Biography of Harvey Milk

                                             

Harvey Milk: The Battle for Equality

In November, 1977, a 47-year old former WallStreet analyst made California history. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be electedto public office in the Sunshine State, and one of the first in the entire United States.

At a time when public workers were still being fired for homosexuality, Milk showed thatyou could be not just queer, but openly, defiantly, radically queer and still win votes. It wasan iconic moment in both gay history, and American history in general. Sadly, it wasshortly followed by another moment that was iconic for all the wrong reasons. Almost exactlya year after winning election, Milk was assassinated, gunned down in his office by a former colleague. But while everyone knows the story of HarveyMilk, San Francisco icon and gay martyr, how much do we know about Harvey Milk the man?Born into a Jewish family in 1930, Milk grew up at a time of virulent homophobia. Initiallyhiding behind a tough guy act, he finally grew to accept who he was, only to discoverthat this openness had tragic consequences. A complex, sometimes troubled figure, thisis the story of Harvey Milk, the man who became a martyr. Life in the Closet When Harvey Milk was born, on 22 May, 1930,it was into a time and place that didn’t want him to even exist. The part of Long Island his Jewish parentslived in had recently been a stronghold for the KKK, and anti-Semitism was still an acceptedfact of life. Although the Milks were able to run a departmentstore and go to synagogue, Harvey would spend his school years excluded by the local richkids for his Jewishness. But while Milk’s religion certainly madehim a target for the chronically ignorant, it had nothing on his sexuality.

From an early age, Harvey Milk was deeplyaware that he was gay. For a respectable family in the 1930s, thiswas a major no no. Milk’s father William seems to have been suspicious of his son,and constantly berated him, trying to force him to “man up” and act straight. Milk soon learned to do as his father demanded. The boy wasn’t stupid. He’d seen whathappened to the effeminate kids at school. Better to just go with the flow. To be theman his father wanted him to be. This meant assuming the role of a teenagejock. It meant playing football and baseball, and hanging out with pretty girls. But a role was all it ever was. A mask thatHarvey tried to tell the world was his real face. Inside, he was in turmoil. At that time, Harvey’s parents lived neara road leading to the ferry to Fire Island - a notorious gay pick-up spot. Teenage Harvey would see gay men returningat night, and watch them from his bedroom window, desperately wishing he could jointhem. But the narrow pane of glass separating themmay as well have been a concrete wall. At some point, the confused Milk went to seethe family Rabbi. When they were alone, the boy broke down and confessed his homosexuality. The Rabbi’s reply was something Milk wouldremember until the day he died: “You shouldn’t be concerned about howyou live your life,” the Rabbi said, “as long as you feel you’re living it right”.

 Even now, this would be a progressive statement.In the 1940s, it was like the Rabbi blasting out Donna Summer’s I Feel Love while wavinga rainbow flag. Comforting as these words were, though, theydefinitely weren’t mainstream opinion. In summer of 1947, the teenage Milk visiteda cruising spot for the first time, going to part of Central Park where he knew gaymen liked to hang out. Barely had he arrived before he was arrestedand taken into custody. For the 17-year old, the experience was aliving nightmare. He begged the officers. Told them he was justa high school kid going for a walk. That he’d made a mistake. Eventually, they let him go. But the experienceleft Milk scarred. He’d learned the hard way exactly what sortof world he lived in; a world which considered being gay a crime. Now firmly back in the closet, Milk enrolledat the New York State College for Teachers. There, he studied math and languages whileworking as sports editor of the school paper. But he also found time to make a trip thatwould change his life. In the winter of 1950, Harvey Milk took avacation in Cuba. This was Cuba before the revolution, beforethe military government of Fulgencio Batista. It was a free, open society. For the 20-year old Milk, it was a revelation.

