186. Harvey Milk

0:00 – Snarky Opener

You know what doesn't pair well with milk? A ridiculous Twinkie defense.

0:24 – Episode Introduction

Hello my LGBTQuties and welcome back to another episode of A Jaded Gay. I'm Rob Loveless and today I am a jaded gay because it's election day.

The past few months have been miserable with the political ads, I've been trying to listen to NPR to stay informed, and I am hopeful but also have zero faith in democracy these days. So, we'll see. And a reminder that all elections matter, not just the presidential ones, because most change happens at our local levels first.

1:03 – Harvey Milk

And these are the midterm elections, so if you haven't already, get out and vote. Cue Lady Miss Kiera. Anyway, with that in mind, since today is election day, we are going to be talking about the life and legacy of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California in 1977.

And I'd like to note though that he's not the first openly gay person elected in America. We had Kathy Kozachenko elected to the Ann Arbor City Council in Michigan on April 2nd, 1974, and Elaine Noble elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in November 1974, but still among the first in public office and one of the most prominent nationally. So, we're going to be getting into it, but first, let's pull our tarot card.

1:42 – Tarot

So, we drew the six of wands in reverse. This is a minor arcana card, so this is more about adjustments in our day-to-day lives. Wands is tied to the element of fire, it's masculine energy, so it's very action-oriented, and wands represents passion, creativity, and sometimes sexuality.

In numerology, six is tied to balance, choice, and harmony. And what's interesting is in tarot, five is sometimes viewed as a conflict number, so with the number six, it shows that we've just moved on from that conflict and are heading to a more peaceful outcome. However, when we draw this card in reverse, it's signifying a delayed success.

Specifically, we may be experiencing a disappointing setback, but this is only temporary. Our delay is part of the process, and it allows us an opportunity to reflect so we can figure out what the next strategic action is that we should be taking to move forward. We need to remind ourselves that nothing happens overnight, and if we continue to put in the effort, we'll achieve our goal. And with that in mind, let’s get into the episode

2:35 – Harvey Milk's Early Life and Relationships

Harvey Milk was born on May 22, 1930, on Long Island, and was raised in a Jewish household. According to History.com, he knew from a young age, around high school, that he was gay and allegedly engaged in illicit trysts as a teenager.

However, he played football and basketball at Bayshore High School and was a class clown, which made him popular among classmates, and these extracurriculars helped him conceal his sexuality. Milk went on to enroll at the New York State College for Teachers at Albany, which is now the State University of New York at Albany, where he majored in mathematics. While there, he joined the Jewish fraternity Kappa Beta and wrote for the school newspaper.

And interestingly enough, one classmate apparently remembered Milk as being a ever questioned his sexuality. After graduating college in 1951, he joined the Navy during the Korean War, where he served until 1955, when he was forced to resign at the rank of lieutenant junior grade because of his sexuality. He was forced to accept an other-than-honorable discharge and leave the service instead of being court-martialed.

After that, he began teaching at George W. Hewlett High School on Long Island, and soon after met and began a relationship with Joe Campbell. Together, they moved around a bit. First to Dallas in 1957, since they were seeking a warmer climate, but they struggled to find jobs and were disappointed with the city's social scene, so they moved back to New York.

There, Milk worked as a public school teacher on Long Island and then a stock analyst in Manhattan. He and Campbell separated in 1961 after almost six years, which is like a lifetime in gay years. And then in 1962, he began dating gay activist Craig Rodwell, who you might remember from past episodes on the Stonewall Riots.

At just 22 years old, this was Rodwell's first serious relationship, and Milk seemed smitten with him. However, he was uncomfortable with Rodwell's involvement in the gay rights organization, the Mattachine Society, which we also touched upon briefly in the Lavender Scare episode. Now, I don't know when, but Rodwell was picked up by police while cruising in Washington Square Park and was arrested with inciting a riot and indecent exposure since the law at the time required men's swimsuits to extend from above the navel to below the thigh.

And after this, Milk ended their relationship since he was concerned that Rodwell had a tendency to agitate police. And shortly after that, Rodwell actually attempted suicide. Around this time, Milk abruptly stopped working as an insurance actuary and became a researcher for a Wall Street firm, where he was very successful, but his co-worker sensed his heart wasn't in the job.

In 1964, just shy of his 34th birthday, Milk started dating Jack Galen McKinley, who was 17 at the time. Now, interestingly enough, Milk was politically conservative and he campaigned for Republican Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign and even recruited McKinley to work on the campaign. However, McKinley suffered from depression and on several occasions threatened to take his own life if he didn't receive enough attention from Milk.

And Milk actually took McKinley to a hospital where his ex, Joe Campbell, was recuperating from a suicide attempt after his lover, Billy Siple, left him. Even after their breakup, Milk had remained friendly with Campbell, who was part of the avant-garde art scene in Greenwich Village. Now, I don't know the exact date or timing of these events, but Milk befriended experimental theater director, Tom O'Horgan, who kind of opened his eyes to a more progressive crowd.

