Towleroad has some great footage up of this weekend's National Equality March, as well as an interview with out Broadway star Gavin Creel, who attended the event along with the cast of Hair. I haven't seen any interviews with her, but I know from what she posted on Twitter that Kristin Chenoweth was also among the thousands who were at the March. All the more reason to love her!
It looks like it was an incredible moment in the LGBT civil rights struggle and I really regret that I couldn't be there myself!
You can watch Cleve Jones, the gay activist who fought alongside Harvey Milk in the 1970's and has kept up the fight ever since, and who called for this March to begin with, address the crowd here.
In a nicely timed moment, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill creating May 22nd as Harvey Milk Day in California, something that he'd previously vetoed. That, of course, was before they made a movie about Milk that won some Oscars.
Showing posts with label Harvey Milk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harvey Milk. Show all posts
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Pelosi Sounds a Warning
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, sounded a warning today that I hope those in politics and those who make it their business to cover politics, will heed. Referencing the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone back in 1978 and tying the nasty political climate of that period to the one we're going through at the moment, Pelosi had this to say:
Given some of the incredibly hateful things that are being said- and, more sadly still, believed by far too many as fact- about President Obama and others who are trying to improve the health care system in this country, Pelosi's warning comes at a pretty scary time. Will anyone pay the slightest bit of attention, though? Those in the business of stirring up this kind of hate don't seem to care what the results are, as long as it helps achieve their short term political goals.
I think most Americans are disgusted by the kind of hateful propaganda we've been seeing, but there is a core group out there all too ready to believe it, and who knows how many among them are capable of being driven to extremes by it? It's truly scary.
I wish people would step back and remember that no matter how passionate you feel about an issue, no matter how much you disagree with someone, you can do so in a civil way. So much of the political discourse in this country is so hateful and ugly, and instead of doing anything about it, we seem to have just accepted it and started looking the other way.
"I think we all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words. We are a free country and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we have to carefully balance. I saw...I saw this myself in San Francisco. This kind of rhetoric was very frightening and it gave—it created a climate in which violence took place. I wish that we all again would curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made, with the understanding that some of the ears this is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume."
Given some of the incredibly hateful things that are being said- and, more sadly still, believed by far too many as fact- about President Obama and others who are trying to improve the health care system in this country, Pelosi's warning comes at a pretty scary time. Will anyone pay the slightest bit of attention, though? Those in the business of stirring up this kind of hate don't seem to care what the results are, as long as it helps achieve their short term political goals.
I think most Americans are disgusted by the kind of hateful propaganda we've been seeing, but there is a core group out there all too ready to believe it, and who knows how many among them are capable of being driven to extremes by it? It's truly scary.
I wish people would step back and remember that no matter how passionate you feel about an issue, no matter how much you disagree with someone, you can do so in a civil way. So much of the political discourse in this country is so hateful and ugly, and instead of doing anything about it, we seem to have just accepted it and started looking the other way.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Honors for Milk & King, Nothing for the Rest of Us
President Obama is awarding the highest civilian honor in the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to out tennis great Billie Jean King and, posthumously, to slain gay rights legend Harvey Milk.
The honor is way overdue in the case of Harvey Milk and I'm very glad to see it finally happening. I think, though, that if Milk was still with us today he'd be the first to point out that these honors are a nice gesture that in no way excuses the Obama administration's complete lack of action gay rights.
All of the President's campaign promises on ending Don't Ask Don't Tell and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act evaporated into thin air right around the time Rick Warren opened his mouth at the Inauguration. The President has been a huge disappointment so far and while I'm glad to see him honoring Milk and Billie Jean King, that amounts to about half a drop in a very large bucket.
And, gee, it's not at all suspicious that news of these honors comes the same week that it was revealed that the Obama Administration pressured Congressman Alcee Hastings into removing his addition to the Defense Spending Bill that would have blocked the military from spending any money on removing LGBT members from the armed services.
So, not only does this Administration not want to actively pursue what they promised the LGBT community, they're actually working behind the scenes to achieve the exact opposite! Something to keep in mind as 2012 approaches and we begin to hear fresh promises.
The honor is way overdue in the case of Harvey Milk and I'm very glad to see it finally happening. I think, though, that if Milk was still with us today he'd be the first to point out that these honors are a nice gesture that in no way excuses the Obama administration's complete lack of action gay rights.
