Harvey Milk

Harvey Bernard Milk (22 May 1930 – 27 November 1978) was an American politician and gay rights activist, and the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. He was assassinated in 1978, and is commonly seen as a martyr to the LGBT community.

1977

 * This is Harvey Milk speaking from the camera store on the evening of Friday, November 18. This is to be played only in the event of my death by assassination. I fully realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes a target or the potential target for somebody who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed themselves. Knowing that I could be assassinated at any moment, any time, I feel it's important that some people know my thoughts. And so the following are my thoughts, my wishes, and my desires, whatever, and I'd like to pass them on and have them played for the appropriate people.
 * From a tape recording (November 18, 1977) to be played in the event of his assassination, quoted in Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982, ISBN 0-31256-085-0 ), p. 275


 * I have never considered myself a candidate. I have always considered myself part of a movement, part of a candidacy. I considered the movement the candidate. I think that there's a distinction between those who use the movement and those who are part of the movement. I think I was always part of the movement. I wish I had time to explain everything I did. Almost everything was done with an eye on the gay movement.
 * From a tape recording (November 18, 1977) to be played in the event of his assassination, quoted in Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982), p. 276


 * The other aspect of this assassination. I cannot prevent some people from feeling angry and frustrated and mad, but I hope they will take that frustration and that madness and instead of demonstrating or anything of that type, I would hope they would take the power and I would hope that five, ten, one hundred, a thousand would rise. I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let that world know. That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights.
 * From a tape recording (November 18, 1977) to be played in the event of his assassination, quoted in Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982), pp. 276-277


 * I ask for the movement to continue, for the movement to grow, because last week I got a phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and my election gave somebody else, one more person, hope. And after all, that's what this is all about. It's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power — it's about giving those young people out there in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, hope. You gotta give them hope.
 * From a tape recording (November 18, 1977) to be played in the event of his assassination, quoted in Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982), p. 277


 * If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.
 * From a tape recording (November 18, 1977) to be played in the event of his assassination, quoted in Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982), p. 372. Milk made three recordings for this purpose; these words come from the version given to Frank Robinson.

1978

 * Gay brothers and sisters,...You must come out. Come out... to your parents... I know that it is hard and will hurt them but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives... come out to your friends... if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors... to your fellow workers... to the people who work where you eat and shop... come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake. For the sake of the youngsters who are becoming scared by the votes from Dade to Eugene.
 * "That's What America Is," speech given on Gay Freedom Day (June 25, 1978) in San Francisco


 * I don't think we have a right to take the people who raised us, who made us strong and healthy, and toss them away like a can of beer.
 * On supporting the elderly, who he called the most oppressed group in America. From Flashback: Meet San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, NBC News, November 27, 2018, taken from a report in 1978, and Forty years after his death, Harvey Milk's legacy still lives on, NBC News, November 27, 2018.

Undated

 * And the young gay people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias and the Richmond, Minnesotas who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant in television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us'es, the us'es will give up. And if you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.
 * A version of his staple "Hope Speech," quoted in Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982), p. 363

Quotes about Harvey Milk

 * Her [Carol Ruth Silver's] subsequent eleven-year career in San Francisco politics included serving on the city's Board of Supervisors, where she was an ally of the first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk. They worked together on the first antigay discrimination ordinance in the nation, sponsored the first gay marches in the city, participated in vigils for Soviet Jewry, fought for rent control and tougher environmental controls, and advocated for better services for senior citizens and people with disabilities. "He was just like me, iconoclastic. He had a wonderful sense of humor and he was always willing to do something considered outrageous by other people but which just seemed like the right thing to do."
 * Debra L. Schultz Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement (2002)