We Need Harvey Milk

Time for a little history lesson. In 1970, homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Psychologist Hans Eysenck advocated electric-shock aversion therapy to "cure homosexuality". The police were held to little or no consequence when threatening, beating and killing gay men and women in bars, clubs and other establishments. The Holocaust in Europe had ended, killing up to 100,000 gay men and women for the "crime of being homosexual" under Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code.

In 1972, The Supreme Court of Minnesota ruled that it did not violate the federal constitution in denying civil marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Also in 1972, a teacher in Tacoma, Washington was fired after one of his students reported his homosexuality to the Principal of the school in which he worked and was in good-standing. The court ruled not to hear the appeal on the basis that homosexuality was immoral (as mentioned in the New Catholic Encyclopedia).

Enter a strong-willed, loud-mouthed, pro-active politician originally from New York by the name of Harvey Milk. Harvey was the first openly gay man to be elected into public office in the state of California in 1977. He had campaigned for the post since 1973, with fierce resistance by the existing gay political establishment. At the height of his popularity, he bravely led a counter-movement fight against the anti-gay agenda. Before his assassination on November 27, 1978, Harvey served eleven months as city supervisor and was responsible for bringing the people of San Francisco together to fight injustice in a time when the rest of the state, city and country were trying to tear them apart. To this day, Harvey Milk stands as a symbol of strength and courage under fire within the gay community in San Francisco and beyond. His passion for equality, inclusion and human rights for all evoked a passion within the gay and lesbian community that continues to this day.

It is November 12, 2008 and Nicaragua and Panama have only just legalized homosexuality. Washington, Ohio, Kansas, Michigan, Vermont, Colorado, Oregon and few other states have passed laws regarding discrimination to include the LGBT community. In 2006, Moscow's first-ever gay pride celebration was cut short when activists took the streets in violence.

If one thing is clear, it is that the war is not over. We must fight back now and fight hard. We need equal rights and we need them now. We need someone like Harvey Milk to stand up and speak for the LGBT community loud and proud. You do not have to be gay to do what is right for your gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. You just need to look at the facts and admit that something needs to change and it needs to happen soon. Stand up. Do not back down in the face of adversity. Rise up and stand together for civil and human rights that belong to you just as much as the person standing next to you. The only way to win the battle is to stand together.