get it together. I am still questioning HOW it is that a whole LOT of GLBT people could work in the Obama campaign (ObamaPride) and NOT learn HOW to keep a grassroots campaign going longer than two months. All the back-biting and division that started on Nov. 5 needs to STOP! This is exactly what the rightwing WANTS! They WANT Black people to turn on gays. They WANT religious groups to turn on gays. They are FEEDING off of this! Let's put them on a DIET!
ANTAENUS:
last year an openly gay woman that i knew passed away from a brain tumor.
she was a young, sweet woman. she was extremely active in her catholic church.
she constantly donated her time to soing charity and church work. everyone in the church loved her.
when she passed away, the church REFUSED to let us have her funeral inside of the catholic church because she was a lesbian.
a man that my mother worked with for years was an openly gay man. he lived with his partner for over 25 years. he passed away from cancer. the priest refused to show up to lead the funeral.
THAT'S THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
A SHAMEFUL, INTOLERANT BUNCH OF THUGS.
I am very sorry you lost your friend and please accept my sympathy. I do not believe it is beneficial to denigrate any church or their beliefs as strongly as you did here. Both of the people you mention knew in advance that they were seriously ill and they could have chosen anyone to preside over their funerals and many ministers would have been ready to do this service.. They also knew the beliefs of their religion. They chose to stay Catholics to the end and they left their demise to be handled by family and/or friends. (In retrospect, this wasn't wise and should be a lesson to all of us.) Every religion has dogma others find they cannot live with. Differing with this dogma is no reason to rail against any particular religion. We need to learn how to get along in this world!
yup. blame the victim, a$$hat.
It all sounds so Christ like. I can't believe the Catholic church. You talk about blind subjugation and willful ignorance. They have the fil thiest house in the world and yet paying respects for their parishoners is based on their judgement of who they loved. Nice.
Denigrating them for their beliefs? No.
But when they choose to move outside the church, to spend millions that they have collected because of their tax-free status to remove our rights in secular society, then they should be roundly criticized and fought tooth and nail.
I respect Jewish beliefs, but If my Jewish friends tried to outlaw the sale of pork I would fight them and hold them up to public ridicule.
"We need to learn how to get along in this world!"
----------
Churches not lobbying to pass legislation to deny others' rights would be a good start.
The day before the Presidential election, I passed a Catholic church with a sign out front that said "Please Vote Pro-Choice". The Mormon church, the Catholic church and all the rest of them won't stop UNTIL we revoke their tax-exempt status. I hope Obama has the courage to bring this up.
I think many in California would vote for a proposition eliminating tax-exempt status for the mormons if a well-publicized campaign documented the mormons use of funds to achieve the political purpose of denying civil rights to California citizens
We are in a financial crisis and we all need to sacrifice for our country. I see the religious institutions giving up their tax exemption as a good step in helping to solidify our economy. If anything, some public perception would improve of the religious institutions. I would vote for that proposition.
This and similar notions that offend religious liberty are precisely why many people voted yes on 8. Comments like this affirm their fears that the debate was not "just about letting people love"--it's about intollerance toward religion.
No. People voted yes on 8 because they were lied to.
And you can quit with the Rovian I'll-state
The Mormon Church donated no money as an organization. Individual members were encouraged to donate. The church worked closely with California political attorneys so that no laws were violated. It is my understanding that celebrities, corporations such as Comcast & AT&T donated hundreds of thousands on the opposition to prop 8 there was no one sided conspiracy here. Money raised by each side was practically split.
Ummm, corporations are not *tax-exemp
NIce evasion of fact, but the HEAD of the Mormon church, way back in JUNE, sent a
church-wide circular that was read at EVERY branch, saying it was the
COMMAND of the church to "Commit as much time, effort & MONEY that you can"
to the Prop. 8 campaign.
So YES, the church at it's highest level demanded that it's flock contribute.
