In light of recent events in Russia, Jamison Maeda takes a look back at an early campaigner for equality
The Castro District of San Francisco was historically an Irish-Catholic, working class neighborhood. But it began to see an influx of gay men moving in as the US government ejected them from the military and dropped them off in San Francisco during World War II. The most famous resident of the Castro was Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and the first gay person elected to public office in the US.
He became involved in local politics after witnessing the abuse and discrimination gay people experienced in San Francisco, particularly in the conservative Castro neighborhood. One day Harvey was approached by Teamster union members asking for his help organizing a gay boycott of Coors Beer in exchange for offering jobs to openly gay people as delivery drivers. Something clicked within Harvey. He realized that by mobilizing multiple communities he could create change and he began recruiting San Franciscans to his cause. After unsuccessfully running for local office, he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors supervisor in 1977.
Harvey was instrumental in stopping Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, from banning gay people from teaching in public schools. He also advocated for the elderly, and fought against giant corporations and real estate developers.
“My name is Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you!”
Harvey spoofed the idea that there was a homosexual agenda to recruit children into a gay lifestyle and encouraged all gay men and women to come out of the closet. He believed that if Americans realized that gay people were their own sisters and daughters and doctors and lawyers that it would change the perception of homosexuals as monsters and villains.
In his famous Hope Speech, he said “I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”
Harvey wanted to encourage every gay person and everyone who had a gay friend or relative or neighbor to speak up, so that young gay people could have hope and would no longer have the highest suicide rate in the nation. He envisioned a world where there was no discrimination and he wanted to tell every black person, and gay person, and disabled person that there is nothing wrong with them, and they don’t deserve to be abused because they are different. He wanted people to have hope. But his fight for human rights and social change was cut short. Harvey Milk was assassinated on November 27, 1978 along with Mayor George Moscone by former City Supervisor, Dan White. That evening nearly 40,000 candles lit up the San Francisco sky as mourners spontaneously gathered in the Castro and walked to Civil Center.
At his trial Dan White claimed that a diet of junk food caused him to commit the premeditated murders. This was known as the “Twinkie defense.” His jury consisted of all white, mostly Catholic jurors. All gay people or people of color were dismissed as potential jurors. Police officers openly wore “Free Dan White” shirts. He served 5 years in prison.