All of the President's campaign promises on ending Don't Ask Don't Tell and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act evaporated into thin air right around the time Rick Warren opened his mouth at the Inauguration. The President has been a huge disappointment so far and while I'm glad to see him honoring Milk and Billie Jean King, that amounts to about half a drop in a very large bucket.
And, gee, it's not at all suspicious that news of these honors comes the same week that it was revealed that the Obama Administration pressured Congressman Alcee Hastings into removing his addition to the Defense Spending Bill that would have blocked the military from spending any money on removing LGBT members from the armed services.
So, not only does this Administration not want to actively pursue what they promised the LGBT community, they're actually working behind the scenes to achieve the exact opposite! Something to keep in mind as 2012 approaches and we begin to hear fresh promises.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Two Harvey Milk Anniversaries
Today would have been Harvey Milk's 79th birthday and Chuck Wolfe of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund wonders if Harvey would be proud of where things stand today on LGBT rights. After a look at where we are and what we still have to achieve, Wolfe concludes:
This Harvey Milk Day, I think Harvey would be proud of our progress so far, but I’m absolutely sure he wouldn’t be satisfied by it. He faced a bullet. We have only to face down our own fears, come out and speak up.
Ironically, yesterday marked another anniversary related to the great Harvey Milk. 30 years ago, on May 21, 1979, the outrageous verdict in Dan White's trial for the murders of Milk and Mayor George Moscone was handed down. This resulted in the White Night Riots, in which the gay citizens of San Francisco, and some of their straight allies, gathered in protest. As their anger and frustration and loss boiled over, they chanted "Harvey dies, Dan White lies," and a riot began at the Civic Center and City Hall. For many in the country, it was the first time they saw LGBT people literally fighting back against an oppressive system.
The San Francisco police retaliated that same night by covering up their badge numbers and attacking the Elephant Walk bar in the Castro district.
The Bay Area Reporter had a really good article on the anniversary of the riots, which some consider to be San Francisco's own version of the Stonewall Riots.
Dan White robbed us of an important voice just when LGBT people needed it the most. This one man may have made a great deal of difference in fighting against the Government's complete lack of action in the early year's of the AIDS crisis and, perhaps even more importantly, in changing the ingrained attitudes of the gay community itself more quickly when it came to protecting ourselves against the disease.
It wasn't that long ago that the name Harvey Milk was, for me, someone I knew of only vaguely as a gay politician from the past who had been assassinated. Over the last few years, as I've read so much more about Harvey and his era, I've come to appreciate all that he stood for and how much he accomplished, and I know that many others have as well thanks to the recent film.
He was truly a hero. Happy Birthday, Harvey.
The San Francisco police retaliated that same night by covering up their badge numbers and attacking the Elephant Walk bar in the Castro district.
The Bay Area Reporter had a really good article on the anniversary of the riots, which some consider to be San Francisco's own version of the Stonewall Riots.
Dan White robbed us of an important voice just when LGBT people needed it the most. This one man may have made a great deal of difference in fighting against the Government's complete lack of action in the early year's of the AIDS crisis and, perhaps even more importantly, in changing the ingrained attitudes of the gay community itself more quickly when it came to protecting ourselves against the disease.
It wasn't that long ago that the name Harvey Milk was, for me, someone I knew of only vaguely as a gay politician from the past who had been assassinated. Over the last few years, as I've read so much more about Harvey and his era, I've come to appreciate all that he stood for and how much he accomplished, and I know that many others have as well thanks to the recent film.
He was truly a hero. Happy Birthday, Harvey.
Friday, March 13, 2009
At Long Last, Milk
Some friends dropped in before I could start watching Milk, so I ended up not watching it until nearly midnight. Hence this late night/early morning post about the movie, while it's still fresh in my mind.
First of all, I'm now very relieved that I didn't get a chance to see it in the theatre, since I ended up crying my eyes out at various parts. Not even just at the parts I expected to feel emotional about, either, like Harvey's assassination, but also during the marches and the scenes of the community coming together for the first time ever. It was just really powerful and moving.
I read The Mayor of Castro Street three or four months ago and it really opened my eyes to a lot about Harvey Milk that I didn't know, even after watching the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk a couple of years back. Things like all the years he'd spent as a closeted New York Republican, for instance. A lot of what the movie included probably would have surprised me if I hadn't read that book first. As it was, all I could think about was how true to everything I'd read they were being with the film.