And McKinley was a stage manager for O'Horgan and while touring with the Broadway company of Hair, he and Milk arrived in San Francisco in 1969. McKinley was later offered a job in the New York City production of Jesus Christ Superstar, but San Francisco appealed to Milk. The two broke up with McKinley returning to New York while Milk stayed behind and worked at an investment firm.

In 1970, he became more active in politics and joined friends to march in protest of the Vietnam War. Now, I found differing accounts here. In the spring of 1970, he was fired from his job either for participating in an anti-war rally or for growing his hair long and refusing to cut it.

From there, Milk kind of wandered from California to Texas to New York and later served as a general aide for O'Horgan's theater company. And the time he spent doing this apparently wore away a great deal of his conservative views. Also, around this time, he met Scott Smith who was 18 years younger than him and they entered into a romantic relationship.

6:34 – Building a Political Movement in the Castro

In late 1972, at age 42 and 24 respectively, Milk and Smith moved back to San Francisco. And in spring 1973, Milk opened a camera shop, Castro Camera, on Castro Street, which was the heart of the gay community. That same year, a state bureaucrat entered his shop told him he owed $100 as a deposit against state sales tax.

He was infuriated and viewed it as an unfair tax on small businesses. He shouted at the man and then continued to complain at state offices for weeks until the deposit was reduced to $30. And this partly inspired him to run for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that same year.

However, he was iced out by the city's more influential gay political establishment. Basically, they thought he was too new and that should wait his turn. However, some gay bar owners were still dealing with police harassment and they thought these gay political elites were too timid in their approach to dealing with it.

Meanwhile, Milk ran on a culturally liberal platform and showed off his savvy media skills and passionate and flamboyant speeches. Not only did this result in those gay bar owners endorsing Milk, but he also earned a large amount of press during the election. Now, while he lost the election, he proved to be very popular in the Castro district and other liberal neighborhoods and received approximately 17,000 votes.

He finished 10th out of 32 candidates, which encouraged him to continue his political efforts. Starting in 1974, Milk's partner, Smith, organized and managed his campaign and capitalized on Milk's ability to build coalitions. In fact, he built an alliance with the Teamsters Labor Union who wanted to strike against beer distributors, especially Coors, since they refused to sign the union contract.

And Smith put Milk at the forefront of this issue when one of the organizers asked him to help by having gay bars support the boycott. In return, Milk asked the union to hire more gay drivers, and the boycott was ultimately a success. In a separate instance, the Eureka Valley Merchants Association tried to stop two gay men from opening an antique shop in the Castro district.

In response, Milk and a few other gay business owners founded the Castro Village Association, with Milk serving as president, and he emphasized that gays should buy from gay businesses. He then organized the Castro Fair in 1974, which attracted more than 5,000 attendees and stunned Eureka Valley Merchants Association members. And around this time, Milk began referring to himself as the mayor of Castro Street.

Despite still being a relative newcomer to the Castro district, Milk was building a reputation for himself in the community and was becoming a serious political contender. He also cut his long hair, swore off marijuana, and swore he'd never visit another gay bathhouse again to shift his political approach as he prepared to run again for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1975. His store, Castro Camera, became the center of activity in the neighborhood, and he often pulled people off the street to work his campaigns.

In 1975, California State Senator George Moscone, who had been a major force in repealing the sodomy law earlier that year in the California state legislature, was elected mayor of San Francisco. On election night, Moscone visited Milk's headquarters to thank him personally for his influence in getting him elected, and he also offered Milk a position as city commissioner while Milk came in seventh place in the election, and this time he was getting even closer to earning a supervisor seat. Despite these victories, there were still tensions brewing within conservative strongholds in San Francisco.

As one of the first acts as mayor, Moscone appointed Charles Gane as police chief for the San Francisco Police Department against their wishes. Gane was disliked by the force for criticizing the police and the press for racial insensitivity and alcohol abuse on the job. Furthermore, by request of Moscone, Gane made national news by stating that gay police officers were welcome to join the department.

In turn, many police under the chief expressed their hatred of him and the mayor for betraying them. Also, remember Campbell's suicide attempt after breaking up with his ex, Billy Sipple? Well, on September 22, 1975, President Gerald Ford was visiting San Francisco and was walking from his hotel to his car when Sarah Jane Moore raised a gun to shoot him. Sipple, who was a former Marine, was walking by during this and her arm as it discharged toward the pavement and he foiled the assassination attempt.

However, in doing so, it drew unwanted attention to Sipple, who refused to call himself a hero and didn't want his sexuality disclosed. Meanwhile, Milk took advantage of this opportunity in what he thought would improve public perception of gay people. At the time, many associated gay men with cruising and other deviant behavior.

But since Sipple, a gay man, did something heroic, Milk wanted people to know that. So, he contacted Herb Caen, a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, who then wrote an article outing Sipple and exposing him as a friend of Milk. Unsurprisingly, this spread like wildfire through the national news, with Milk's name being included in many of the stories, and Time magazine named Milk as a leader in San Francisco's gay community.

