TODAY'S GAY WISDOM
Harvey Milk Day
is a state-wide holiday in California now. Organized by the Harvey Milk
Foundation and celebrated each year on May 22 in memory of Harvey Milk.
Harvey Milk’s ‘Hope Speech”
My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you.
I've been saying
this one for years. It's a political joke. I can't help it--I've got to
tell it. I've never been able to talk to this many political people
before, so if I tell you nothing else you may be able to go home
laughing a bit.
This ocean liner
was going across the ocean and it sank. And there was one little piece
of wood floating and three people swam to it and they realized only one
person could hold on to it. So they had a little debate about which was
the person. It so happened that the three people were the Pope, the
President, and Mayor Daley. The Pope said he was titular head of one of
the greatest religions of the world and he was spiritual adviser to
many, many millions and he went on and pontificated and they thought it
was a good argument. Then the President said he was leader of the
largest and most powerful nation of the world. What takes place in this
country affects the whole world and they thought that was a good
argument. And Mayor Daley said he was mayor of the backbone of the
Untied States and what took place in Chicago affected the world, and
what took place in the archdiocese of Chicago affected Catholicism. And
they thought that was a good argument. So they did it the democratic way
and voted. And Daley won, seven to two.
About six months
ago, Anita Bryant in her speaking to God said that the drought in
California was because of the gay people. On November 9, the day after I
got elected, it started to rain. On the day I got sworn in, we walked
to City Hall and it was kinda nice, and as soon as I said the word "I
do," it started to rain again. It's been raining since then and the
people of San Francisco figure the only way to stop it is to do a recall
petition. That's the local joke.
So much for that.
Why are we here? Why are gay people here? And what's happening? What's
happening to me is the antithesis of what you read about in the papers
and what you hear about on the radio. You hear about and read about this
movement to the right. That we must band together and fight back this
movement to the right. And I'm here to go ahead and say that what you
hear and read is what they want you to think because it's not happening.
The major media in this country has talked about the movement to the
right so the legislators think that there is indeed a movement to the
right and that the Congress and the legislators and the city councils
will start to move to the right the way the major media want them. So
they keep on talking about this move to the right.
In 1977, when he
won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk became
the first openly gay elected official in the United States. Less than
one year later, on November 27, 1978, Milk was gunned down along with
San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. The shooter was Supervisor Dan
White, a conservative board member who had campaigned on a platform of
law and order, civic pride, and family values.
White, packing a
gun and extra bullets, climbed through a window in City Hall in order to
confront Milk and Moscone about his troubled tenure on the Board of
Supervisors. After shooting Moscone four times at close range, White
reloaded his gun, walked to the other side of the building, and invited
Milk into his former office. White shot Milk in the arm, the chest, and
twice in the head. He then fled the building the same way that he had
entered. A few hours after Diane Feinstein, who became Acting Mayor,
named him as a suspect, White turned himself in.
On May 21, 1979.
after White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to
five to seven years in prison for killing both men, protestors gathered
at City Hall to vent their outrage over the verdict. In what has come to
be known as "White Night," demonstrators broke windows at City Hall,
burned police cars, and clashed with police at various flashpoints
throughout the city.
In 1985, after
serving just over five years in Soledad prison and one year of parole in
Los Angeles, White returned to San Francisco despite Mayor Feinstein's
public objections. On October 21, 1985, seven years after the
assassinations, White killed himself in the garage of his wife's home.
White's suicide did not provoke any significant public reaction.
So let's look at
1977 and see if there was indeed a move to the right. In 1977, gay
people had their rights taken away from them in Miami. But you must
remember that in the week before Miami and the week after that, the word
homosexual or gay appeared in every single newspaper in this nation in
articles both pro and con. In every radio station, in every TV station
and every household. For the first time in the history of the world,
everybody was talking about it, good or bad. Unless you have dialogue,
unless you open the walls of dialogue, you can never reach to change
people's opinion. In those two weeks, more good and bad, but more about
the word homosexual and gay was written than probably in the history of
mankind. Once you have dialogue starting, you know you can break down
prejudice. In 1977 we saw a dialogue start. In 1977, we saw a gay person
elected in San Francisco. In 1977 we saw the state of Mississippi
decriminalize marijuana. In 1977, we saw the convention of conventions
in Houston. And I want to know where the movement to the right is
happening.
What that is is a
record of what happened last year. What we must do is make sure that
1978 continues the movement that is really happening that the media
don't want you to know about. That is the movement to the left. It's up
to CDC to put the pressures on Sacramento--but to break down the walls
and the barriers so the movement to the left continues and progress
continues in the nation. We have before us coming up several issues we
must speak out on. Probably the most important issue outside the
Briggs--which we will come to--but we do know what will take place this
June. We know there's an issue on the ballot called Jarvis-Gann.
