Harvey Milk
|
'''Harvey Milk''' (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) an United States|American politician and gay rights activist, was the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. He and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in 1978.
Of Lithuanian ancestry, Harvey Milk was not born Glimpy Milch, as it is widely reported. Harvey's given name was '''Harvey Bernard Milk'''. Milch was his grandfather's surname; Milk is the English translation. Glimpy was Harvey's nickname because as a child and adolescent, he was considered goofy-looking due to his large ears, nose, and feet. He was born in Woodmere, Long Island, New York. He graduated from Albany State College in 1951 and joined the United States Navy; he was honorably discharged, although he later told voters in campaigns that he was a victim of one of the many anti-gay purges of the armed services.
Like many gay people of the time, Milk later moved to San Francisco in 1972, where he settled with his lover Scott Smith and opened a camera store in the Castro gay village. He emerged as a community leader, founding the Castro Valley Association of local merchants, and represented the neighborhood businesses in dealing with the city government.
Despite a national climate of hostility against gay people, he ran for office several times. He emerged as a figurehead for San Francisco's large gay community, and was called the "Mayor of Castro Street." He was elected city supervisor in 1977, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the US.
He was assassinated on November 27, 1978 at City Hall, together with mayor George Moscone, by former city supervisor Dan White. White had resigned only weeks previously following the enactment of a gay rights bill which he had opposed, and was hoping to be reinstated by Mayor Moscone that day. White entered City Hall through an open basement window in order to avoid detection of the weapon and 10 rounds of ammunition he carried. He denied premeditation.
A huge throng turned out for Milk's and Moscone's funeral cortège, along a route decorated with rainbow flags.
White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and sentenced to seven years and eight months, a sentence widely denounced as lenient and motivated by homophobia. Lawyers had prevented anyone they deemed "pro-gay" from serving on the jury, and had brought in a psychologist to show evidence of the depression - namely that the consumption of junk food was out of character for the normally health-conscious White (leading to a common misunderstanding that junk food was ''blamed'' — see Twinkie defense). White only served one year of parole, the first nine months of which he spent hiding in LA. He then returned to San Fransisco against Mayor Diane Fienstein's public wishes, where he committed suicide in the garage of his wife's house by asphyxiation from car exhaust.
Milk had foreseen his risk of assassination and had recorded several audio tapes to be played in that event. On one of the tapes, he made his famous quotation, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every the closet|closet door in the country."
After the sentence, the gay community erupted into the White Night Riots; more than 160 people ended up in hospital.
Harvey Milk is widely regarded as a martyr for the gay community and the gay rights movement. Many Queer community institutions are named for Milk, including the Harvey Milk Institute and the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender United States Democratic Party|Democratic Club in San Francisco, as well as a number of Queer-positive alternative schools in the United States, including Harvey Milk School in New York City. A diner at the University of Warwick in the UK was named Harvey's in his honour, and the University of Leeds students' union named a nightclub the Harvey Milk Bar.
A number of pieces of music have taken Harvey Milk as their subject. Blue Gene Tyranny's ''Harvey Milk (Portrait)'' (1978) is a piece for magnetic tape which manipulates a recording of a speech Milk gave in 1978. In the early 1990s an indie rock band named Harvey Milk was formed in Athens, Georgia. In 1995 the opera ''Harvey Milk'' by composer Stewart Wallace and librettist Michael Korie was premiered, and in 1996 it was recorded on CD under Donald Runnicles with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
The life of this politician is depicted in the Academy Award winning documentary film, ''The Times of Harvey Milk''.
The 1999 film ''Execution of Justice'' relives the asassination.
References
Randy Shilts. ''The Mayor of Castro Street''. 1982.
Wallace Turner. "San Francisco Mayor is Slain; City Supervisor Also Killed; Ex-Official Gives Up to Police." '' The New York Times''. November 28, 1978. A1.
External links
http://www.glbthistory.orgholds Harvey Milk's archives.
http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/milk01.htmlhttp://www.milkmemorial.orgOrganization dedicated to placing a bust of Harvey Milk in San Francisco's City Hall.
http://www.harveymilk.org/http://www.shapingsf.org/ezine/gay/files/whitengt.htmhttp://www.milkclub.org/http://www.stewartwallace.com/harvey_milk.htmhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0176705/Showtime original movie about the events leading up to the November 27 assassinations.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088275/
|