Image courtesy of the San Francisco Airport Museum
"Hope Will Never Be Silent:" Harvey Milk's Crusade for LGBTQIA+ Rights
National History Day 2023
Frontiers in History: People, Places and Ideas
Milk's Success
As supervisor, Milk expressed liberal policy, establishing daycares, low-cost housing, and expanding community services. Milk made a deal with fellow supervisor Dan White to pass an anti-discrimination bill, protecting gay housing and employment. Milk didn't keep his end of the deal because it compromised his moral ideals. White never forgave Milk, voting against Milk in nearly every subsequent measure, but the bill was passed, crossing an ideological frontier.
The bill was groundbreaking. Courtesy of the Bay Area Reporter.
Milk meeting Carter in 1976. Courtesy of National Geographic.
"Jimmy Carter, you talk about human rights...there are 15-20 million gay people in this nation. When are you going to talk about their rights?"
~ Harvey Milk
The Briggs Initiative
Anti-Briggs Initiative Protest. Image courtesy of National Geographic.
1978's Proposition 6 (Briggs Initiative), threatened to fire all homosexual educators from California public schools. The bill pandered to sexual and cultural norms held by most Americans, painting LGBTQIA+ people as deviants and outcasts. Milk became the main spokesperson for the bill's opposition.
"Get out of the bars and onto the streets!"
~ Harvey Milk
"It is so easy to find a list of people who hate. Can't you find me list of people who love?"
~ Harvey Milk
Milk debating Briggs, featuring the quote to the left. Courtesy of the National Archives.
Shortly before his death, Milk gave his most famous speech, "The Hope Speech," at the San Francisco Pride Parade. It led to Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter denouncing Proposition 6, persuading voters to reject it in a major recognition of LGBTQIA+ rights.
Milk's anti-Proposition 6 rally at City Hall. Image courtesy of the SFO museum.
"(Proposition 6) has the potential of infringing on basic rights of privacy and perhaps even constitutional rights."
~ President Ronald Reagan
"Ask everybody to vote against Proposition 6."
~ President Jimmy Carter
"Proposition 6 is an invasion of privacy and could lead to one of the greatest witch hunts in the history of modern mankind."
~ President Gerald R. Ford