When he returned to the US, he stopped writingabout sports. Began writing instead about civil rights. It was the first step on the journey fromHarvey Milk the closeted gay man, to Harvey Milk the radical queer activist. But make no mistake, there was still a longway to go. A Taste of Honey In 1951, Harvey left the teachers’ college,adrift and directionless. He’d originally hoped to continue his studiesin German, but he’d flunked so badly that no language school would ever accept sucha total Dummkopf. Seeing his rudderless son, William Milk decidedto push the boy into doing something macho. Something that would definitely whip the sissyoutta him. He sent Milk off to join the Navy. If you’ve ever seen that Simpsons whereHomer accidentally takes Bart to a gay steel mill, just know this was its real-life equivalent. At his base in San Diego, Milk met other gaymen for the first time in his life. When he went out to drink in town, he discovered thathis crisp uniform was an absolute dude magnet. But we wouldn’t want to suggest Milk’sNaval life was just one big coming out party. He wound up serving in the Korean War, asa diving instructor onboard the U.S.S. Kittiwake. Although he never saw action, he still nettedhimself some medals. Milk’s life as a sailor ended on February7, 1955. He received an honorable discharge - not thedishonorable one he’d later claim he got for being gay - and found himself once againback in civilian life, and once again rudderless. Rather than go back to his parents, he movedto LA. It was out west that Milk met two importantpeople.

 The first was Susan Davis, a young Jewishgirl who took to calling herself Milk’s “fag hag”. The second was Davis’s other gay friend,John Harvey. Handsome and headstrong, John swept HarveyMilk clean off his feet. Milk adored the man, calling him “a God.” The two moved in together, first in LA, thenin Miami, becoming partners with a speed that left Milk dizzy. John was his first serious boyfriend, thefirst time he’d been in love. Naturally, Milk thought it would last forever. But when does first love ever last? In early 1956, after barely a year together,John walked out of Harvey Milk’s life, leaving him alone in Miami. At first, Milk tried to make the best of it.He briefly haunted the gay bars of “Powderpuff Lane”, but soon got arrested and chargedwith perversion. On his release, a depressed and disillusionedMilk returned to Long Island. The next few years passed in an aimless blur. Back home, Milk briefly worked as a teacher,before meeting his second boyfriend, the 19-year old Joe Campbell. The two tried to find a fresh start in Dallas,but Milk felt they didn’t like his Jewishness down Texas, so the pair returned to New York. Although their partnership would last fouryears, most of those were unhappy. Milk was simply too angry. To prone to treatingthe younger man like a wastrel son instead of a lover. As the years passed, Joe started seeing othermen - secretly at first, then almost openly. For his part, Harvey made a frankly embarrassingattempt to seduce Susan Davis. Finally, in 1961, Joe officially killed theirlifeless “marriage.” He moved out of Harvey’s apartment, vanishedfrom his life.

Only now realizing what he’d lost, Milk wrote stacks of love letters, begginghim to come back. Joe ignored them all. In the wake of the breakup, Milk tried returningto Miami, only to find himself back once again in New York as 1963 dawned, still feelinglost. By now, he was 33. A nobody with no careerand nothing behind him but two failed relationships. However, all that was about to change. Milk couldn’t have known it, but he wasnow just 12 short months away from a meeting that would transform his life. Flower Power 1964 found Milk at last on sound financialfooting. Now working on Wall Street as a securitiesresearch analyst, he was making good money for the first time in his life. He was also getting seriously into Conservativepolitics. Yep, conservative. If your mental image ofHarvey Milk is some leftie San Francisco liberal, you should know he campaigned for Barry Goldwaterat the 1964 election. Always a supporter of free enterprise, Milk’shomosexuality also made him deeply suspicious of government intrusion. To him, the Republicanparty seemed a natural fit. But while Milk was leaning rightward politically,he was also dating men who moved in very different circles.

The first of these was Craig Rodwell, a militantactivist known today for coining the term “gay power.” Although their relationship was brief, andended with Milk dumping Rodwell for giving him the clap, it exposed Milk to a whole newworld of gay activism. And while 1960s Milk would claim to be uninterestedin Rodwell’s campaigning, 1970s Milk would have no problem stealing his tactics. The second, more consequential relationshipMilk formed was with Jack Galen McKinley. A pretty young thing of only 17, Galen wasdating the 40-year old Tom O’Horgan when Milk lured him away. This was actually something of a recurringtheme in Milk’s relationships: the just legal boy he could act as both a lover andfather figure to. Not that O’Horgan seems to have cared aboutbeing replaced in Galen’s affections. The off-broadway director took a shine to Galen’snew lover, and he and Milk soon became friends. The creative scene that surrounded the directorwas a natural fit for Milk. While Galen worked on the technical side ofO’Horgan’s plays, Milk was given bit roles, the thrill of performance suiting his flamboyantpersonality. He even managed to parlay his acting careerinto a bit part in a film directed by Robert Downey Snr.

