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
If a bullet should go through my head let that bullet go through every closet door.
All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.
The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, THAT my friends, is true perversion.
Lets make no mistake about this: The American Dream starts with the neigborhoods. If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. And to do that, we must understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard of living.
Hope is never silent.
I was born of heterosexual parents. I was taught by heterosexual teachers in a fiercely heterosexual society. Television ads and newspaper ads — fiercely heterosexual. A society that puts down homosexuality. And why am I a homosexual if I'm affected by role models? I should have been a heterosexual. And no offense meant, but if teachers are going to affect you as role models, there'd be a lot of nuns running around the streets today.
If you are not personally free to be yourself in that most important of all human activities... the expression of love... then life itself loses its meaning.
If I turned around every time somebody called me a faggot, I'd be walking backward - and I don't want to walk backward.
Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.
We don't want sympathetic liberals, we want gays to represent gays... I represent the gay street people-the 14-year-old runaway from San Antonio. We have to make up for hundreds of years of persecution. We have to give hope to that poor runaway kid from San Antonio. They go to the bars because churches are hostile. They need hope! They need a piece of the pie!
We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it.
Politics is theater. It doesn't matter if you win. You make a statement. You say, "I'm here, pay attention to me
If it were true that children mimicked their teachers, you'd sure have a helluva lot more nuns running around.
We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets.