The Mayor of Castro Street

So yes, I am a white queer person from the Bay Area writing about Harvey Milk. I can realize how predictable and uncreative that is. But the story of Harvey Milk, and the tragic demise of Harvey Milk, contain many a lesson Twitter "stans" need today.

But first, the important trivia. Mr. Milk was born outside New York City in 1930. As a young man, he enlisted in the Navy served in the Korean War. While in the Navy he was stationed in San Diego and would end up finish his career at the rank of Junior Grade Lieutenant.

After his discharge he returned to New York, where he worked as a teacher and had multiple on-again/off-again relationships. Milk would never marry and his New York life was spent entirely in the closet. He kept his relationships secret out of fear of losing his job. Notably while dating Craig Rodwell, he grew uncomfortable with his partner's involvement in pro-LGBT movements and organizations. Eventually he ended the relationship with Rodwell, who was a member of New York's branch of the Mattachine Society (one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the United States), after he was arrested for marching in a pro-gay demonstration.

Milk grew bored and felt repressed in New York. So, in 1969, he ended up moving to the Castro District. The famously (or infamously) the gay neighborhood of San Francisco served as a turning point for for Milk. He joined a pilgrimage of gay and bisexual men who had been moving to San Francisco since World War II.

The city had become a magnet for gay men in part because of World War II. Sailors and soldiers from the pacific-theatre who had been dishonorably discharged for homosexuality found themselves dropped off in San Francisco and many chose to stay instead of face the ostracization waiting at home.

Originally a conservative Republican who had worked for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign, Milk began to grow frustrated with U.S. intervention in Cambodia. After moving out west he was fired for letting his hair grow out and began spending more and more time with flower children and artists. Overtime the Castro eroded away Milk's conservatism until he was almost unrecognizable as the closeted teacher turned insurance man he'd once been.

Milk's political about-face came at a integral time for gay men in San Francisco. By 1970, oral sex was still illegal. It had gotten so bad for gay men (and probably straight women who had to suffer through nonstop vanilla Missionary sex) that almost 3,000 were arrested in in 1971 for having sex as consenting adults. Their arrests, by law, came paired with sex offender registrations. Simultaneously police raids on gay bars, bathhouses, and hookah lounges were becoming commonplace.

This tension-filled reality paired with Milk's own growing political frustrations. He was livid over the events of Watergate and felt his business was paying an unfair share in government charges, especially when he saw the government's priorities as backwards (like underfunding education at the same time it financed expensive military endeavors).

In Milk's own words he reached a point where he had to, "become involved or shut up".

Milk turned to politics, and though the gay rights and Democratic political establishments were less than welcoming. Still, his affinity for coalition-building eventually lead to success. He partnered with the gay-bar owners, ethnic minorities, and organized labor (notably the Teamsters) to organize boycotts, increase employment opportunities, and organize the Castro Street Fair. Soon he was known as the "Mayor of Castro Street".

He then took this momentum and skill into a larger playing field. He cut his hair, stopped smoking marijuana, and quit visiting bathhouses. His campaign for City Board of Supervisors had the support of the Teamsters, the firefighters, and the construction unions, he also had the backing of the Castro gay-bar community. He centered his 1975 campaign on small business and preserving/growing San Francisco's original neighborhoods. He ended up finishing one spot off from becoming a City Supervisor (the top six candidates were elected, he finished 7th). But in the same election Assemblyman Moscone, who had lead the legislative fight to repeal California's sodomy laws, was elected Mayor.

The media and Moscone both began to see Milk as the representative of San Francisco's gay community. Moscone in fact appointed Milk to San Francisco's Board of Appeals, making him the first openly gay city commissioner in the country, but his stint in said position only lasted five months. He was forced to quit when he announced is candidacy for the State Assembly. The election ended up being a narrow loss for Milk, but it served to greatly increase his media attention and name recognition (despite the fact that his campaign was a trainwreck that literally was run by an eleven year old girl). Out of the loss Milk also established the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club, which aided his and other's future political success.

Milk's last campaign for City Supervisor was a competition mostly between his out and proud demeanor and Rick Stokes who presented a more restrained homosexuality by stating simply, "I'm just a businessman who happens to be gay."

Milk's populist messaged self-identified Milk as a gay ready to represent gays. Milk also advocated for more accessible and expanded child care, free public transportation, and a civilian board to oversee the police.

Milk ended up winning the endorsement of the San Francisco Chronicle and the election, much to the celebration of the Castro. But he also became aware of increasingly violent death threats being sent his way. Milk took to recording his thoughts on a tape recorder and dictated his wishes for the future should he be assassinated. Milk even went so far to say, "if a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door".

Milk was the first openly gay man to win an election for public office in the United Sates. Milk was inaugurated along single mother Carol Ruth Silver, Chinese American Gordon Lau, and an African American woman named Ella Hill Hutch. All of whom represented firsts for the city of San Francisco. Dan White, a former police officer, was also included in their freshman class.

