Archive of Hope

by Milk, Harvey

  Of course right now there’s someone in the audience who’s one of them who’s whispering into his lapel—did you ever see the secret service. I wonder what they talk about? [Laughter]. But they might as well know that some of us, and I’m sure there’s somebody here, there always is, that if you’re gonna take one of us, there will be ten more following up, because there are many of us. And we’ll stick together.

  So what is the advantage of getting involved? The advantage is many ways besides just getting your piece of the pie.

  It seems very interesting, as an elected official, I’m an insider now. For those who don’t know San Francisco is unique in many ways, it’s both a city and a county—the only one in California. So the Board of Supervisors is both a city council and a county board of supervisors. And there are eleven of us, the city has a population of 675,000. During the day there’s about a million people there with the commuters. And in the Bay Area there are some three million people that watch that city. [Question from someone]. I had to explain this ‘cause a lot of people don’t know. There are about a million people there whose lives are governed, and the budget is spent by 11 people. And one of them happens to be gay. And like it or not, the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Association, the unions, the environmentalists, the neighborhood people, the poor people—everybody has to deal with the Board of Supervisors. And in San Francisco, we are a very, very strong Board. We delineate the executive and the legislative [inaudible]. And so they must deal with me like it or not. And it’s very interesting in how they do that.

  The Chamber of Commerce assigns two members to each Board of Supervisors as their lobbyists, to have lunch with you. And guess who they picked to have lunch with me? Their president. Because I have been probably their greatest foe on the issues of San Francisco, forget about whether they’re right or wrong because that’s our little problem. But the chamber in trying to influence me, has picked their top person. Think of the education, when in the middle of lunch I talk about my lover. [Laughter, applause] Think of the education when I . . . we get, you know, tons of invitations to this dinner or that dinner, this opening, this council . . . well one came addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Milk. [Laughter]. And I call up and say “in case you didn’t know . . . A., I’m gay and B., I don’t think my lover would like to attend.” And they get an education. And we send them a letter to follow up to explain that there are a lot of single people in the city who are not married, who are not gay, and their letters are an insult not just to gay people, but to single people. And think of the education they’re all getting. Including the unions and so forth.

  It’s very interesting being an insider, in helping to educate people on the one-on-one. But how does it help the whole city? We kind of have a theme song, I was expecting it to be played when we came in, but I failed. It’s Doris Day singing “what a difference a gay makes.” [Laughter, applause]. You see I’ve been on the Board of Supervisors for all of five months, five months, it seems like an eternity, but five months. And a few things have happened, surprisingly, since my election, that for some reason or another would have happened eventually, but they have happened. I brought one along, it’s a little document. And I say, “amending part 2, chapter 8, San Francisco municipal code, police code, by adding article 33 there to prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations and providing remedies therefore.” And that’s it. [Applause]

  And they have to take me with them if they try to take this one away and I don’t go easy. I go kicking and screaming and fighting. And I think San Francisco will back me up on that one.

  It’s gonna be a tough fight but this is it! [Applause]

  And little things have happened, since I’ve been elected. For example, every year our city funds all the major parades, the Chinese parade, the Saint Patrick’s Day parade. For some reason they would never fund the Gay Day parade. And the budget for this year was already locked up and there was no way to reopen the budget. But somehow or another it got reopened and somehow or another we got the money for a Gay Day parade. And it wasn’t the money I was after . . . as soon as they gave us the money, some of them realized it was official sanction of the major gay event of the year. [Applause] And somehow or another we have a lot of gay people being appointed to positions. And somehow or another we are getting money for CEDA [California Enterprise Development Authority] jobs. And somehow or another we are getting money for a community center. And somehow or another . . . the list goes on and on, gay mental health workers. And somehow or another all these things are happening. And somehow or another, the police . . . there’s less harassment, there’s still some, but less and less. Somehow or another it does make a difference just being there.

  And that’s the nuts and bolts of the day to day problems that we can solve and help. So it does make a difference, and it’s a very vital difference. But, it’s very interesting, in the debate that went on in the gay rights, one of the more conservative supervisors, when the vote was obvious and she couldn’t stop it, she got up and she said that, the gay people must set standards. And I arose, oh and then she talked about the S&M scene in the gay community. And I arose, and I said, “Supervisor Feinstein, of course you know the Marquis de Sade was heterosexual. And that the standards you want us to set are the standards of Richard Nixon and the people who made the Atom bomb and dropped it. The standards you want us to set, are the people who 50% of husbands beat their wives? The standards you want us to set are they the standards of the parents who abuse their children? The standards that you want us to set are the people who bring heroin into this nation and put people on drugs? What standards do you want us to set? Or do you want to set the standards in today’s paper?” . . . ‘cause I anticipated her question and I have written down, I’ve saved these, these were the headlines in one day’s paper. “Trade deficit rose 20th month in a row,” “U.S. rebukes Soviets,” “U.S. said to weigh move against Chile,” “capital punishment responds to crime,” this is in New Jersey. “Nine Pennsylvania legislators are being investigated.” There’s articles: Vietnam, Panama, South Africa, the middle east, Ireland. I said “Those are the standards? Because I don’t think you’ll find any gay people involved in any of those issues. So tell me about the standards you want us to set.” [Applause]

