30 Years Later...Harvey is Still Recruiting Us With Hope.........

harvey milk ...sitting in front of his camera store on castro street, circa 1977....

I have to confess, as someone who grew up in Hollywood....I was highly doubtful that the film Milk would even come close to capturing Harvey's story... in fact, I was kind of horrified at the thought of Sean Penn playing Harvey....I even felt defensive about it in a weird sort of why-do-I-care-so-much-about-this-kind-of-way. But then I started to really think about it....and realized how much Harvey became like family to me. I was a resident of the Castro for 12 years (and lived one block from where Harvey lived and worked in his camera store back in the 70s). Every day on my way to work, school and frolicking in the neighborhood, I would pass what was his camera store (which was a bubble bath store while I was living there) and the accompanying mural of him looking down from the apartment above that where he lived-- That bubble store used to have one of those gigantic outdoor bubble machines attached to it.....and those bubbles used to travel a few blocks over through the wind...hitting my bedroom window especially hard on those busy Castro weekend days. In some magical sort of way, I always felt connected to Harvey and his dream through those bubbles and whenever I walked by his mural. Harvey always started out his rallies and speeches with, "I'm Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you". Every day that I walked by Harvey--for 12 years--I thought of that call to action. It became a part of me. It's not accidental that I ended up working for the GLBT Historical Society, obtaining a graduate degree in LGBT history, and getting involved locally and nationally as an LGBT activist during the time I lived there. He recruited me every day through his mural and through those bubbles and I began to recruit others too. In happy times-- such as the day (May 2005) the California Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to continue discriminating against LGBT couples who wanted to legally marry....I would walk past Harvey's mural and feel a sense of historical linkage and commitment and happiness.....and yes,....truly....a wish that he were still alive to see what he started. And on those especially horrific days.....such as August 12, 2004--when I walked home with my then wife after having stood on the steps of the California Supreme Court to hear the ruling that voided our marriage and all 4,000 performed that year.....I would look up at Harvey's mural and wonder what he would have said to keep one of the worst days of my life and my community's life from seeming completely hope-less. I missed him that day, we all did. And so....when I saw Milk at the Castro this past Sunday night...I was completely floored and in awe of what Hollywood was able to get right. I think when all is said and done this film will go down as one of the best of the year and I am sure that Sean Penn will be nominated for an Oscar for his amazing performance. The number of historical consultants was dizzying....they really cared about getting it right and it shows. During the film, there is a scene where activists approach Harvey about his opinion regarding some literature being put out in opposition to the Briggs Initiative (the proposition that would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in California)....Harvey emphatically stated that they would not win unless actual faces of LGBT people were represented.....he thought our faces and stories needed to be seen by average people so that they would know us better and feel more comfortable about us. The Briggs Initiative was ultimately defeated. Harvey recruited us because he thought we were important to the cause.  Looking back 30 years later, this is all very stunning considering the way in which the recent No On Proposition 8 Campaign played out here in California. Not a single gay person was represented within the commercials or ads. Instead, the thought was that winning would only be accomplished by showing our heterosexual allies. We failed in a really big way by doing this....we clearly learned nothing from the 1978 battle to defeat the Briggs Initiative..... We failed because we did not do what Harvey did in 1978-- we did not recruit gay people to the cause, we did not see them as the most important people to argue for their own freedom. We cannot make that mistake again. We have to give ALL people hope and that starts with us....showing our faces, sharing our lives and our fears and what makes us happy... not being afraid to say yes we are different and that's not only ok, let's celebrate it! Milk made me fall in love all over again with freedom, justice and bubbles.....and with going out every day to recruit people to the sexual literacy movement.