Mia Miranda
Ms. Rodriguez
U.S. History
10/16/2018
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was born on May 22nd, 1930 in Woodmere, New York into a middle class Jewish family. His father, William, was born in Lithuania and had served in the U.S. Navy. As did his independent and spirited mother, Minerva, a “Yeomanette”of Lithuanian heritage. Due to her role in the U.S. Navy as a enlisted service member, she was known as a “Yeomanette” during World War I. Harvey also had an older sibling named, Robert, and both would regularly work in “Milk’s”, the family’s department store. In his early life, he was said to be a very well rounded and likable student. Not only did he play football but he also sang in his high school opera.
Milk attended the New York State College for Teachers, what we now know as the State University of New York, and studied history and math. Milk penned a popular weekly student newspaper column where he began questioning issues of diversity with a reflection on the recently ended World War. He graduated in 1951 and enlisted in the Navy, soon after. He attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and subsequently was based in San Diego, where he served as a diving instructor during the Korean War. In 1955, he resigned at the rank of lieutenant junior grade after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation. Milk was discharged in 1955 which led him to move to New York City where he took up a variety of different jobs. It wasn’t until 1972 that Milk had moved down to Sacramento, California. He opened a camera store on Castro Street, in the heart of the city’s growing gay community and it quickly became a neighborhood center. Milk’s sense of humor and theatricality made him a widely popular figure.
Through most of his life, Milk had decided to stay quiet about his personal matters even though, Harvey Milk knew he was gay, as far back as highschool. Even when the LGBTQ+ community was emerging around him, Milk never spoke out on where he stood on the spectrum. It wasn’t until he befriended gay radicals that things had started to take a turn.
His political life peaked in San Francisco, California, where he became more outspoken. Little more than a year after his arrival in the city, he became an activist and declared his candidacy for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He hoped to bring about positive change. "I finally reached the point where I knew I had to become involved or shut up,” Milk said. He lost that race, but emerged from the campaign as a force to be reckoned within local politics. In 1975, he ran again for the combined San Francisco City/County supervisor seat and lost. By then, he was established as the leading political spokesman for the Castro’s vibrant gay community.
In 1977, he easily won his third bid, and was inaugurated as a San Francisco City-County Supervisor on January 9, 1978. This was an important and symbolic victory for the LGBT community as well as a personal triumph for Milk. His election made national and international headlines. His ambitious reform agenda included protecting gay rights—he sponsored an important anti-discrimination bill—as well as establishing day care centers for working mothers, the conversion of military facilities in the city to low-cost housing, reform of the tax code to attract industry to deserted warehouses and factories, and other issues. He was a powerful advocate for strong, safe neighborhoods, and pressured the mayor’s administration to improve services for the Castro such as library services, and community policing. In addition, he spoke out on state and national issues of interest to LGBT people, women, racial and ethnic minorities and other marginalized communities.
Harvey Milk was tragically murdered on November 27th, 1978 by Dan White. White believed that the movement Milk had set forth was a breakdown of traditional values and was driving his city ”downhill”. He was dissatisfied with the growing tolerance of homosexuality. White one day arrived at city hall with a .38 revolver and asked for his position back but when it was not given to him he shot Moscone, Milk’s superior, then Milk himself. In the wake of his death, Harvey Milk became a San Francisco icon and martyr for the gay community. That night, a crowd of thousands spontaneously came together on Castro Street and marched to City Hall in a silent candlelight vigil that has been recognized as one of the most eloquent responses to violence that a community has ever expressed.
Given the hatred directed at gay people in general and Milk in particular—he received daily death threats—he was aware of the likelihood that he may well be assassinated. He recorded several versions of his will, “to be read in the event of my assassination.” One of his tapes contained the now-famous statement, “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.” This prompted countless amounts of people to come out. Shortly after Milk’s death, people marching for gay rights in Washington, D.C., chanted “Harvey Milk lives!” White, unfortunately, was acquitted of the murders and only got a few years in prison instead of a full sentence due to the now popular “Twinkie Defense” he had used. The court system had failed Moscone and Milk. His murderer, though, eventually took his own life.
Harvey Milk has changed society for the better. It was thanks to Milk that the LGBTQ+ community made major strides forward. His rise greatly benefited the community. While many people considered homosexuality a mental illness, it was due to his actions that the anti sodomy law, a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes, typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed to be "unnatural" or immoral, which included homosexuallity at the time, was disbanded. Many LGBTQ+ politicians were later appointed to office in high positions in San Francisco. He was a visionary civil and human rights leader who’s unprecedented loud and unapologetic proclamation of his authenticity as an openly gay candidate for public office helped LGBT+ people everywhere who were encountering widespread hostility and discrimination.
The life and career of Harvey Milk have been the subjects of an opera, books, and films. These include the Shilts’s biography, The Mayor of Castro Street (1982); the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk by Robert Epstein(1984); and the Gus Van Sant directed drama Milk (2008). The latter film received eight Academy Award nominations, winning in two categories. There are several public schools named after Milk, the Harvey Milk High School in New York City and in his old Castro neighborhood, the elementary school bears his name. In San Francisco, there is a federal building at the US Job Corps Center on Treasure Island named after Milk, as well as a public recreation center, a branch of the public library, and a public plaza. A memorial plaque reads, “His life is an inspiration to all people committed to equal opportunity and an end to bigotry.” In 2012, San Diego, California named the street that leads to the doors of that city’s LGBT center Harvey Milk Street and the City of Long Beach, California dedicated the Harvey Milk Oceanside Promenade and Park.
Harvey Milk believed that the government should represent individuals, and not just downtown interests. That government should ensure equality for all citizens while also providing needed services. And as more gay people came out of the closet, he believed, the more their families and friends should support protections for their equal rights. In the years since Milk’s assassination, public opinion has immensely shifted on gay marriage, gays in the military, and other issues. There have even been hundreds of openly LGBT public officials in America, and yet the work for equal rights has yet to come to an end. The Harvey Milk Foundation a dedication to realize his vision of equality and authenticity for everyone, everywhere. This foundation was established by his nephew, Stuart Milk, and Anne Kronenberg, his campaign manager and aide. In one of his eloquent speeches, Milk spoke of the American ideal of equality, proclaiming words that will forever influence society, “Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets. … We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I’m going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out.”
Works Cited:
Harvey Milk Biography – California Safe Schools Coalition and Friends – Safe Schools Coalition, www.safeschoolscoalition.org/HarveyMilkDay/Biography.html.
Harvey Milk Biography – California Safe Schools Coalition and Friends – Safe Schools Coalition, www.safeschoolscoalition.org/HarveyMilkDay/Biography.html.
“Harvey Milk.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 29 July 2016, www.biography.com/people/harvey-milk-9408170.
“Harvey Milk's Major Political Accomplishments.” Parcast, www.parcast.com/blog/2016/10/7/harvey-milks-major-political-accomplishments.
“Milk Foundation.org.” Milk Foundationorg RSS, milkfoundation.org/about/harvey-milk-biography/.