What Harvey Milk Would Say to America Today

Published November 27, 2009 @ 08:27AM PT

Today marks the 31st anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city supervisor who became an LGBT rights political legend for his work demanding equality.

In legacy terms, it's been a very good year for Milk. The movie based on his life, Milk, won several Oscars, and Milk himself was inducted into the California Museum's Hall of Fame. Milk was even awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, becoming one of the very few openly LGBT people to receive such an award.

Perhaps the best news is that after multiple efforts, the California state government finally enacted a law that will create a Harvey Milk Day in the state, to be commemorated every May 22 to honor the birth of Milk. In May 2010, on what would have been Milk's 80th birthday, California residents will celebrate his life and legacy for the first time with the blessing of the state.

But today, during a holiday season that encourages us to give thanks and undertake reflection, it seems fitting to ask the question "What Would Harvey Milk Say?" about the state of LGBT rights, and the battles we're both winning and losing in the struggle for equality.

One simple guess as to what Milk would say today, that doesn't differ at all from what Milk said during the last summer of his life in 1978 as he was fighting an anti-gay ballot initiative in California, is that gay people won't win any demands for equal rights so long as they stay hidden.

"Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying silently in our closets...We are coming out. 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," Milk said.

That's pretty sage advice. If nobody knows that we're out there, they won't know that we deserve equal rights. And if nobody knows we're out there, then the other side's lies, distortions and myths about sexual orientation continue to gain influence.

But as Adam Bink over at Open Left points out, Milk's advice doesn't end with opening the closet door. It's advice that LGBT folks need to carry with them long after they come out, into conversation after conversation.

"In 2009, coming out is just as important, but our side has to do more. We need to talk about marriage. And it can't just be up to the gays," Bink writes. "We have to have one-on-one conversations about marriage equality, and the holidays are the perfect time to do that. There is no better way to reach your friend or family member, and there is nothing better -- not direct mail, or TV, or any campaign tactic -- to win people over."

Time and time again, the strategy that works best for winning people over on LGBT rights issues is personal conversations. No amount of television advertising or direct mail can ever tell my Aunt in Southwestern Pennsylvania what it's like to wake up next to my partner, or how much joy I get from leaving him little surprises and seeing him smile, or even just cooking dinner with him. The same is true for the hundreds of thousands of stories we all have about what it means to share life with the ones we love.

Advertising alone can't tell those messages. We need to. And we need to keep telling those stories long after coming out the closet if we ever hope to change enough hearts and minds on our issues.

That's what Harvey Milk might say to an America today that is struggling with another year in which we lost a marriage equality battle at the ballot box, and have seen rumblings that anti-gay activists will try and take marriage rights away in at least two other states.

As Milk's campaign manager Anne Kronenberg once said, "[Milk] imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." The duty to create that world now falls on us, but we can do it. Our most righteous weapon is our voice. Let's be sure to use it this holiday season and beyond.

(Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Historical Society.)

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Comments (9)

Thanks for the post.I still can remember the speech by the writer upon accepting the oscar,The most touching speech of an oscar winner.

Posted by Martin Martinez on 11/27/2009 @ 10:01AM PT
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Harvey Milk has given very good advice in that LGBT rights activists must be well heard because it's essential in advancing LGBT rights. It's good that next year, there will be a Harvey Milk Day which would have also been his 80th birthday if Harvey Milk lived. Adam Bink is correct in that conversation is very effective in getting people to support LGBT rights, especially same-sex marriage. It's not correct that homophobic people are planning to defeat LGBT rights, but equality for LGBT triumphs.

Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 11/27/2009 @ 11:06AM PT
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I had a brief email colloquy with Cleve Jones on this subject. We both agree that anger is a very good thing. I think that Harvey would be disappointed by the level of anger.

Take Maine for example. In debates and media, our opponents were essentially calling us child molesters yet we were so well behaved. Jesse is a fine man and he worked very hard. I am wondering if there is a peril associated with having a straight guy run a campaign like this. Yet, even when queers were debating on public stages, they were too reserved - too damned polite. Nobody really put the wood to our opponents face to face. Harvey would have cut an idiot like Mutty down to size - quickly. So many of the people involved in our endeavor were lawyers and that's not a good thing.