Milk quickly became an ally to Mayor Moscone and showed little trepidation in opposing the initiatives more senior members of the Board of Supervisors, like Board President Diane Feinstein (now Senator Feinstein, who in her last election won more votes than any other Senator American history... she is also the oldest current sitting Senator in the United States with plans to run in 2024 at the age of 91... while she is a badass woman but it might be time for younger leaders and ideas).

Milk also quickly made an enemy out of fellow freshman supervisor, Dan White. Milk had reversed opposition to a mental health facility for troubled teens, an issue Mr. White had campaigned on keeping out of his neighborhood. In response, White opposed every initiative and position Milk held from thereon. Including being the single opposing vote in multiple landmark gay-rights initiatives.

Milk's time in office focused on protecting poor and middle-class communities of the city, he often targeted large corporations and real estate developers. He simultaneously worked to foster and grow gay political power until as a voting-bloc, the gay community was almost a quarter of the city's voters. Milk also travelled up and down the state of California speaking out against and debating organizers supporting a ballot proposition that required firing public school teachers who were out of the closet or openly supported gay rights in the state of California, known as the Briggs Initiative. The initiative lost the statewide vote by over a million votes, with seventy-five percent of San Francisco voting against it.

Then only ten months after Milk's inauguration, his career and life were put to a sudden and tragic end. It started with fellow supervisor, Dan White, resigning. White explained that the pay was not enough to support his family, but ten days after his resignation he went back to Mayor Moscone and request he be reinstated as a supervisor.

Initially, Mayor Moscone intended to reinstate the resigned former police officer, but a handful of other supervisors (including Milk) advised otherwise. Moscone was convinced instead to appoint someone else who, they believed, better reflected the cities growing diversity and the board's liberal-leaning attitude.

A few weeks later White snuck back into City Hall through a window on the first floor, avoiding the metal detectors at the entrances, and went directly to the mayor's office. White then asked the major to step inside a side room and shot him multiple times, including his head, killing him.

White then rushed out of the office, reloaded his police-issue revolver, and ran into Harvey Milk. White asked Milk to step inside an office and then shot Milk five times, including twice in the head. White was later recorded saying he was "on a mission" and had intended "to get all four", meaning to also kill Supervisors Silver and Brown.

White's trial was a farce. His attorney used what would become known as the "Twinkie defense". Essentially, White had grown depressed, which was evidenced by his changed diets from healthy foods to Twinkies and other sugary items. White's affinity for Twinkies was used as evidence for his "diminished capacity", which was a legally recognized defense.

So instead of first-degree murder, White was only sentenced to seven years in prison on voluntary manslaughter. The Castro erupted in what became known as the White Night riots. Legal experts have since the decision become convinced the less severe conviction had little to do with "diminished capacity" and much more to do with homophobia. White was paroled after serving for five years of his sentence and committed suicide less then two years after release.

Milk's story is evidence of the strength of coalition building, of the harshness of progress' backlash, and the staying power of commitment to one's cause. And it is all those things, but it is also an argument for respecting but not idolizing leaders.

Milk was a remarkable man who changed the face of American politics in powerful, positive, and lasting ways but he was not perfect. Most politicians, from Washington to Sanders to Obama to Harris to Clinton have complex and at times deeply problematic pasts. Activists from Dr. King to Mr. Milk to Mother Theresa exist as living, breathing internal contradictions.

Milk suffered from volatile mood swings and a fiery temper, he jumped from unhealthy relationship to unhealthy relationship, and burned and outed members of his own community in his climb to political success. Just because that is all true but doesn't change the fact that he was an incredibly important "first" for the nation and that the work he did and the movements he lead moved the United States towards a perfect union.

Idolization dehumanizes these exceptional Americans. It is unfair to their legacies to pretend they are perfect because it ignores that fact they had to overcome their own personal faults to achieve what they achieved. Plus, idolization limits our own agency. It is good to know how flawed the best of us were, because it reminds us that no matter how flawed we are, we can still be the best of ourselves in service of justice for someone else.

An afterthought (something I thought of while writing that doesn't fit naturally in the narrative): I also can't help, as I reexamine Milk and Moscone's tragic assassination, how poorly educated so many Republican lawmakers must be. Following the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, metal detectors were installed at the entrance to the floor of Congress. The slight inconvenience was met aggression and disregard by a handful of Republicans whom considered them a violation of their rights and an overreaction... Meanwhile, all I can think is, it's too bad San Francisco City Hall didn't have any metal detectors between where White snuck in and Moscone's office.

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Tonight's selection pairs well with a rich, spicy, and woody (but still fruity) Malbec

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Photos: By Crawford Wayne Barton at Gay Freedom Day, 1978

SF Gay History

Sources: Shilts, Randy. The Mayor Of Castro Street: the Life and Times of Harvey Milk. New York :St. Martin's Press, 1988.