Harvey Milk

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. - John 15:13 (NRSV)

From Robert Lentz:

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to high public office in the U.S. He was not a professional politician, but ran for City Supervisor in San Francisco because he felt ordinary people were being pushed aside there by monied interests. "It takes no money to respect the individual," he said. "The people are more important than words." As supervisor he fought consistently for the rights of all of those without a voice. These people included blue-collar workers, the elderly, racial minorities, and gay men and women.

The day of his election, Harvey tape-recorded his last testament, in which he acknowledged that he would most probably die violently. The last words of that message were "You gotta give them hope."

Do you know what it's like for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to have one of their own numbered among the saints?

Harvey Milk is a martyr to the LGBT community, and Harvey Milk School in New York is named after him. He was Jewish, and I'm not aware that he was particularly religious. He's not on the Episcopal Church's calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts. However, he's a saint, and I'm going to prove it.

He came to be known as the Mayor of Castro Street; the Castro is a prominent gay neighborhood in San Francisco. It didn't used to be that way, having been Scandinavian from 1910-1920, and then Irish working class from 1930-1960. In 1975, Harvey opened a camera store, and began a life as a gay activist.

"We must destroy the myths once and for all. We must continue to speak out and most importantly every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your family, you must tell your relatives, you must tell your friends, you must tell your neighbors, you must tell the people you work with, you must tell the people in the stores you shop in, and once they realize that we are indeed their children and that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all. And once you do you will feel so much better."

I find it interesting, by the way, that the LGBT community in the US has co-opted the term "queer" to refer to themselves. "Queer" used to be an insult. Many older LGBT folk - and some of the younger ones - I know are still uncomfortable with it.

In contrast, gays in Asia, specifically Taiwan, Hong Kong, and parts of mainland China, co-opted the term "Tong Zhi". Tong Zhi is Mandarin for "comrade", as in Comrade so-and-so. It is a polite salutation, rather than an insult. If anyone asks to illustrate how Asians think differently from Westerners, I sometimes give this as an example.

However, there's a time and a place for everything. There's a time to fit in. There's also a time to confront.

In Harvey's time, the police, the psychologists, and the priests were the main enemies of the LGBT community. Police made sting operations and arbitrary arrests. Psychologists propagated theories of impaired sexual development. Priests called homosexuality an abomination. Harvey confronted them.

Of course, he did not personally confront them with violence. For the most part, violence against the police would have been a bad idea, although Stonewall, where gays, lesbians and crossdressers fought back against the police at a raid and taunted them. This was before Harvey's time.

Harvey instead confronted his adversaries in the public square, in politics. People said he was mad to run for public office as an "avowed homosexual." He did anyway. Eventually, he became city supervisor of San Francisco. Once there, though, he acted as a comrade as well as a confronter.

"Our cities must not be abandoned. They’re worth fighting for, not just by those who live in them, but by industry, commerce, unions, everyone. What we need is a neighborhood where people can walk to work, raise their kids, enjoy life. That simple."

His time in office was sadly short. Late in 1978, the conservative board member Dan White resigned from his post. He was a vociferous opponent of George Moscone, the liberal mayor. However, he apparently changed his mind, and asked Moscone to reinstate him. Moscone, under pressure from other liberals on the board, refused him.

On November 27, 1978, White came to City Hall and demanded to speak to Moscone. Moscone refused him. White had crawled in through a window to avoid the metal detector, because he was carrying his policeman's service revolver and ten extra rounds. He shot Moscone, and then he went to Harvey's office. He confronted Harvey angrily, and shot him five times.

That night 40,000 people, men and women, old and young, gay and straight, kept candlelight vigil outside City Hall. A recording that Harvey made was played:

"This is to be played only in the event of my death by assassination.

I realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes a target or a potential target for somebody who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed themselves.

Knowing that I could be assassinated at any moment or any time, I feel that it's important that some people know my thoughts.

I stood for more than just a candidate. I have never considered myself a candidate. I have always considered myself part of the movement, part of the candidacy. I wish I had to explain everything I did. Almost everything was done in the eyes of the gay movement."

He also said, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."

"...Gay brothers and sisters,...You must come out. Come out...to your parents...I know that it is hard and will hurt them but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives...come out to your friends...if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors...to your fellow workers...to the people who work where you eat and shop...come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake. For the sake of the youngsters who are becoming scared by the votes from Dade to Eugene."

Many LGBT people I know have been colonized by the church in some way. To colonize a country means to come and settle among and establish political control over the indigenous people of an area. To colonize a people means to discredit their worldview and their epistemology (way of knowing things), and to establish a foreign one. Many LGBT people have been colonized by religion.

So, many of them are in the closet to themselves and/or to their religious communities. They put up with abuse to stay in the good graces of a God they think despises them for their sexual orientations or gender identities. Many have left and would rather die than return. Perhaps Harvey was one of the latter.

And yet, I believe Harvey has something to teach Christians about the Resurrection. There's no evidence that he believed in God. And yet, he was not afraid to lay down his life for his friends. He knew he was likely going to be killed at some point - he premeditated his tape recording, just as Dan White arguably premeditated his murder. He went willingly. He was not a Christian, and yet his actions were those of one who believes in the Resurrection. As a universalist Christian, I believe that the Resurrection is for all people, everywhere.

Whether Harvey knew it or not, he was serving Jesus Christ, foreshadowing Christ's actions. Harvey was paving the way for LGBT people to come out in political life. Lentz' icon shows Harvey Milk as a servant of God, paving the way for LGBT people to come out in religious life.

But through Harvey, Jesus is decolonizing the LGBT community. To decolonize a country means to withdraw from a colony, leaving it independent. To decolonize a people means to cease to poison their hearts and minds and souls against themselves. Jesus doesn't set us free from homosexuality. Jesus sets LGBT people and the church free from homophobia and transphobia. Jesus decolonizes, and sometimes he uses servants who do not know Him to do so.