Civil rights & Milky-ways...

Just had to put this out there (and yes, I watched the movie, but that's hardly the point... Although the movie is damn good, and personally I think James Franco was highly under-rated in it).

Anyways... Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Naturally the city stage was San Francisco (and particularly a now famous camera shop in Castro being the home and starting point of the political Milk-wave).

Either way, Mr Milk stood for more than just gay rights. He was for civil and human rights, for the equality of man (regardless of sex, sexual preference, age, color, height, weight, smarts, wteverthefudge).

And I'd like to share a sorta transcript of a speech he performed (which is partially also in the movie) in opposition against Proposition 6 (they wanted to fire all gay teachers in Cali).


‘My name is Harvey Milk – and I want to recruit you. I want to recruit you for the fight to preserve democracy from the John Briggs and Anita Bryants who are trying to constitutionalize bigotry.

We are not going to allow that to happen. We are not going to sit back in silence as 300,000 of our gay sisters and brothers did in Nazi Germany. We are not going to allow our rights to be taken away and then march with bowed heads into the gas chambers.

On this anniversary of Stonewall, I ask my gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight. For themselves, for their freedom, for their country. Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets. We are coming out. We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. 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. Come out to your parents, your relatives. I know that it is hard and that it will hurt them, but think of how they will hurt you in the voting booths.

Jim Carter, you talk about human rights. You want to be the world’s leader for human rights. There are fifteen to twenty million gay people in this nation. When are you going to talk about their rights?

If you do not speak out, if you remain silent, then I call upon lesbians and gay men from all over the nation, your nation, to gather in Washington one year from now, on that very same spot where over a decade ago, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke to a nation of his dreams, dreams that are fast fading, dreams that to many in this nation have become nightmare rather than dreams. I call upon all minorities and especially the millions of lesbians and gay men to wake up from their dreams, to gather in Washington and tell Jimmy Carter and their nation: Wake up. Wake up, America, No more racism. No more sexism. No more ageism. No more hatred. No more. And to the bigots, to the John Briggs, to the Anita Bryants, and all their like: Let me remind you what America is.

Listen carefully:

On the statue of Liberty, it says, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free…’

In the Declaration of Independence, it is written: ‘All men are created equal and they endowed with certain inalienable rights…’

And in our national anthem, it says: ‘Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet o’er the land of the free.’


For Mr. Briggs and Ms. Bryant, and all the bigots out there: That’s what America is. No matter how hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of Independence. 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.’


Do with that what you like, but I thought it was quite a neat (and very relevant) little compilation of words...

xo xo

D

PS. Gay rights are still not recognized everywhere, and same-sex marriages are banned in quite a frightening number of places, even in the 21st century. Women are still being stoned for not having 5 witnesses when they're raped. Heck, women are still being punished by law in some places for refusing to have sex with their husbands. Little boys are being mutilated and brainwashed to carry guns and kill in the name of nothingness and holy wars, simply because they are not able to run fast enough to get away. People are still judged based on background, whether it's financial, geographical, or something else. We still let our own fall through the cracks because we STILL cannot seem to recognize we are all worth just the same, wherever in the world we are, and whoever we might be.

Just saying...