 That’s right: Harvey Milk totally hung aroundwith Iron Man’s dad. How’s that for an Avengers-style crossover? The longer Milk stayed with Galen, the morehe began to abandon his Wall Street image. He started wearing his hair long. Began attendinganti-Vietnam War protests. Finally, in the summer of 1969, he did whatall hippies do. He moved to San Francisco. The catalyst was a production of Hair O’Horganwas directing in the city, and which Galen was part of the crew for. O’Horgan invited Milk along and he accepted,abandoning his well-paid job for a life of creativity and flower power. At least, that was the plan. The reality was that there was no paid rolefor Milk on Hair, so he wound up cutting off his ponytail and taking a well-paid job ata San Francisco investment bank. Not quite the Summer of Love Milk was expecting. Still, the important point is that this wasit.

The moment Harvey Milk laid eyes on San Francisco. It was love at first sight. In the city’s vibrant gay scene, Milk foundsomething he’d been missing in New York. There was something about how queer peoplein San Fran were so in your face. So unapologetic. He may have rejected Rodwell’s gay militancywhile they were dating, but now Harvey Milk was wholeheartedly embracing activism. But it was only a brief affair Milk had withthe city that year, a quick fling. In Spring of 1970, he got fired from his newjob for attending an anti-war rally. With O’Horgan heading back to New York, he decidedto again tag along. But this wasn’t the end of Harvey Milk andSan Francisco’s relationship. Even as he headed east, Milk knew he wouldbe coming back. When he finally did, he was gonna transform this city. The Summers of Love Harvey Milk first told friends he plannedto become mayor of San Francisco as early as November, 1969. But it wasn’t until 1972 that he actuallydid anything about it.

That year, he moved back to the city withhis new boyfriend, Joseph Scott Smith, who he’d met on the New York City subway onhis 41st birthday. Back west, Milk initially planned to opena Jewish deli, but couldn’t get the funds together, and instead settled on a camerashop. Located on Castro Street, the shop was rightin the beating heart of San Francisco’s growing gay community. It was exactly where Milk wanted to be. As a now openly-gay man with a friendly, theatricalpersonality, running a store in the middle of the gay scene, Milk naturally became alocal icon. There’s some evidence this was his planall along, as before his store had even been open a year, Milk was filing to run in the1973 election for the city’s Board of Supervisors. But if Milk had expected to instantly reachhigh office, he was doomed to disappointment. The local Democrat party turning him down,memorably telling him: “You don’t get to dance unless you putup the chairs, and I’ve never seen you put up the chairs.” The more-established gay activists also refusedto work with him, seeing Milk as some New York loudmouth trying to muscle in on theirturf. Still, Milk wasn’t deterred.

 He gamely ran regardless, trying to pull togetheran alliance of marginalized groups. Trying to touch on issues that affected not onlyLGBT people, but also Hispanics, the black community, the working class, and senior citizens. While it wasn’t enough to get him elected,it was enough to place him a respectable 10th out of 32. But it was away from the ballot box that Milkwould first spread his political wings. That same year, 1973, the Teamsters Unionwas organizing a boycott of Coors beer after the firm hired nonunion labor. Milk approached them with a proposition. Hewould convince gay bars across San Francisco to stop stocking Coors. In return, all theTeamsters had to do was agree to hire gay drivers. By now, San Francisco was probably the gayestcity in America, with one estimate claiming nearly a fifth of the voting age populationwas LGBT. So when Milk came good on his promise, Coorsquickly caved.

It was Milk’s first major political victory. Even though he’d lost the election, he’dstill proved that queer activists and macho, blue collar unions could work together. This insight would become the basis for hisfuture success. After the Coors boycott, Milk essentiallybecame a full-time activist. In 1974, he created the Castro Village Association- the first organization in America to consist predominantly of LGBT-owned businesses. As its president, Milk started preaching amessage of gay self-sufficency; telling other gay men to only shop in stores owned by queerpeople, or at least straight people who supported gay rights. His message made him notorious enough thathe was able to run for supervisor again in 1975… but not notorious enough to win. Although Harvey managed to triple his vote,he still finished a damning 7th out of 7. But the campaign alone turned out to be enough. That same year, liberal stalwart George Mosconewas elected mayor of San Francisco.

