Harvey Milk: 1930 – 1978 December 2, 2012
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
This last week is the anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk (November 27 1978), [one of] the first openly gay politicians elected to office in the United States [see comments], and the first openly gay man to do so – and the progressive Mayor George Moscone. There are many lessons to be drawn from his life, not least that left and progressive activism is based on working from the ground up – and unions were an early part of the coalitions he constructed, and also that without his work and that of those around him the substantive gains of recent years – and indeed the gains this last month or so in relation to same-sex marriage being passed by popular vote in a number of US states would have been long delayed. Some interesting points he makes at 2.30 onwards about how liberals and governments buy into right wing tropes and afford them greater power than they may actually have.
Great line: “Richard Nixon is in exile, and Harvey Milk is in City Hall.”
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
the first openly gay politician elected to office in the United States
Actually, there were two women before him: Kathy Kozachenko in Michigan and Elaine Noble in Massachusetts.
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Oops… my bad. Rephrased above. First openly gay person in California, first openly gay man.
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You’re not the first to make that mistake!
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But I feel a bit of a fool about it. I’d been reading only recently about Elaine Noble in another connection. I should have remembered. Again, my bad.
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There was a bit of a similar “whoops” moment a few years ago in GCN. The editor said that Tonie Walsh and Don Donnelly were the first openly gay candidates to run in an Irish general election, only to get a letter to the editor pointing out that the magazine had forgotten the first candidate, who was Liz Noonan. I find the common thread interesting: lesbians taking the first steps but being forgotten for it.
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[…] Questa settimana scorsa è l’anniversario dell’assassinio di Harvey Milk (27 novembre 1978) – e il progressivo sindaco George Moscone. Ci sono molte lezioni da trarre dalla sua vita, non meno che sinistra e progressista … – Google Blog Search […]
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