Harvey Milk Day
Words by: Abby Yemm | Music by: Abby Yemm
Image credit: Milk Foundation
While this holiday is typically celebrated in California, we invite you, dear readers- to celebrate with us and our west coast lovelies in remembrance of a very important gay rights activist: Harvey Milk. Harvey Milk Day is celebrated annually on May 22, his birthday. In the wake of the award-winning film Milk, a series of petitions led by gay rights activist Daren I. Ball were signed into law in 2009. Today, the state’s government recognizes it with special significance for public schools.
When digging deeper into Harvey’s story, we were struck by how strongly his fight aligns with so much of what we are still battling today. Namely, the fight for equality and a world without hate. Yikes, that hurts to type.
Harvey served less than a year in a hard-earned public office seat before he was assassinated. Leading up to that, it’s fascinating to behold his moxie. Harvey, a Long Island native, graduated from New York State College for Teachers. From there, he went on to serve in the Navy during the Korean War but received a discharge for having engaged in sexual acts with other enlisted men (the horror!). Then he was like, I’m gonna move back to New York and be a financial analyst. He probably got bored, so he moved to San Francisco and opened up a camera shop. He soon gained notoriety as a leader in the gay rights community. THEN, he was like this community is way too conservative though, so he ran for a seat on the city’s Board of Supervisors and promptly lost.
Mike drop, he could’ve just gone back to Long Island and been like sorry, bye. But he didn’t. Because he was a badass and driven by his convictions. So then, he runs again the next year and LOSES AGAIN. For some reason he still doesn’t give up, and finally wins the third time. In 1977, he becomes one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history. Let’s just look at it again, by itself:
In 1977, Harvey Milk becomes one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history.
Harvey spearheads an important anti-discrimination measure and in his shortened office term, does as much as he can with what he has for the LGBTQ+ community. His life is tragically cut short by a former angered colleague in 1978 that we shall not name. The name you need to retain is Harvey Milk.
In 2009, Harvey was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
How to honor and continue his legacy, you ask? Below are some ways we found to continue in his line of beautiful, important living:
Ask your child’s school to have an announcement on the PA system about Harvey Milk Day.
Request an assembly to celebrate Harvey Milk, and use it as a time to educate about LGBTQ+ issues and the impact that Harvey Milk had on our community.
Watch the movies “The Times of Harvey Milk,” “Castro”, or “Milk” with family or friends. Consider screening one of these movies or doing a party watch and hold a discussion after the show.
If you’re a teacher: encourage your teachers to have a class discussion on Harvey Milk and the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. In History or Social Sciences classes, you may ask to devote either a portion or an entire class to talking about past LGBT community leaders and other civil rights leaders from the 1970s.
Be a local LGBTQ+ ally. Get involved at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion with a number of their events.
“Hope will never be silent.”
Harvey Milk
An Abby Yemm playlist for you…
Disclaimer: We love having these conversations. We hope you love them as well. As a peaceful reminder, all views, opinions, statements, feelings, and vibes posted on Nelle News are solely those of the beautiful individuals involved. They might not represent any other person, agency, organization, employer, or company’s views, opinions, statements, feelings, or vibes. Nelle profiles are meant to entertain and show a real-life conversation; nothing more or less.