Prop 8 is a travesty of American ideals of freedom and fairness. But people who are narrow-minded and worried about 'losing' something through another's good fortune are not going to change their minds. We just have to stand up and show people that there are more kind, generous, common sense Americans than fearful bigots. During the election my mom spoke to a family friend who was a RABID McCain supporter. When he was raving about Sarah Palin and her 'all-american values' my mom pointed out that her church sponsored a program called 'Pray the Gay Away' and literally thought that all gays were going to suffer eternally in hell simply for being gay. She even sent him the church website, so he could read about their beliefs for himself.
Our family friend has a daughter I went to high school with who is a lesbian. She has been out for years and her family ( who are Catholic) have been loving and supportive of her for as long as I have known them. But her father just mumbled to my mom and said 'Well, THAT wasn't what Palin's church meant. Um, it was about DIFFERENT gays' .,.. or something. He just could not make himself face up to how these narrow minded religious viewpoints affect HIS OWN DAUGHTER'S LIFE. My mom and I agree that he isn't likely to change his mind. It's just sad. I wish his daughter wanted to get married- maybe he'd feel differently.
Nothing could be clearer that Prop 8 was the Mormon Church of Utah promoting and funding a voter initiative in the state of California to strip California citizens of their basic civil rights. If some group of radical atheists had raised tens of millions of dollars to march into Utah to strip away rights from citizens there, can you imagine what the Mormons would be feeling about now?
How do you stand by watching this outrage and feel sorry for the Mormons?
I would personally like to travel to Salt Lake City and pull the wedding rings off the fingers of as many of these bigots as I could.
I guess the 770,000+ LDS living in CA had nothing to do with it?
Right, because the money came from the CA branch, the main office of the Mormon church had nothing to do with it...you really believe that, don't you?
$400,000 dollars of that money came from Idaho. Idahoans do not make the type of salaries that Californians make- so that is a great deal of money for them to collect.
I am sure California LDS contributed also, but the money was bundled from all over the country.
Next time you book a flight and it has a stopover in Salt Lake, request another flight that doesn't stop in Utah. Not one dime should be spent in Utah, whether at a coffee shop at the airport or anywhere else.
I wouldn't step foot in that backwards, hillbilly state. There are 49 others that our $$$ can be spent.
More out of state money poured in AGAINST prop 8 than FOR it.
Are you bothered that the anti-8 lobby couldn't use muti-million dollar advantage from out of state donations to skew the election?
If you had done your research, you'd have found that out of total contributions of $73,000,000 for both sides, No on 8 was ahead by less than $550,000. That's a .7% difference.
Yeah. HUGE advantage.
Isn't it interesting that many gays purposely waited until AFTER the election to get married?
Why would anyone do that? If they thought their prospects of being able to marry were threatened by passage of 8, and if getting married was really their top priority, they would rush their marriage through before the election.
The fact that so many waited, simply proves that to a significant portion of the gay community, it's not about being married at all. The politics is more important to them than the marriage.
The Mormons financed this proposition to call attention away from their own despicable traditions of plural marriages and child brides. The Mormons only jumped on this because they don't want people to take another look at what constitutes a legal marriage in this country. They aren't really interested in what's good for people or they would have supported a law that would allow parents to marry. The politics is more important to them than the marriage.
For someone who knows nothing about gays, it's very interesting that you know their intentions better than they do. Keep talking.
What are you talking about? County clerks all over CA had to expand their hours in order to keep up with all the license requests, and many couples were getting married on the spot. The city of San Francisco had to pull volunteers and workers from other departments in order to keep up with the demand.
Get your facts straight.
cyano:
they don't have any explaination.
i've been asking the same question over and over again, and getting no intelligent answers.
ProfessorDuh:
i am behind you 110%.
Thanks. We will fight on. The Mormons need a little taste of what Anita Bryant and Coors Beer got, and they're going to get it.
As a 48yr old American..
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