According to people who knew him, some of whom are friends of mine; Harvey Milk (1930-1978) was no saint and not an easy man. He had a temper and a stubborn streak. But his sense of independence freed him from compromising party politics, allowing him to be controlled by his conscience rather than a debt owed to special interest groups. A true patriot, Milk had an absolute allegiance to The Declaration of Independence and our U.S. Constitution.
He brought a defiant defense of individual rights and individual participation in our political process. The gay political establishment in San Francisco pushed against Milk, the man and the idea. As an openly gay man, Milk knew that whoever holds the power, dictates the limits of our individuality.
Milk:
”It takes no compromise to give people their rights… it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.”
Milk was one of the true political pioneers of the 20th century. He was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office when he won his seat on the San Francisco Board Of Supervisors in 1978. Now, 45 years later, all 50 states have been served by at least openly LGBTQ elected official at least once. My state, Oregon, has an openly gay governor, Tina Kotek.
The LGBTQ Victory Institute claims that there are 1174 LGBTQ elected officials in our country, including three governors, two senators, 13 members of Congress, 226 state legislators, and 58 mayors. Among them are Jared Polis (Governor of Colorado), Maura Healey (Governor of Massachusetts and former Attorney General of Massachusetts), Kotek (Governor of Oregon), Tammy Baldwin (Senator from Wisconsin), the indefatigably frustrating Kyrsten Sinema (Senator from Arizona), Dana Nessel (Attorney General of Michigan), Kris Mayes (Attorney General of Arizona), Ricardo Lara (Insurance Commissioner of California), Kevin Lembo (Comptroller of Connecticut), Josh Tenorio (Lieutenant Governor of Guam), and Benjamin Cruz (Public Auditor of Guam). Progress? Sure, but just 0.19% of elected officials are LGBTQ nationwide. We are 6% of the population, so 28,116 more LGBTQ people would need to be elected to achieve equitable representation.
In the House of Representatives, conservative Kansas has Sharice Davids, who is Native American and lesbian; California has Robert Garcia, who is Hispanic, gay, and cute, and Mark Takano, who is gay and Asian American; New York has handsome Ritchie Torres, who is Black and gay, and George Santos, who is a criminal and a lying piece of shit MAGA. The only state without any gay representation is, unsurprisingly, Idaho, the USA’s top neo-Nazi training ground.
Three of the ten largest cities in the USA have elected LGBTQ people as mayor, including Lori Lightfoot and Annise Parker (former Mayor of Houston). Todd Gloria is the first person of color and the first openly gay person to serve as San Diego’s mayor. Openly gay Justin Correll is mayor of Laurel Run, Pennsylvania, population 560.
Milk’s struggles and his successes show that there is really no such thing as a “Gay Agenda”, there is simply freedom for all Americans, or there’s not. His energy and his eloquent voice spoke for all minorities, all the voiceless citizens who are crushed in the American cultural conformity.
People told Milk that no openly gay man could possibly win political office. Thankfully for all of us, Milk ignored them. He knew that emotional trauma of being in the closet was a LGBTQ person’s worst enemy, worse than the haters. That made the election of an openly gay person crucial, practically and symbolically.
There was a time not all that long ago when it was impossible to imagine Harvey Milk. Most people, straight and LGBTQ, had to adjust to what he represented: a gay person could live their life with honesty and still succeed in this world. That revelation continues to this day as the rights of LGBTQ people move baby steps forward with Marriage Equality as law of the land, and then steps backwards with Religious Freedom laws, Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, and with a conservative majority in the Supreme Court who must be frothing at the mouth to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.
With every gay character on television and film, with full Marriage Equality in every state, with each politician of any party that embraces the rights of LGBTQ people, and each state that adds Equal Protection laws, we find that unequivocal equality becomes unquestionable, and that is due in large part to Milk.
Milk:
”If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”
Tragically, an assassin’s bullet did silence Milk’s voice, but not his momentum. Milk would have, should have, celebrated his 91st birthday today. It would have been so wonderful if he could have been here to celebrate by sharing some birthday pudding with Dianne Feinstein.