 The former majority leader of the CaliforniaSenate, Moscone had been famously progressive, advocating lower sentences for smoking pot,and pushing to repeal California’s sodomy laws. As San Francisco’s new mayor, he was determinedto build an administration that actually resembled the city; one in which minority voices wouldbe heard. One of those voices was Harvey Milk’s. In early 1976, Mayor Moscone appointed Milkto the Board of Permit Appeals. Milk became the first openly-gay city commissioner inAmerica, a major statement by Moscone. But Milk wasn’t content to merely be appointedto his post. He wanted to show that queer people didn’tneed straight allies to get ahead, that they were capable of winning elections themselves. So, not long after Moscone hired him, Milkresigned with the intention of running for office again. This time, he would finally win. Election Fever The next two years passed in a blur of politics. In 1976, Milk ran for the California StateAssembly, only to see the pressure of running yet another political campaign destroy hisrelationship with Scott Smith. So Milk changed tack, and instead foundedthe San Francisco Gay Democratic Club. The Club successfully challenged the way theBoard of Supervisors was elected, resulting in what had once been citywide voting beingditched for votes by district. And one of those new districts just happenedto center around Milk’s power base in Castro Street.

The outcome of this change was inevitable. In 1977, a coalition of LGBT people and bluecollar union workers propelled Milk to victory in the latest Board of Supervisors election. It was a major progressive wave year. AlongsideMilk, the city also elected its first Chinese-American supervisor, and first female African-Americansupervisor. Still, it was Milk the press focused on. Although he wasn’t the first out personto be elected to public office in the USA - that honor went to Kathy Kozachenko in 1974- he was the first who seemed to be spearheading a movement. Milk wasn’t just a politician who happenedto be gay. He was a politician loudly declaring that he was gay, and that gay rights wouldbe part of his agenda. At his swearing in ceremony, for example,Milk made a speech condemning bans on gay marriage. But while it was great for the American LGBTcommunity to see one of their members finally, vocally standing up, don’t go thinking thateverything was hunky dory for queer America. At that same ceremony, another supervisorwas sworn in whose views were the polar opposite of Harvey Milk’s. Dan White was a Vietnam vet and former policemanwho’d run for office because he felt the rising tide of social liberalism was drowninghis city. That pot smokers and homos were trying to turn San Francisco into a pink paradise. In Harvey Milk, he would find the homo hehated more than any other. But Dan White was likely the last thing onMilk’s mind in early 1978. By now, he was receiving death threats almostdaily, and had even recorded a tape marked “in event of my assassination.” His friends teased him about it. Asked him“who do you think you are? Gay Malcolm X?” Sadly, these joke-comments would turn outto be painfully prescient.

From the get-go, Milk’s role as supervisorwas a baptism of fire. He headed groundbreaking initiatives, includingfronting what was then the strongest anti-LGBT discrimination bill in US history. The only supervisor who refused to vote infavor of it was Dan White. But even as Milk cheered his first policyvictory, a bigger battle was already brewing. The year before, the singer Anita Bryant hadsuccessfully fronted a campaign to repeal gay rights in Florida. This had sparked a wave of anti-gay legislationacross the US, as newly-acquired rights were suddenly snatched away. Now, it was California’s turn. Proposed in the state Senate by John Briggs,Proposition 6 was one of the ugliest bills of the era - an attempt to not just make itmandatory to fire gay teachers, but to fire any teacher who held non-negative views abouthomosexuality. The scariest part was, voters seemed to loveit. In August that year, polls showed 61% of California’selectorate supported Prop 6. It was a warning shot across the bows of thegay community. A signal to not get all uppity just because one of you got elected in SanFrancisco. When Milk heard of Prop 6, he was horrified.It seemed like even the Sunshine State was desperate to turn back the clock to the miseryof the 1930s. So he vowed to do what he did best.

