(1984) Director Rob Epstein's Oscar-winning documentary, narrated by Harvey Fierstein with original score by Mark Isham, presents a condign tribute to Harvey Bernard Milk six years after his assassination. A year before his death, Harvey tape-recorded his will, prescient of the possibility of his being murdered, in which he spoke of his political activism and time in office as being "done in the eyes of the gay movement."

Born and raised in New York, regarded as "a practical joker and regular guy" in high school, Harvey enlisted in the Navy, became a stock analyst, produced a play on Broadway before going West with his lover Scott Smith where they opened a "crumby camera shop" on Castro Street in San Francisco.

Self-dubbed "the mayor of Castro Street," Harvey made his first run for city supervisor in 1973, but his openly-gay campaign was widely seen as a joke. Political consultant Tory Hartman in an interview describes the crazy atmosphere in the shop. Twice more he lost before the city, with the support of Mayor George Moscone's favoring diversity, changed the voting requirements for supervisors from city-wide to within each of the districts.

Not only was Milk elected from district 5 as the city's first gay candidate (with his campaign managed by "big dyke" Anne Kronenberg), the eleven members of the board of supervisors also included the first black woman, the first Chinese-American, and the first feminist. A gay influx into San Francisco, drawn in part through Harvey's organizing the annual Castro Street Fair, helped him win, though he was broadly backed by a coalition of feminists, ethnic minorities, senior citizens, handicapped, and the rank and file union membership (which had been impressed with his getting all gay bars to boycott Coors beer).

Clean-cut, Catholic, San Francisco-native Dan White, ex-cop and former fireman, espousing old-fashioned family values, won in district 8. But while Milk worked with other supervisors to pass the doggie-dodo ordinance and the gay-rights bill (10-1 with White being the only dissent), White objected to the Gay Day Parade (300,000 participants marching).

Elsewhere in the country gay rights were being rescinded - Anita Bryant in Dade County, Florida; voters in Eugene, Oregon, and Wichita, Kansas - as well as in California with State Senator John Briggs campaigning for Prop 6 to remove homosexual teachers and their sympathizers from public schools. Partnering with Prof Sally Gearhart, a lesbian on the San Francisco State University faculty, Milk took on Briggs in debates: if teachers are really role models for sexual orientation, one would expect "a lot of nuns running around in the streets today," and if parents really want to eliminate the majority of child molesters in schools, heterosexual males should be the target.

Even though President Carter finally came out against Prop 6, its having Governor Reagan's support and the mood of the nation behind it seemed enough to doom the effort, so the tally of 59-41 against the proposition astonished and elated the gay community, raising Milk to the height of his popularity: "Every gay person must come out."

Unwilling to compromise in the political give-and-take, White, frustrated, suddenly resigned after ten months as a supervisor but then attempted to reverse his decision. The city attorney ruled that White could not simply take back his job; only the mayor could decide whether to reappoint him or select someone else. Milk strongly urged Moscone not to reinstate White.

On November 27th, 1978, at the same time as news of 400 dead Californians in a religious cult in Guyana hit the public, San Franciscans were struck another blow from the assassination of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk in city hall. Thousands turned out for a peaceful, respectful candlelit vigil (tears of wax dripping down) in tragic recognition of both men. Harvey's ashes were scattered in the Pacific.

Five months later Dan White went on trial, but Henry Der, a Chinese-American sensed "justice was not going to prevail" with every non-Caucasian and gay prospective juror eliminated by the defense during voir dire. The prosecution argued for a conviction on charges of premeditated murder. White had entered city hall through a window, apparently to avoid passing through the metal detector, carrying a .38-caliber pistol with an additional ten rounds of ammunition in his pocket. After killing the mayor and reloading, he had fired five times at Milk, the last bullet entering Harvey's head with the pistol pressed against his skull.

The prosecution's letting the jury hear his weepy confession may have worked in White's favor. Five psychiatrists testified to White's unstable mental state from depression and binging on junk food. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison.

An angry protest of injustice - "mob out of control" - followed the verdict, resulting in torched police cars and broken windows. Though feeling the wrath herself, Prof Gearhart comments on camera that Harvey didn't want violence to tread in his footsteps.

Five and a half years later, Dan White was released from prison on parole. (His subsequent suicide occurred shortly after this film was finished.)

Many of the scenes from actual footage in this documentary later appeared dramatized in Milk.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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