Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milkwas an American politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Politics and gay activism were not his early interests; he was not open about his homosexuality and did not participate in civic matters until around the age of 40, after his experiences in the counterculture of the 1960s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCivil Rights Leader
Date of Birth22 May 1930
CityWoodmere, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted.
My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you.
Out of the bars and into the streets!
I finally reached the point where I knew I had to become involved or shut up.
All over the country, they're reading about me, and the story doesn't center on me being gay. It's just about a gay person who is doing his job.
Some people call me the unofficial mayor of Castro Street.
The American Dream starts with the neighborhoods.
To sit on the front steps — whether it's a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city — and to talk to our neighborhoods is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living-room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living color.
We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets.
I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted. I have a lot more to drink. For that reason, the political numbers game will be played. I know the rules of their game now and how to play it.
San Francisco can start right now to become number one. We can set examples so that others will follow. We can start overnight. We don't have to wait for budgets to be passed, surveys to be made, political wheelings and dealings.......for it takes no money......it takes no compromising to give the people their rights......it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.