On a related note, were Harvey still with us, I doubt that the folks at Criswell advertising could get to their office every day without being confronted by a mob of pissed off queers. Criswell is within walking distance of the Castro and they were the top recipient of Yes on One revenues.

We have only a month to pass marriage equality in NJ. I am not seeing the passion.

Posted by David Hart on 11/27/2009 @ 01:40PM PT
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The world needs not know why we are here except that we are, and we shouldn’t have to justify our love for another human being! Love is the force that drives everybody to peace not just the lucky ones! What Milk, and I believe what he was saying is this: "If a tree falls in the forest and noone is there to hear did it really fall," you can’t ignore the fact of who we are and we can’t expect others to automatically help us, there is fear at first, acceptance later, and equality is after that, I think? People are people!

Posted by Peter S. T. on 11/27/2009 @ 02:04PM PT
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Im thinking that mr. milk would encourage all of us to keep on fighting for whats right and he would also say that we shouldnt be taking shit from the bible thumpers...

Posted by Reverend Boony on 11/27/2009 @ 05:22PM PT
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I think Harvey Milk would be very saddened and discouraged if he were with us today. It's now been 31 long years since his murder and not a whole lot has changed. Only few states permit us to marry. Those which do, frequently have this right reversed by a majority rule vote. We can be thrown out of the military simply because of who we are. (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) In most states gays and lesbians are prohibited from either adopting children or being foster parents. It was only just recently that gays/lesbians were added to list of other minorities protected from hate crimes. It remains to be seen if the states will willingly enforce this legislation. People the likes of Shawn Hennity, Rush Limbough, Michael Savage, Mike Huckabee, Pat Robertson, and Rick Santorum etc. relentlessly drive the hate machine of homophobia. At 65 years of age, I am sorry if I sound discouraged--but I am. Gays and lesbians were a part of President Obama's political base which gained him the presidency. So, I ask you Mr. President, where is the "Change We Can Believe In?" It is not widely known, but Obama as Commander-In-Chief has the ability and authority to outlaw DADT today by signing an executive order. Of course, down the pike, it would have to be brought to a congressional debate. HOWEVER, he does have the power to stop the bleeding (if only temporally) by picking up his pen. Talk is cheap, Mr. President, but actions speak far louder than words. At this point, I only hope that I am able to live long enough to see our status as second class citizens forever repudiated. Perhaps then the words, "WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL" will represent more than just empty rhetoric. Bill

Posted by William Stddart on 11/28/2009 @ 05:19PM PT
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Mr. stddart...

I dont blame you and/or anybody else for feeling discouraged BUT even though we havent arrived where we should be as of yet...Look at what we have accomplished.

When harvey milk was alive, there were no states allowing for same sex marriage...Gays being protected from hate crimes was likely not even a gleam in the eyes of civil rights advocates.

The right of the G.L.B.T. community to adopt in any state didnt exist.

In our present time more folks are comming to see the G.L.B.T. community as being a normal variant of humanity...Which they are.

No mr. stddart...We havent won the war nor will we stop fighting untill it is won BUT let us not overlook the few victories we have obtained even as we fight in the bloody trenches of the war for equality.

Posted by Reverend Boony on 11/30/2009 @ 03:53AM PT
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Thank you so much for your words of encouragement, Reverend Boony. There has been progress. Overall people, in general, seem to be more accepting of gay folks than they were years ago. We have to crawl before we can walk and the gay rights movement is up on it's feet!

Posted by William Stddart on 11/30/2009 @ 08:46AM PT
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Thats what Im here for sir.

Blessed be.

Posted by Reverend Boony on 11/30/2009 @ 06:53PM PT
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Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He is the former Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, as well as the former Director of Communications for Pax Christi USA, a national Catholic peace and justice organization. Mike is a graduate of Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and he is also a proud sketch comedy writer.