Harvey Milk Totally Explained

Everything about Harvey Milk totally explained

Harvey Bernard Milk (22 May 1930 – 27 November 1978) was an American politician and gay rights activist, and the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. He was, according to Time magazine, "the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet".
As the self-described "Mayor of Castro Street" he was active during a time of substantial change in San Francisco politics and increasing visibility of gay and lesbian people in American society. He was assassinated in 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by then recently-resigned city supervisor Dan White, whose relatively mild sentence for the murders led to the White Night Riots and eventually the abolition of diminished capacity defense in California.

Biography

Early life

Milk was born in Woodmere, New York, where his grandfather, Morris Milk, was the owner and namesake of Milk's Department Store. As an adolescent, he was nicknamed "Glimpy" due to his large ears, nose, and feet. He graduated from Bay Shore High School, Bay Shore, NY in 1947, graduated from University at Albany in 1951 and then 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.
Following his service in the Navy, Milk lived for a time in Dallas, Texas. Eventually he relocated to New York City and took a job on Wall Street. He also became involved in theater, serving as assistant director alongside Tom O'Horgan for a number of plays including Lenny and the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
In 1972, Milk moved to San Francisco. He settled with his partner Scott Smith and opened a camera store, Castro Camera, 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.

Public office

Milk had two unsuccessful bids for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in both 1973 and 1975. He emerged as a figurehead for San Francisco's large gay community, and was known as the "Mayor of Castro Street", a title which he himself coined. With each campaign, he garnered a larger number of supporters. Milk was successful in reaching out and making alliances among the city's ethnic populations and among labor union leaders, but not among the rank and file members. Milk's opponent in the 1976 race for the California State Assembly was Art Agnos, who would win the seat by 3,600 votes out of 33,000 ballots cast.
   In 1976 San Francisco voters voted to replace city-wide elections with district elections, effective in the 1977 city elections. This switch to district elections ushered in the most diverse Board of Supervisors the city had ever seen. Milk was the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the United States, and only the third openly gay elected official in all of the US, after Kathy Kozachenko and Elaine Noble. Milk represented District 5, which included the Castro.
   The diverse board included the former police officer and firefighter Dan White as well as the gay and liberal Milk. White had to resign from being a firefighter as San Francisco charter barred people from holding two city jobs at the same time so he took up a second job to supplement the pay downgrade, running a restaurant business, which failed. White, a Roman Catholic and outspoken anti-gay conservative, was counterpoint to Milk, an outspoken liberal who "frequently opposed him on the board."
   Milk became highly visible in the media debating California Senator John Briggs throughout the state on Proposition 6, The Briggs Initiative, to "prohibit homosexuals from teaching in California public schools," a topic on which White and Milk "were sharply divided" because it would have empowered California school boards to fire teachers that "practiced, advocated, or indicated an acceptance of homosexuality."
   Milk also sponsored a pooper-scooper ordinance and a San Francisco law barring "anti-gay discrimination" in the workplace which passed the same time the Briggs Initiative failed. Days later White resigned his city supervisor seat, citing too little salary to support his family and that he was "unhappy with the ethics he found in the political world."

The Peoples Temple

Milk was a supporter of controversial political figure Jim Jones, who had been appointed Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Commission after the participation of the Peoples Temple (headed by Jones) was instrumental in the 1975 Mayoral election victory of George Moscone. Like Moscone, Milk received help from Peoples Temple member volunteers in his campaigns. After Jones came under fire, Milk wrote Jones a handwritten note stating "my name is cut into stone in support of you - and your people." Following a visit to the Peoples Temple, Milk wrote to Jones: "Rev Jim, It may take me many a day to come back down from the high that I reach today. I found something dear today. I found a sense of being that makes up for all the hours and energy placed in a fight. I found what you wanted me to find. I'll be back. For I can never leave." After Jones fled to Guyana in August of 1977 following accusations of criminal wrongdoing, Milk attended a rally for the Peoples Temple with Art Agnos.
Amidst pressure in the United States to investigate the Temple, on February 19, 1978, Milk wrote a letter of support for the Peoples Temple to President Jimmy Carter. Therein, Milk wrote that Jones was known "as a man of the highest character." he's never been connected with Milk in any regard other than politically.

Assassinations

The morning that Moscone was to announce his replacement for Dan White both he and Supervisor Milk were assassinated by White who had entered San Francisco City Hall through an unlocked window to avoid detection of his police revolver; after a loud argument he shot Moscone at close range, reloaded and went down the hall to kill Milk delivering a coup de grâce to each victim. White quickly left the scene and met his wife at nearby Saint Mary's Cathedral the principal church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco and within hours he turned himself in at the police station where he was formerly a police officer. and "filled" it instead with "white conservative Catholics, half of them from White’s district". The prosecution claimed that White's motive was revenge. But White's attorney, Douglas Schmidt, claimed that White was a victim of pressure and had been depressed, a state exacerbated by his consuming a large quantity of junk food before the murders; this became known as the "Twinkie defense". Schmidt also told the jury and the press that White carried the ammunition on him out of impulse from his past experience as a police officer.
   Finally, the jury heard what the prosecution hoped would be its most damaging piece of evidence—Dan White's tape-recorded confession which was taped the day after the murders. What was notable about this confession was that the police didn't seem to ask White any questions about the crime and just let him talk. Instead, White tearfully talked of how Moscone and Milk refused to give him his supervisor's job back.
   White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter on the grounds of diminished capacity and sentenced to seven years and eight months with parole.
   White's former campaign manager and business partner, Ray Sloan, suggests that instead of homophobia, White was mostly motivated by revenge for perceived political betrayal.

