Harvey Milk would’ve been 85
years old on 22 May 2015…
Had he not been shot and killed
in 1978.
So who was he?
Harvey Milk:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Was born in New York in 1930.
Was a son to William and Minerva.
Was a brother to Robert.
Was an uncle to Stuart.
Worked in the Navy and later as a teacher.
Became an elected politician in San Francisco in
1977 – this made international news. Why?
• Harvey Milk was a gay man.
Gay
adjective
: being attracted to
(or fancying) people of
the same gender only
As with many gay people, Harvey knew he
was gay by the time he was at high school.
Question:
Do you think that students in
this school who are gay can be
open about it?
Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be
elected to public office in California when he won a
seat in San Francisco in 1977.
Making sure he represented ALL people in his
constituency made Harvey Milk a popular
figure. He campaigned on a variety of issues:
•
•
•
•
Day care centres for working mums
Low cost housing
Safe neighbourhoods for everyone
Freedom and fairness for all people
Anne Kronenberg (his
final campaign
manager) wrote of him:
“He imagined a
righteous world inside
his head and then he
set about to create it
for real, for all of us.”
At a time when gay people had little or no legal
rights, Harvey Milk spoke out for fairness and
equality – urging others to do the same. He said:
“Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets.
… 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. You must come out.”
Coming Out
verb
: to openly say – or
admit to yourself –
that you are gay
At that time there was a lot of hatred directed at gay people in
general and Milk in particular. He received daily death threats and
was aware of the likelihood that he may well be assassinated.
That happened in 1978.
It is because of Harvey Milk and others like him
that in the UK today, we now have equal rights for
everybody, including gay people.
Question:
What reaction will you give to a
person who “comes out” as
gay?
Find out more:
About Harvey Milk:
milkfoundation.org
About local services for LGBT (lesbian,
gay, bisexual and trans) young people:
www.lgbtyouthnorthwest.org.uk