We hear the
taxpayers talk about it on both sides. But what you don't hear is that
it's probably the most racist issue on the ballot in a long time. In the
city and county of San Francisco, if it passes and we indeed have to
lay off people, who will they be? The last in, and the first in, and who
are the last in but the minorities? Jarvis-Gann is a racist issue. We
must address that issue. We must not talk away from it. We must not
allow them to talk about the money it's going to save, because look at
who's going to save the money and who's going to get hurt.
We also have
another issue that we've started in some of the north counties and I
hope in some of the south counties it continues. In San Francisco
elections we're asking--at least we hope to ask-- that the U.S.
government put pressure on the closing of the South African consulate.
That must happen. There is a major difference between an embassy in
Washington which is a diplomatic bureau. and a consulate in major
cities. A consulate is there for one reason only -- to promote business,
economic gains, tourism, investment. And every time you have business
going to South Africa, you're promoting a regime that's offensive.
In the city of
San Francisco, if everyone of 51 percent of that city were to go to
South Africa, they would be treated as second-class citizens. That is an
offense to the people of San Francisco and I hope all my colleagues up
there will take every step we can to close down that consulate and hope
that people in other parts of the state follow us in that lead. The
battles must be started some place and CDC is the greatest place to
start the battles.
I know we are
pressed for time so I'm going to cover just one more little point. That
is to understand why it is important that gay people run for office and
that gay people get elected. I know there are many people in this room
who are running for central committee who are gay. I encourage you.
There's a major reason why. If my non-gay friends and supporters in this
room understand it, they'll probably understand why I've run so often
before I finally made it. Y'see right now, there's a controversy going
on in this convention about the gay governor. Is he speaking out enough?
Is he strong enough for gay rights? And there is controversy and for us
to say it is not would be foolish. Some people are satisfied and some
people are not.
You see there is
am major difference--and it remains a vital difference--between a friend
and a gay person, a friend in office and a gay person in office. Gay
people have been slandered nationwide. We've been tarred and we've been
brushed with the picture of pornography. In Dade County, we were accused
of child molestation. It's not enough anymore just to have friends
represent us. No matter how good that friend may be.
The black
community made up its mind to that a long time ago. That the myths
against blacks can only be dispelled by electing black leaders, so the
black community could be judged by the leaders and not by the myths or
black criminals. The Spanish community must not be judged by Latin
criminals or myths. The Asian community must not be judged by Asian
criminals or myths. The Italian community must not be judged by the
mafia, myths. And the time has come when the gay community must not be
judged by our criminals and myths.
Like every other
group, we must be judged by our leaders and by those who are themselves
gay, those who are visible. For invisible, we remain in limbo--a myth, a
person with no parents, no brothers, no sisters, no friends who are
straight, no important positions in employment. A tenth of the nation
supposedly composed of stereotypes and would-be seducers of
children--and no offense meant to the stereotypes. But today, the black
community is not judged by its friends, but by its black legislators and
leaders. And we must give people the chance to judge us by our leaders
and legislators. A gay person in office can set a tone, con command
respect not only from the larger community, but from the young people in
our own community who need both examples and hope.
The first gay
people we elect must be strong. They must not be content to sit in the
back of the bus. They must not be content to accept pablum. They must be
above wheeling and dealing. They must be--for the good of all of
us--independent, unbought. The anger and the frustrations that some of
us feel is because we are misunderstood, and friends can't feel the
anger and frustration. They can sense it in us, but they can't feel it.
Because a friend has never gone through what is known as coming out. I
will never forget what it was like coming out and having nobody to look
up toward. I remember the lack of hope--and our friends can't fulfill
it.
I can't forget
the looks on faces of people who've lost hope. Be they gay, be they
seniors, be they blacks looking for an almost-impossible job, be they
Latins trying to explain their problems and aspirations in a tongue
that's foreign to them. I personally will never forget that people are
more important than buildings. I use the word "I" because I'm proud. I
stand here tonight in front of my gay sisters, brothers and friends
because I'm proud of you. I think it's time that we have many
legislators who are gay and proud of that fact and do not have to remain
in the closet. I think that a gay person, up-front, will not walk away
from a responsibility and be afraid of being tossed out of office.
After Dade
County, I walked among the angry and the frustrated night after night
and I looked at their faces. And in San Francisco, three days before Gay
Pride Day, a person was killed just because he was gay. And that night,
I walked among the sad and the frustrated at City Hall in San Francisco
and later that night as they lit candles on Castro Street and stood in
silence, reaching out for some symbolic thing that would give them hope.
These were strong people, whose faces I knew from the shop, the
streets, meetings and people who I never saw before but I knew. They
were strong, but even they needed hope.
And the young gay
people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias and the Richmond, Minnesotas who
are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The
only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give
them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for
a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope
that all will be all right. Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks,
the seniors, the handicapped, the us'es, the us'es will give up. And if
you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay
people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a
green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given
up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.
So if there is a
message I have to give, it is that I've found one overriding thing about
my personal election, it's the fact that if a gay person can be
elected, it's a green light. And you and you and you, you have to give
people hope. Thank you very much.