Harvey Milk was gonna fight fire with fire. “Let that bullet destroy every closet door” If you’ve seen the film Milk, one part thatprobably stuck with you is the scene where Harvey Milk takes apart the utterly moronicmyth that gay role models can corrupt children. Well that was a real speech. One Milk reallymade during a public debate, and it bears repeating here: “I was born of heterosexual parents. I wastaught by heterosexual teachers in a fiercely heterosexual society. Television ads and newspaperads — fiercely heterosexual. A society that puts down homosexuality. And why am Ia homosexual if I’m affected by role models? I should have been a heterosexual.” This simple, logical demolition of his opponents’arguments is where we can see the genius of Harvey Milk. Sure, he was bombastic, often angry. Sure,this anger damaged his home life, ruining several of his relationships. But it also meant that, when queer Americaneeded someone to be angry, needed someone who would stand up and fight, Harvey Milkwas ready. That summer and fall, Milk ran his hardestcampaign ever against Prop 6.

He did it with a mix of humor - like whenhe told a rally “My name is Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you!” - and impressivepolitical showmanship. Take the “Come out, come out” campaign. In fiery speeches, Milk declared the closetwas a “conspiracy of silence” and that: “Gay people, we will not win our rightsby staying quietly in our closets.” He told LGBT people they must come out. Mustshow their friends and family that they existed. That only they, and they alone could dispelthe ignorance surrounding their lives. It was one of the best-fought campaigns inCalifornia history. In real time, you could watch the polls slide, from 61% for Prop 6in August, to 58% against by October. Although Milk wasn’t the only one campaigningagainst Prop 6, it was his efforts more than any that ensured it went crashing down inflames. On November 7, 1978, Prop 6 was utterly defeated.

On the back of this success, Milk began tellingeveryone that this was only the beginning. That his next move would be to run for mayor. Sadly, he’d never get his chance. By November, Dan White had become so disgustedwith the liberalism of City Hall, and the low pay of his Supervisor job that he quitin disgust. But his old police buddies had told him notto be dumb. To keep standing up for family values and law and order. So White had tried to get his job back. AndMayor Moscone had refused. He and Milk were certain a special electionwould return someone more liberal to the seat, and then they’d never have to worry aboutDan White again. But worry is exactly what they should havedone. On November 28, White returned to City Hallwith a revolver in his pocket. He avoided the metal detectors by climbingthrough an open window, then went to Moscone’s office and shot him four times. That done, White reloaded his revolver, walkeddown the corridor to Harvey Milk’s office, and put five bullets in him. The reaction to Harvey Milk’s assassinationshowed both the best and worst of America.

 At the truly awful end, there was the trialof Dan White, which ended in a heterosexual jury convicting him not of murder but of manslaughter,and sentencing him to a mere six years. White’s insultingly dumb defense? That eatingtoo much junk food had sent him temporarily insane. In the wake of White’s pitiful sentence,San Francisco was paralyzed by what became known as the White Night Riots. When protestors gathered, cops attacked themwith nightsticks, sparking a riot that saw City Hall partially burned down. In retaliation, a group of rogue cops droveonto Castro Street, and violently beat anyone they found, shouting anti-gay slurs as theydid so. It was one of the lowest moments in San Francisco’shistory. Cops physically attacking innocent people for the crime of… what? An illegallevel of fabulousness? But while the White Night Riots were a stainon California, what came next was far more inspiring. The assassination and its aftermath galvanisedthe gay community. It was from these ashes that the gay activism of the 80s and 90s wasborn. And while there would be many, many more setbacks;it marked the moment that the tide finally began to turn.

 Today, gay rights in America have progressedbeyond Harvey Milk’s wildest dreams. Since 2015, gay marriage has been legal inall 50 states. There are openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people serving in Congress rightnow - albeit only 9 of them. Obviously, this can’t all be laid at thefeet of Harvey Milk. He was just one man, one man in a relatively low position in onecity, who sat in office for less than a single year. And yet, there’s no doubting he made a difference. For millions and millions of LGBT people,Harvey Milk was the man who showed them the way. The one who showed them what was possible,what could be achieved if risks were taken. As the boy from Long Island once propheticallysaid of the death threats against him: “If a bullet should enter my brain, letthat bullet destroy every closet door”. By living the life he led, by being defiantlyout and proud, Harvey Milk helped destroy more closet doors than any number of bulletscould.