Tribute to Harvey Milk

Just a small tribute to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States, though he stood for much more than that. He was a decent politician, which is rare, and he acted as a voice for disenfranchised people of all kinds.

Somewhere in Des Moins or San Antonio there's a young gay person who all the sudden realizes she or he is gay knows that if the parents find out, they'll be tossed out of the house, the classmates will taunt the child and the Anita Bryants and John Briggs are doing their bit on tv and that child has several options: staying in the closet, suicide. Then one day that child might open up a paper that says 'Homosexual Elected in San Francisco' and there are two new options. One option is to go to California... or stay in San Antiono and fight. Two days after I was elected I got a phone call. The voice was quiet young, it was from Altuna Pennsylvania and the person said, thanks. You've got to elect gay people so that that young child and the thousands and thousands like that young child know that there's hope for a better world, that there's hope for a better tomorrow. Without hope, not only for gays but for balcks, for asians, disabled, and for seniors, the us's, the us's, without hope the us's give up. I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. and you and you and you, you gotta give 'em hope.

Check out the Milk Foundation for more good stuff. Click here to listen to the hope speech.


unfortunately in my wanderings I lost the tab where I found this photo.