  And so, and so, it’s vital that there’s gay people down there to raise the dialogue that would go silent without it. And very interesting in San Francisco, it’s a gay person who has done a few things on the Board that are non-gay. It was a gay person who introduced a resolution, that asked the State Department to close the South African embassy in San Francisco. The reason why, in case you don’t know, South Africa has quite a nice policy to non-whites. It’s the only nation I know, if you are born there and you are not white you are considered a foreigner and must have a passport. And I could go on and spell out the horrors. Well, half of San Francisco is non-white. And if half of San Francisco went to South Africa they would be treated as third class citizens, and that’s an insult to me and to them.

  And it’s very interesting I’m the one who’s fighting for the drug rehabilitation centers for the Latino community in San Francisco. That I’m the one fighting for the Asian community, in fact I’ve tried to get an Asian elected president of the Board of Supervisors. And that it was a gay person who, when Jimmy Carter announced that he wanted to close down the Presidio, the army base there, which is a country club, I said I don’t sleep better at night knowing the Presidio is there. Close it down. Turn it open to senior citizens, the handicapped, and to the childcare centers. Let’s make it a place that once trained people to kill, to a place to train people to heal. And it was a gay person who introduced that and fought for that. And the list is very long of the dialogue that the sensitivities that gay people bring to issues that are non-gay, that surprises them, then they have to deal with it. And the whole city is listening and watching and that can happen wherever we go, and it’s important that we do.


  Then there’s another aspect, that’s very important, because for years we were regarded as gay people but, see, Harvey Milk is known as a gay person from San Francisco, and I was supported by teamsters and firefighters, and construction trade workers and environmentalists and senior citizens and the Chicano community. But I was always gay, and then something happened—I got elected and I was still gay. The day we got sworn in, I mentioned we walked, and there was a reason why we walked. And for those people who were in the media conference, think about this, the eleven supervisors were gonna be sworn in the same day. And I thought it was vital that we were on the front page—so how do you pick one out of eleven? So we walked, everybody else rode. So naturally the media said “hey that’s interesting, we’ll catch them walking.” But what they didn’t know until we got there was that I was walking arm and arm with my lover. And the front page of the Examiner was the photograph of Supervisor Milk walking to City Hall with his lover.

  And for the first time, sex entered into it. I was not just gay—he’s doing it to him! [Laughter, applause] Or maybe he’s doing it to him! Well, they’re both right. [Laughter] And when we were sworn in, we have a custom that each supervisor gets up and introduces their family [laughter] and so I said that—you know the cameras are there—and I said, “Of course you know I’m gay, and in this state it’s illegal for two gay people to be married. But there’s no law on earth that says that two people cannot love each other and I’d like to introduce my lover.”

  And I was amazed at the reaction of some of my progressive friends. Because sex had entered the picture. We were no longer just gay people, and they had to think about that humanistic part of us, for the first time. And an education was happening and it was great. And it’s still going on and it’s not gonna stop. And I get involved in these fights, everything from the budget on down. And sometimes we win the votes, and when I say win, I mean the progressive forces, and sometimes we lose. But the dialogue exists.

  And on a few occasions, on the one vote, on environmental issues sometimes, on fiscal issues where I think they’re irresponsive or they’re just doing because of the power of the downtown association. And I don’t know for sure whether I’m wearing a wash basin or that famed helmet of [Don Quixote] and tilting windmills, I don’t know, and fighting dragons. And I may be fighting windmills or so, but, I think I may catch a dragon or two in the works. And if the story of Don Quixote means anything at all to me, it means that the spirit of life is more important than the substance. That the quality of life is more important than the standard of living. And I think I’ve brought that to the Board. And so the others may think I’m wearing just that wash basin, but I know I’m wearing that famed helmet.

  And I bring another message, and that is about another gay movie that you’re not going to see tonight, but that you might have seen or will see someday. It’s called The Word is Out and I recommend it. ‘Cause I think that we must put the word out. Let’s put the word out—to come out. We must destroy the myths, the stereotypes and no offense to the stereotypes, we must let them know who we are. In San Francisco on Gay Day, some of us are showing up with one sign only. And that is the sign of the town and state that you were born in, to let them know, we are your children. That we are not all products of Hollywood, and San Francisco and New York; that we come from all over. We must come out so that they know we are doctors, lawyers, ditch diggers, cashiers. In fact I’m working with a group of some 90 some odd doctors and psychiatrists in the Bay Area to come out as a group—and if 90 psychiatrists and doctors come out as a group straight America would have a nervous breakdown. [Laughter, applause] We must let them know that we are not child molesters, that they are. [Applause] 95% of molesters are [heterosexuals; inaudible; lost in applause]. We must let them know if teachers affect the future of a child there would be a lot of nuns running around the streets. [Laughter, applause] We must dispel the myths of gay people who choose to be that . . . stop and think how ludicrous that is. And a child of heterosexual parents in the most fiercely heterosexual society, the child who wants to be equal with their peers, in which homosexuality is something to be sat on and spit on and killed, that child chooses homosexuality. Think how ludicrous that is. We must talk about that, we must talk about those issues on a one-on-one basis. And it’s very important we do that. It’s very important we come out. Not to stand on a street corner and say “hey, I’m gay.” But to tell our parents. And people say “I can’t tell my parents, it’s going to hurt them.” Think about what the hurt is gonna be when your parents go into a voting booth and vote against you without knowing. Who gets hurt? Not just you but that 13 year old who is coming out.

