Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk

[matt_mcl]

Harvey Milk (1930-1978) was an American politician and an activist for the civil rights of lesbians and gays. He was the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco and (as far as I know) the first openly gay elected official in the
United States. After passing one of the first anti-discrimination laws in the world, after fighting numerous homophobic initiatives, and after greatly raising the profile of the almost invisible LGBTT community of the time, Harvey Milk was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone, by fellow city supervisor Dan White, on 27 November 1978.

Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that she or he is gay; knows that if their parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, their classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryants and John Briggses are doing their part on TV.

And that child has several options: staying in the closet, suicide… and then one day that child might open the paper that says “Homosexual elected in San Francisco” and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight.

Two days after I was elected I got a phone call and the voice was quite young. It was from Altoona, Pennsylvania. And the person said “Thanks.” And you’ve got to elect gay people, so that young child and that thousand upon thousands like that child know that there is hope for a better world; there is hope for a better tomorrow.

Without hope, not only gays, but those who are black, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us’s: without hope the us’s give up. I know that you can’t live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.

And you, and you, and you, and you've got to give them hope.

— Harvey Milk

[Moirai]

Thank you, matt.

[Ducktail]

Thanks for posting. We owe him a lot.

[jayjay]

Wow…I’ve never seen that quote before.

I’m from Altoona, PA. When Milk won the election, I was only 6 years old, so it obviously wasn’t me, but that’s a spooky coincidence.

Thank you, Supervisor Milk. You were the trailblazer.

[mhendo]

Nice one, matt.

I’m looking forward to Gus Van Sant’s film about Milk, which comes out in about a week, with Sean Penn in the title role.

[jayjay]

@mhendo

Nice one, matt.

I’m looking forward to Gus Van Sant’s film about Milk, which comes out in about a week, with Sean Penn in the title role.

I’ve heard the film is really good, but I’m very iffy on it. I HATE movies that make me cry, and I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t get halfway through “Milk” without becoming a sodden heap in the theater seat. I can’t even read Harvey Milk’s wikipedia entry without tears…

[Moirai]

Don’t watch the trailer, then. It damn near killed me.

No, I take that back- watch it, and then go out and support the film during it’s theatrical release, preferably on opening weekend. It is the best way to not only support this film, but to get other important films made in the future. Opening weekend is key in this day & age.

[Daffyd]

@jayjay

I’ve heard the film is really good, but I’m very iffy on it. I HATE movies that make me cry, and I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t get halfway through “Milk” without becoming a sodden heap in the theater seat. I can’t even read Harvey Milk’s wikipedia entry without tears…

Whatever you do, don’t rent “The Times of Harvey Milk”*… I’ve seen it probably ten times, and I end up in tears every time… and not just at the end - the opening scene does it to me - and it’s downhill from there…

I’m looking forward to “Milk” - it looks totally amazing… but I’m like you, I’m gonna be a mess…

• That’s a lie - make sure you see it, it deserved its Oscar.

[Sailboat]

Not to pick on Milk, who seems genuinely inspirational and certainly didn’t deserve his fate, but one thing is bothering me.

In recent commemorative articles about the Jonestown massacre, due to its own anniversary, I saw an assertion that Milk had received considerable support from Jim Jones and that he had in turn supported Jones, perhaps lending a shred of mainstream legitimacy to the cult. Is this true? If so, will it be depicted in the movie?

[JustAnotherGeek]

I was given The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten (food critic from Vogue; white-haired critical judge from Iron Chef America) for (early) Christmas. It just randomly happened that yesterday I started chapter Murder, My Sweet. Although Steingarten doesn’t mention specifics about Milk (or Mayor Moscone), he was absolutely rip-shit over the “twinkie defense”. The entire chapter is how sugar is good for us. I had never heard about any of this. (Being only 16 months at the time of the double murder, it didn’t rate any more concern than what I was drooling on.)

Then I came here and found out more about the whole awful incident. Strange timing.

[Annie-Xmas]

Family Value by Phyllis Burke is her account of her partner Cheryl having a baby and Phyllis’s successful attempt to adopt the son as a “co-parent” in the bruhaha of the Milk assassination. An excellent read.

[jayjay]

@Sailboat

In recent commemorative articles about the Jonestown massacre, due to its own anniversary, I saw an assertion that Milk had received considerable support from Jim Jones and that he had in turn supported Jones, perhaps lending a shred of mainstream legitimacy to the cult. Is this true? If so, will it be depicted in the movie?

From Milk’s wikipedia article:

He distributed his campaign literature anywhere he could, including among one of the most influential political groups in the city: the Peoples Temple. Milk’s volunteers took thousands of brochures there, but came back with feelings of apprehension. Because the Peoples Temple leader, Jim Jones, was politically powerful in San Francisco (and supported both candidates), Milk allowed Temple members to work his phones, and later spoke at the Temple and defended Jones.[note 4] But to his volunteers, he said, “Make sure you’re always nice to the Peoples Temple. If they ask you to do something, do it, and then send them a note thanking them for asking you to do it. They’re weird and they’re dangerous, and you never want to be on their bad side.”

It looks like they were basically a fairly influential part of San Francisco politics at that time, regardless of the candidate. And it should be noted that the Jonestown massacre was still in the future. As far as anyone really knew at the time, they were just another Christian sect.

[zamboniracer]

It is interesting how times have changed the perception of this event. Now people on this board, and in reference to the movie too, will call it the Milk Assassination. At the time it was the Moscone Assassination, Moscone being the mayor of San Francisco and by virtue of that office more important than Milk. Wikipedia calls it the Moscone-Milk_assassinations