While I was reading the book I bascially cried through a lot of the final chapters, but there was one moment earlier on in the book that really affected me. I hadn't thought about that moment being repeated in the movie for some reason, but there it was and seeing it played out on the screen was almost as hard as reading about it.
I'm talking about the scene where the teen from Minnesota calls Harvey and tells him that he's going to kill himself because his parents are going to send him away to be 'cured'. Harvey urges him to get on a bus or a train and make his way to a big city instead and the kid says that he can't get on a bus, he can't run away: he's in a wheel chair.
Reading that in the book, I had to put it down for several minutes and cry. The image is just so tragic and heart wrenching and so hopeless. But, in the book as in the movie, Harvey later heard from the kid, who'd managed to find a way to take Harvey's advice and get away.
That story, for me, really sums up everything Harvey Milk is about. I know it was the tag line to the movie, so I'm not exactly original in saying this, but Harvey was all about giving people hope and he's still doing so over thirty years after his murder.
The thing is, Harvey didn't give people hope that things would just change and get better. His kind of hope wasn't the 'This too shall pass' kind. He gave them hope that they themselves could change things, could change the world we live in. What I mean is, he didn't just give them something to believe in so much as he helped them to believe in themselves and in the LGBT community coming together for the first time in history as a major movement.
I can't remember the first time I heard the name Harvey Milk. I really wish I could, but by that point, I was already reading a lot about LGBT culture and history, taking in a lot of things at once. I have no recollection of learning of his story, though I know I heard of it on my own, long after my public school days were over.
I remember being a lost and confused kid figuring out that I was gay and having very little to look towards in terms of role models, or even just to feel less alone in the world. It would have made a world of difference, I think, if I'd known the story of Harvey Milk then.
I think that's one of the greatest things about this film. It has brought Harvey Milk back to mainstream attention, where he should have been all along. He's a civil rights hero as much as he is a gay hero, but tons of gay kids are going to know his story now. We need that, we need to keep our history alive.
As for the film itself, I though everything was perfect. The cast was amazing, the script was entirely deserving of the Oscar that Dustin Lance Black won for it, the way they recreated the era was so painstakingly well done. It's really a masterpiece of a biopic and a beautifully done film. I really wish it had won the Oscar for Best Picture. I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire, but I think Milk is everything film should be.
Reading back what I've written, I think I'm coming off like someone who cries constantly, and I swear I'm not! It's just that certain subject matter really gets to me and this era is one of those things. It's the idea of this huge movement coming together for the first time, the new freedom and equality they were fighting for, winning, and enjoying, and us knowing in retrospect that AIDS was lurking just around the corner and would destroy so much of it. The idea of it literally haunts me at times.
Not long after reading The Mayor of Castro Street, I actually had a dream where I was somehow in the 70's myself and I'd met this guy that I really liked, but I knew that I had to go, that I was going to be pulled back to the present at any second, and I was urgently trying to convince him before I left that he had to start using condoms and getting other people to do so, too. It probably sounds silly, but in the dream I was so desperately trying to make him understand what was coming, what the near future had in store, and I couldn't. I failed. When I woke up, it really felt in those first few moments of consciousness that I really had been there, and that I really had blown my chance to warn them. It was a terrible feeling.
But, I digress. Seeing Milk, in spite of the tragic way things ended for Harvey, didn't depress me. It truly isn't a film about the end of one life, but about the beginning of something that continues to this day and gets stronger all the time. I'm so glad I finally got to see the movie and I'll be buying my own copy very soon.
First of all, I'm now very relieved that I didn't get a chance to see it in the theatre, since I ended up crying my eyes out at various parts. Not even just at the parts I expected to feel emotional about, either, like Harvey's assassination, but also during the marches and the scenes of the community coming together for the first time ever. It was just really powerful and moving.
I read The Mayor of Castro Street three or four months ago and it really opened my eyes to a lot about Harvey Milk that I didn't know, even after watching the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk a couple of years back. Things like all the years he'd spent as a closeted New York Republican, for instance. A lot of what the movie included probably would have surprised me if I hadn't read that book first. As it was, all I could think about was how true to everything I'd read they were being with the film.
