Harvey Milk Research Paper

Harvey Milk “No matter how hard you try, you cannot chip those words off the base of the statue of Liberty and no matter how hard you try, you cannot sing the Star-Spangled Banner without those words. That’s what America is. Love it or leave it” proclaimed Harvey Milk. America is about freedom and equal rights, but back in the 1970’s there was no such concept as freedom and equal rights for the LGBTQ community. Various people, churches, communities, organizations, businesses, and more did not want to accept gay people, and instead they wanted to get rid of them. The importance of this issue was LGBTQ people deserved just as much rights as any other person and that is why Harvey Milk made it known that they did. Harvey Milk took a stand for
He and many other gay people had moved to San Francisco to get away from the Stonewall Riots that were happening in New York involving protests and riots for gay rights. Although Milk and many others had escaped from one mess they soon had to deal with the San Francisco community discriminating them. Milk soon became very tired of the discrimination and wanted a change. “Milk knew that the only way to truly achieve equality would be for a gay person to be elected to public office” (“Bringing people hope: Harvey Milk and the Gay Rights Movement in America”). Milk ran for a spot on the San Francisco City Council having the gay community for support and many other organizations as well such as a variety of ethnic groups. Milk had no experience with politics but he tried his best at winning by giving speeches, handing out flyers, selling t-shirts, gaining sponsors, and etc. “His campaign slogan, “Milk has something for everybody,” reflected this approach” (“Harvey Benard Milk”). For being an openly gay and jewish candidate, Milk managed to make himself widely known throughout San
Schools in California celebrate Milk by hosting a Harvey Milk Day where students involved in GSAs at their schools learn about Milk and what he did for the LGBTQ community, make posters and buttons to support Milk, and learn about many other activist involved in the LGBTQ community. The importance of Harvey Milk Day is “to educate your school about an extraordinary leader whose courageous work to end discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in the 1970’s set the stage for many of the civil rights advances we see today” (“Harvey Milk Day”). Other symbolic representations of Milk is a street named Harvey Milk Blvd in Salt Lake City, Utah, and just recently a new U.S. Navy ship will be named Harvey Milk to represent his career as a Navy diver as well. Milk was just an ordinary person that ended up making a huge change for a community that will never stop growing and only continue to speak