White Night Riots

After the sentence, the local gay community erupted in what came to be known as the White Night Riots. As soon as the sentence was announced, word ran through the gay community and groups of people began walking quickly to the Civic Center where City Hall was located. By 8:00 PM, a sizable crowd had formed. According to the documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk, the enraged crowd began screaming at police officers calling for revenge and death. Then riots began to break out with the mob setting ablaze a number of police vehicles, disrupting traffic, and smashing windows of cars and stores. Buses were disabled by their overhead wires being ripped down, and violence broke out against the outnumbered police officers.
Later that night, in what was widely regarded as a retaliatory strike, a police riot took place in the gay Castro neighborhood half a block from Milk's camera shop and campaign office. After order was restored at City Hall a number of SFPD cars with dozens of officers headed into the Castro District. Police marched into a bar called the Elephant Walk, smashed fixtures and attacked patrons. By this time the "Twinkie defense" had become such a common referent that one participant waved a Twinkie in the air to make his point. Additionally, California's statutory definitions of premeditation and malice required for murder were eliminated with a return to common law definitions. Twinkie defense was described in detail in Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Woodall, 304 F.Supp.2d 1364, 1377 n. 7 (S.D.Ga. 2003).

Legacy

Harvey Milk was named in the "Heroes & Icons" section of Time magazine's . Many institutions and organizations are named for Milk, including the Harvey Milk Recreational Arts Centre, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, the Harvey Milk Institute, the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library,and the Harvey Milk Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered Democratic Club in San Francisco.
Outside of San Francisco are a number of alternative schools named for Milk in the United States, including Harvey Milk High School in New York City. Oakes College at the University of California, Santa Cruz has an on-campus apartment building named Harvey Milk.
In February 2007, the city of San Francisco agreed to erect a bust of Harvey Milk in City Hall in tribute to his service and memorialize his life's work. A lengthy process to choose a design took place and a gala installation event took place on May 22, 2008 to coincide with Milk's birthday. The bust, unveiled by an honor guard selected from gay youth, depicts a smiling Milk. On the pedestal are three bas reliefs: of a Gay Pride Parade, of Milk sitting on the roof of a car during a Gay Freedom Parade, and of Milk in his Navy uniform. It contains the inscription

"Harvey Bernard Milk 
 May 22, 1930   
November 27, 1978 
 San Francisco Supervisor 
Jan 9 - November 27, 1978
I ask for the Movement to continue because my election gave young people out there hope.  You gotta give 'em hope.   
Hope Speech 1978"

In April 2008, the State of California passed out of committee AB 2567, which would declare May 22nd "Harvey Milk Day". (External Link

)

Depictions

In 1979, the new wave/electronic band Tuxedomoon released a song mocking the results of White's trial entitled "(Special Treatment For The) Family Man". The song is a part of their EP "Scream With A View" originally on Ralph Records. The assassination of Milk directly affected the band as they were based in San Francisco at the time and one of the founding members was openly gay.
Milk's political life is depicted in the 1984 Academy Award-winning documentary film, The Times of Harvey Milk, narrated by Harvey Fierstein. A 20th anniversary digitally remastered DVD of the documentary was released in 2004 and includes interviews with the film's director, Rob Epstein and Milk's openly gay nephew Stuart Milk,(External Link

) among others.
   In 1995 the opera Harvey Milk by composer Stewart Wallace and librettist Michael Korie was premiered by the Houston Grand Opera, and in 1996 it was recorded on CD under Donald Runnicles with the San Francisco Opera orchestra and chorus.
   The 1999 TV film Execution of Justice based on the 1983 play (of the same title) written by Emily Mann reenacts the assassination.
   In 2000 a TV film, examined the assassination with archival footage of Milk and White.
   In 2004, playwright and actor Jade Esteban Estrada portrays Milk in the solo musical comedy ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 2.
   Director Gus Van Sant's film titled Milk began filming on location in San Francisco in January 2008. It stars Sean Penn as Milk, Josh Brolin as White, Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones, Victor Garber as Moscone, Lucas Grabeel as Danny Nicoletta and James Franco as Smith. Reportedly Tom Ammiano will portray himself.
   Director Bryan Singer had also begun work on a project based on the Randy Shilts biography The Mayor of Castro Street.

Controversy

The outing of Sipple

On September 22 1975 former marine Oliver Sipple saved the life of President Gerald Ford, for which he was highly praised by law enforcement and the media but only a personal letter from the President instead of a visit to the White House. Sipple, who was closeted in his hometown of Detroit had met Milk back in New York and had participated in San Francisco's gay pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The incident came just three weeks after Lynette Fromme's assassination attempt on Ford so reporters hounded Sipple who at first didn't want his name used, nor his location known. Milk, however, reportedly outed Sipple as a "gay hero" to San Francisco Chronicle's columnist Herb Caen in hopes to "break the stereotype of homosexuals" of being "timid, weak and unheroic figures". Gay liberation groups petitioned local media to give Sipple his due as a gay hero. Caen published the private side of the former Marine's story, as did a handful of other publications. Sipple then insisted to reporters that his sexuality was to be kept confidential. Later, when Sipple hid in a friend's apartment to avoid them, the reporters turned to Milk, arguably the most visible voice for the gay community. The reporters had already labeled Sipple the "gay ex-Marine" and his conservative Baptist mother disparaged and disowned him when she found out about his sexuality. Milk's precise role in the outing remain somewhat cloudy as Sipple's active participation in the gay community suggests that his sexuality would have been revealed and reported even if doing so was seen as unethical.Further Information

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