While I was reading the book I bascially cried through a lot of the final chapters, but there was one moment earlier on in the book that really affected me. I hadn't thought about that moment being repeated in the movie for some reason, but there it was and seeing it played out on the screen was almost as hard as reading about it.
I'm talking about the scene where the teen from Minnesota calls Harvey and tells him that he's going to kill himself because his parents are going to send him away to be 'cured'. Harvey urges him to get on a bus or a train and make his way to a big city instead and the kid says that he can't get on a bus, he can't run away: he's in a wheel chair.
Reading that in the book, I had to put it down for several minutes and cry. The image is just so tragic and heart wrenching and so hopeless. But, in the book as in the movie, Harvey later heard from the kid, who'd managed to find a way to take Harvey's advice and get away.
That story, for me, really sums up everything Harvey Milk is about. I know it was the tag line to the movie, so I'm not exactly original in saying this, but Harvey was all about giving people hope and he's still doing so over thirty years after his murder.
The thing is, Harvey didn't give people hope that things would just change and get better. His kind of hope wasn't the 'This too shall pass' kind. He gave them hope that they themselves could change things, could change the world we live in. What I mean is, he didn't just give them something to believe in so much as he helped them to believe in themselves and in the LGBT community coming together for the first time in history as a major movement.
I can't remember the first time I heard the name Harvey Milk. I really wish I could, but by that point, I was already reading a lot about LGBT culture and history, taking in a lot of things at once. I have no recollection of learning of his story, though I know I heard of it on my own, long after my public school days were over.
I remember being a lost and confused kid figuring out that I was gay and having very little to look towards in terms of role models, or even just to feel less alone in the world. It would have made a world of difference, I think, if I'd known the story of Harvey Milk then.
I think that's one of the greatest things about this film. It has brought Harvey Milk back to mainstream attention, where he should have been all along. He's a civil rights hero as much as he is a gay hero, but tons of gay kids are going to know his story now. We need that, we need to keep our history alive.
As for the film itself, I though everything was perfect. The cast was amazing, the script was entirely deserving of the Oscar that Dustin Lance Black won for it, the way they recreated the era was so painstakingly well done. It's really a masterpiece of a biopic and a beautifully done film. I really wish it had won the Oscar for Best Picture. I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire, but I think Milk is everything film should be.
Reading back what I've written, I think I'm coming off like someone who cries constantly, and I swear I'm not! It's just that certain subject matter really gets to me and this era is one of those things. It's the idea of this huge movement coming together for the first time, the new freedom and equality they were fighting for, winning, and enjoying, and us knowing in retrospect that AIDS was lurking just around the corner and would destroy so much of it. The idea of it literally haunts me at times.
Not long after reading The Mayor of Castro Street, I actually had a dream where I was somehow in the 70's myself and I'd met this guy that I really liked, but I knew that I had to go, that I was going to be pulled back to the present at any second, and I was urgently trying to convince him before I left that he had to start using condoms and getting other people to do so, too. It probably sounds silly, but in the dream I was so desperately trying to make him understand what was coming, what the near future had in store, and I couldn't. I failed. When I woke up, it really felt in those first few moments of consciousness that I really had been there, and that I really had blown my chance to warn them. It was a terrible feeling.
But, I digress. Seeing Milk, in spite of the tragic way things ended for Harvey, didn't depress me. It truly isn't a film about the end of one life, but about the beginning of something that continues to this day and gets stronger all the time. I'm so glad I finally got to see the movie and I'll be buying my own copy very soon.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
30 Years Later
Tomorrow marks the 30th Anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California (though not the first openly gay person elected to office in the United States: that honor went to Kathy Kozachenko who was elected to the Ann Arbor Michigan city council in 1974, three years before Milk's election) and a symbol of the fight for gay rights throughout the country.
In honor of Harvey Milk, here are links to 365Gay's article on his legacy and Truthdig's review of the new film Milk, based on his life and death.
I will not be blogging tomorrow because of the holiday, but I will be back on Friday. Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans and happy Thursday to the rest of the world!
In honor of Harvey Milk, here are links to 365Gay's article on his legacy and Truthdig's review of the new film Milk, based on his life and death.
I will not be blogging tomorrow because of the holiday, but I will be back on Friday. Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans and happy Thursday to the rest of the world!
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