11 Reasons to Celebrate Harvey Milk Day
Today is Harvey Milk Day, launched in 2009 in California to honor the late civil rights leader, born on this day in 1930.
Below, check out 11 reasons to wish Harvey Milk a very happy birthday.
He fought for LGBT visibility
Milk is often cited as America’s first openly gay politician, but this honor actually belongs to Ann Arbor city councilwoman Kathy Kozachenko. Still, it was Milk who first stressed the importance of LGBT representation in the world of politics.
In a moving speech, he explained:
"Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that she or he is gay; knows that if the parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, the classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryant’s and John Briggs’ are doing their bit on TV.
And that child has several options: staying in the closet, suicide. And then one day that child might open the paper that says 'Homosexual elected in San Francisco' and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight."
He promoted LGBT participation in the political process
Milk urged the LGBT community to actively participate in their government, using much of his own campaign to register voters in the Castro. Milk felt that it is the responsibility of those who feel the least represented to make their voice heard.
Sadly, a 2012 Gallup study found that LGBT Americans are less likely to register or vote than straight Americans.
He promoted solidarity
Although Harvey Milk is remembered as a symbol of gay civil rights, he wanted to build a “coalition of us’s” among all of San Francisco minorities.
He reached out to working class, senior, disabled, black and Asian citizens in the diverse city, hoping each could sympathize with each others experiences and form a political majority together.
He saved the schools
One of Milk’s greatest legislative achievements was his role in the defeat of California's Briggs Initiative, which attempted to ban gay and lesbian teachers in public schools.
The bill's backers preyed on the vicious stereotype of homosexuals as child predators, and ignored the fact that they had been teaching all along.
Working closely with feminist Sally Gearhart, Milk garnered overwhelming opposition to the initiative and cast suspicion on any similar legislation that followed.
He called for representation in the police
The unfair treatment of the LGBT community by police did not end with Stonewall: In the early 1970s, cops in San Francisco arrested thousands of gay men in bar and cruising-ground raids.
Presaging the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Milk and Mayor George Moscone urged the SFPD to hire more gay and lesbian officers to better reflect the community.
He envisioned unity without compromise
Milk felt it was the city's role to help preserve neighborhoods, and felt that both LGBT and straight people could benefit from living together as a single community.
The diversity of Milk’s supporters helped shape the Castro into a neighborhood that offered public schools for families, and medical services for the disabled and elderly, without compromising the area’s established identity as a thriving haven for queer culture and nightlife.
He is still protecting LGBT youth
Two schools carry the torch of Milk’s legacy in two very different ways: The Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in San Francisco is devoted to “teaching awareness, acceptance, and nonviolence.”
The Harvey Milk High School, meanwhile, is a public high school at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York—offering LGBT and questioning students a safe space to “learn without the threat of physical violence and emotional harm.”
Both schools' missions are groundbreaking, and offer hope for a new generation of successful LGBT adults and allies.
He is still addressing human rights around the globe
The Harvey Milk Foundation was founded in 2009 by Harvey’s nephew, Stuart, and combats homophobia and hate crimes in the United Kingdom, Italy, the Czech Republic, Mexico and the U.S.
He helped create the rainbow flag
Harvey Milk challenged artist Gilbert Baker to create a more positive symbol of pride for the LGBT community than the pink triangle, which had originally been used by Nazis as a mark of persecution.
Baker created the rainbow flag, assigning a meaning to each color: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit.
At the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade, the first after the assassination of Harvey Milk and George Moscone in 1978, the flag flew above Market Street for the first time. It soon became the most widely recognized symbol of LGBT activism and pride.
Harvey is still making history
Among his many posthumous honors, Harvey Milk was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.
Milk became the first openly gay elected official to be issued a stamp by the United States Postal Service, and the Navy has named a Military Sealift Command fleet oiler, currently being built USNS Harvey Milk.
Harvey is still teaching the children
A new children's book, Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag introduces kids to LGBT advocates Harvey Milk and Gilbert Baker, and teach the history behind the beloved pride symbol. Written by Florida-based author Rob Sanders and illustrated by New York-based artist Steven Salerno, the book was released in April 2018.