  And so it’s important that you come out to everybody that you know—to your relatives, to your friends, to your next door neighbor, to the person you work with, to the people in the restaurants you eat in, and to the people in the store where you shop. So that they know it’s not the rights of some gay people, but it’s your personal rights that they’re discussing.

  And I was very pleased in the time that I’ve been here, to know that there are some gay people contemplating running for political office in this state. We heard of some people running in New York, we know of some other cases. And I think it’s important that I address the need for some of you to do that. And not just Dallas and Houston. It serves two purposes, one—it gives you a platform, so you don’t win. It took me four times, you all thought that three strikes and you’re out—in gay softball it’s four strikes. [Laughter, applause] I think there is a tremendous and vital difference between a friend of the gay community and an avowed gay in public office.

  36

  “Gay Rights”

  Article draft, Coast to Coast, June 16, 1978

  Milk’s editorial in the June 16, 1978, Coast to Coast newspaper was a strong statement about his position on the Briggs Initiative, also known as Proposition 6. With the November referendum looming, Milk was intent on stymieing the anti-GLBTQ measure.

  Milk’s attention during the summer of 1978 (and leading into the fall, just prior to his assassination) was turned toward the fight with John Briggs. The debate over gay rights between Milk and Briggs catapulted Milk into the media spotlight. At the same time, it punctuated his ethos as a local activist with a burgeoning national reputation. In the process, Briggs was cast as a brashly opportunistic and adamantly homophobic demagogue. Briggs’s effort to rid the California schools of GLBTQ teachers became certified as Proposition 6 in May. Given Briggs’ disrepute, even within his own party, he undoubtedly surprised most by taking up the moral inheritance of Anita Bryant’s “Save the Children” campaign, which had the previous year led to “Orange Tuesday”—the day when Dade County, Florida residents voted to retract their gay rights ordnance.

  Though other places like St. Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; and Eugene, Oregon, were facing similar measures, Briggs ensured that California would be the ultimate battleground for homophobia. That California was the focus helped draw Milk into the debate, thereby ensuring his participation and, in the end, his reputation. By the time November 1978 rolled around, the Proposition 6 battle would be Milk’s crowning achievement. Ironically, even as Milk won the battle over Proposition 6, he would lose the war against homophobia—as he predicted, by the bullet of an assassin.

  The editorial below preceded Milk’s debates with Briggs. In this document, Milk outlined the first step of battling Proposition 6: dispelling the myths of the GLBTQ community espoused by Briggs and other Proposition 6 supporters who pitched the senator’s bigotry to the public. Milk argued, “Thus, I feel that now—before they start in—we must talk about the false issues. They will be raised by Briggs, and if they wait to near the end, there will not be enough to time to speak out and explode the myths.” Expediency was Milk’s watchword. Always the strategist, he was looking ahead to what he assumed would be the core of Briggs’ contentions. That is, Milk guessed correctly that Briggs, like Bryant before him, would angle toward so-called GLBTQ
abuses of children and the deviancy of “choosing” to be salaciously GLBTQ. Here, Milk wrote about these myths, but he also established the baseline issue of “choice” in the context of sexuality.

  He also challenged Briggs’ reliance on the Bible as an argument from authority. In a Bay Area Reporter retrospective decades later, Milk is quoted as saying, “I’m tired of listening to Anita Bryant and John Briggs twist the language and meaning of the Bible to fit their own distorted outlook. But I’m even more tired of [people] who know that they are playing fast and loose with the true meaning of the Bible. I’m tired of their silence more than their biblical gymnastics!” In that same article, Milk took Briggs to task for looking past society’s larger, starker problems and focusing instead on so-called homosexual “ills” as described through stereotypes. He wrote, “What standards do you want us to clean up? Clean up your own act! Clean up your violence before you criticize Lesbians and Gay men because of their sexuality.” In essence, Milk turned the mirror around on Briggs and his zealotry.

  Paired with the documents that follow, Milk’s words below represent well his sentiments concerning the Briggs Initiative.

  . . .

  People are tired of talking about taxes and Jarvis-Gann. People will also get tired of talking about Briggs and gay rights. To these people, I say that the day we stop talking about gay rights is the day we no longer have them.