WWHD?
With a hat tip to the uber-woofy northernvoice for this tidbit:
Harvey Milk Sculpture Set For San Francisco City Hall
03.10.07
By Anthony Cuesta
Plans to put up a bronze bust of Harvey Milk, the first out gay politician to be elected to a prominent office in the United States are underway at San Francisco’s City Hall, more than 28 years after he was assassinated.
Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and shot to death a year later, along with Mayor George Moscone, by fellow supervisor Dan White. White was convicted of manslaughter, and served a little more than three years in prison before committing suicide.
The Associated Press reports that the bronze sculpture will sit atop a stone base inscribed with a quote from one of his most famous speeches.
The Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee, which spent the past six years raising money for the project, told the Fresno Bee that it hopes to install the sculpture on May 22, 2008, which would have been Milk's 78th birthday.
In the years since his death, Milk has become the most recognizable martyr of the gay rights movement.
Article © 2007. GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved. reprinted without permission.
I used to carry a photo of Harvey Milk in my wallet. I'd carefully cut it from a magazine and slid it into an empty slot in the little plastic sleeve that it shared with images of people and places that are no longer as important as they were then. Every time I'd hear some cocky overly-tweezed twerp in a fag bar wonder who he was (and it happened a lot), I'd pull that photo out along with one of me with the survivors of Stonewall taken at a Pride celebration in NYC and give my little "Gay Rights 101" speech. Every time I found myself thrust into the public eye for my own sexual identity, I'd pull that photo out and give myself the same speech.
In a time when people are more interested in getting their fifteen minutes and a few bucks than actually doing something worthwhile, Harvey Milk remains an icon of more than just gay rights. I firmly believe that his legacy is much larger than that of being a martyr. Harvey knew well the importance and the power of speaking up and that is exactly what he did until the day his life was taken. Whether people liked him or not, everyone knew where he stood. When he spoke, he empowered a generation of oppressed men and women all over this country and it is because of people like him that we have the tremendous advancements that we as a GLBT community have enjoyed today.
The GLBT community has, by and large, become too apathetic. We take too much too quietly.
What Would Harvey Do?
On Saturday night I ventured out to a local gay bar for a drink before bed. While there, I heard Birmingham's eldest drag personna and longtime activist Libertee Belle (R. N. Simoneau, Jr), announce from the stage that she would be filing the paperwork this week to run for Mayor of Birmingham. I laughed to myself and even pulled out my cellphone to tell Kenny of the amusing news.
Then I remembered Harvey.
What Would Harvey Do?
There's no way Libertee will win the election, she knows that.
What Would Harvey Do?
I think Harvey would do his best to not only vote for Libertee Belle, but encourage his friends to do so as well. I think Harvey would know the powerful message that could be sent with polling numbers. I can almost imagine him saying something to the tune of "we can't win, but we can sure let them know we're here!".
In backward thinking Alabama, I'm going to let them know we're here.
And if you need to find me on May 22, 2008, I'll be at City Hall in San Francisco.
Harvey Milk Sculpture Set For San Francisco City Hall
03.10.07
By Anthony Cuesta
Plans to put up a bronze bust of Harvey Milk, the first out gay politician to be elected to a prominent office in the United States are underway at San Francisco’s City Hall, more than 28 years after he was assassinated.
Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and shot to death a year later, along with Mayor George Moscone, by fellow supervisor Dan White. White was convicted of manslaughter, and served a little more than three years in prison before committing suicide.
The Associated Press reports that the bronze sculpture will sit atop a stone base inscribed with a quote from one of his most famous speeches.
The Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee, which spent the past six years raising money for the project, told the Fresno Bee that it hopes to install the sculpture on May 22, 2008, which would have been Milk's 78th birthday.
In the years since his death, Milk has become the most recognizable martyr of the gay rights movement.
Article © 2007. GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved. reprinted without permission.
I used to carry a photo of Harvey Milk in my wallet. I'd carefully cut it from a magazine and slid it into an empty slot in the little plastic sleeve that it shared with images of people and places that are no longer as important as they were then. Every time I'd hear some cocky overly-tweezed twerp in a fag bar wonder who he was (and it happened a lot), I'd pull that photo out along with one of me with the survivors of Stonewall taken at a Pride celebration in NYC and give my little "Gay Rights 101" speech. Every time I found myself thrust into the public eye for my own sexual identity, I'd pull that photo out and give myself the same speech.
In a time when people are more interested in getting their fifteen minutes and a few bucks than actually doing something worthwhile, Harvey Milk remains an icon of more than just gay rights. I firmly believe that his legacy is much larger than that of being a martyr. Harvey knew well the importance and the power of speaking up and that is exactly what he did until the day his life was taken. Whether people liked him or not, everyone knew where he stood. When he spoke, he empowered a generation of oppressed men and women all over this country and it is because of people like him that we have the tremendous advancements that we as a GLBT community have enjoyed today.
The GLBT community has, by and large, become too apathetic. We take too much too quietly.
What Would Harvey Do?
On Saturday night I ventured out to a local gay bar for a drink before bed. While there, I heard Birmingham's eldest drag personna and longtime activist Libertee Belle (R. N. Simoneau, Jr), announce from the stage that she would be filing the paperwork this week to run for Mayor of Birmingham. I laughed to myself and even pulled out my cellphone to tell Kenny of the amusing news.
Then I remembered Harvey.
What Would Harvey Do?
There's no way Libertee will win the election, she knows that.
What Would Harvey Do?
I think Harvey would do his best to not only vote for Libertee Belle, but encourage his friends to do so as well. I think Harvey would know the powerful message that could be sent with polling numbers. I can almost imagine him saying something to the tune of "we can't win, but we can sure let them know we're here!".
In backward thinking Alabama, I'm going to let them know we're here.
And if you need to find me on May 22, 2008, I'll be at City Hall in San Francisco.