Harvey Milk died 34 years ago today

I was a kid when Harvey Milk became the first openly gay public official, serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until his assassination by Dan White, who had also served on the board.  White had initially thought Milk to be an ally on certain issues, but when Milk voted against him, White became an antagonist, his instability and hatred coming through.  He actually resigned, then sought to take back his resignation, but Mayor Moscone refused to let him un-resign.   On this day in 1978, White entered city hall, shot Moscone and then Harvey Milk.

I remember a little bit about the story.   Open discussions about gay people were really only emerging in pop culture; mostly, such discussions had been jokes, ranging from relatively innocuous to blatantly bigoted.  The story in San Francisco also got a lot of attention because of Moscone's friendship with the Reverend Jim Jones, who'd recently taken his followers to Guyana, where they drank poisoned Kool-Aid in a mass-suicide/murder, just nine days before White's murders of Milk and Moscone.  

A few years later I saw the Rob Epstein documentary about Milk on PBS, excerpts of which can be heard in a play about the case written in the eighties (whose name escapes me at the moment).   One of the most impressive persons was the head of the local teamsters, who speaks seriously and respectfully about Milk's support of labor.   It was a clear instance of prejudices being overcome by virtue of a simple idea: get to know people.  

Harvey Milk would certainly be quite thrilled at many of the legal protections for homosexuals that are now in place, even as some states are rejecting such protections.  He would also be dismayed at the stories of teenagers committing suicide because of homophobia.  He clearly understood his position as the first one through the door marked "this way for the public sphere."   Without question, he became a martyr for equality, no less than Dr. King.    

I've always admired Harvey Milk, nice Jewish kid from New York who found happiness in the Castro district of San Francisco, and helped changed lives.    I'm sorry he's gone, but grateful to know he is not forgotten.