Meanwhile, Sipple and his family were swarmed by reporters, and his mother, who was a conservative Baptist in Detroit, refused to speak to him. And while Sipple had participated in gay pride events and was involved with the community for years, he sued the Chronicle for invasion of privacy. And ultimately, President Ford sent Sipple a thank you note for saving his life, while Milk claimed Sipple would have been invited to the White House if he were straight.

In 1976, Moscone appointed Milk to the Board of Permit Appeals, making him the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States. However, after five weeks on the board, Milk announced that he planned to run for the California State Assembly, and Moscone had to fire him since it created a political conflict with his existing appointment. And Rick Stokes, who was an openly gay lawyer, was appointed to Milk's position.

Now, this time on the campaign trail, Milk took on the identity of a political underdog and complained that the city and state officials, along with the gay political establishments like the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club, were shutting him out. Nevertheless, he continued to campaign, but things were disorganized. Campaign funds came from the cash register of his store.

Smith, his partner and campaign manager, had an 11-year-old neighborhood girl as his assistant, and volunteer lists were kept on scraps of paper. Also, during this time, Milk was seemingly hyperactive and would go on rants or have outbursts, some of which were directed at Smith. Still, he was successful in getting media attention and distributed his campaign literature wherever he could.

However, this resulted in another election loss, but this time he lost by fewer than 4,000 votes. Following this loss, Milk founded the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club to gain more political support since he realized the Toklas would never support him.

12:48 – The Anita Bryant Campaign and the Fight for LGBTQ+ Rights

Now hang with me here because we're going to be traveling from San Francisco to Miami.

In 1977, gay activists were able to pass a civil rights ordinance that made discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal in Dade County. However, singer and beauty pageant contestant Anita Bryant headed a conservative campaign titled Save Our Children, claiming that the ordinance infringed on her right to teach her own children biblical morality. And I definitely want to dedicate a full episode to this, but long story short, Jim Foster, a powerful political organizer in San Francisco, went to Miami to help gay activists and they organized a nationwide boycott of orange juice since Bryant was a spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission.

However, they were unsuccessful and the special election had the largest turnout in Dade County's history, with 70% voting to repeal the law. And this win for Christian conservatives helped them see an opportunity for a new effective political cause with gay activists floored seeing how little support they received. Now back in San Francisco, more than 3,000 Castro residents took to the streets the night of the Dade County vote and chanted out of the bars and into the streets.

And Milk led marchers on a five-mile course through San Francisco and he was careful not to stop for too long because he was afraid if they did, a riot would break out in the crowd. However, following the events in Dade County, similar ordinances were repealed in St. Paul, Minnesota, Wichita, Kansas, and Eugene, Oregon. And unfortunately, random attacks against gay men rose in the Castro with what seemed like inadequate police response, so groups of gay men self-patrolled their neighborhood to keep an eye out for attackers.

And California State Senator John Briggs also called the city of San Francisco a sexual garbage heap because of homosexuals. And this opposition to homosexuality fueled gay politics in San Francisco. In fact, 17 candidates from the Castro district entered the next race for supervisor and more than half of them were gay.

And yes, Milk was one of those candidates.

14:40 – Harvey Milk's Election and Historic Victory

And this time around, San Francisco had decided to reorganize supervisor elections to choose supervisors from neighborhoods instead of voting for them in citywide ballots. And Milk quickly came out as the leading candidate in District 5. Also worth noting was that the Castro Village Association he had co-founded had grown to 90 businesses.

Now his biggest opponent was Rick Stokes, remember him? And he was backed by the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club. And while Stokes was also an outgay man, he tried to position himself as just a regular guy who happened to be gay. Meanwhile, Milk spoke more to the issues LGBTQ+ people faced in San Francisco politics.

Here's a quote from Milk in a New York Times article just days before the municipal election:

“We don't want sympathetic liberals. We want gays to represent gays. I represent the gay street people, the 14-year-old runaway from San Antonio. We have to make up for hundreds of years of persecution. We have to give hope to that poor runaway kid from San Antonio. They go to the bars because churches are hostile. They need hope. They need a piece of the pie.”

Other platforms Milk ran on included larger and less expensive child care facilities for working mothers, free public transportation, tax code reform to boost industry, the creation of low-income housing, and the development of a board of civilians to oversee the police. He continued implementing his regular campaign tactics, and the San Francisco Chronicle even endorsed him. Then, on November 8th, 1977, Milk won the District 5 supervisor election, defeating 16 other candidates.

And in doing so, he became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California and one of the country's first openly gay elected officials. That election in San Francisco also saw three other historic firsts. Carol Ruth Silver was the first single mother elected to the city's board of supervisors, Gordon Lau was the first Chinese-American elected, and Ella Hill Hutch was the first African-American woman elected.

16:30 – The Growing Divide Between Milk and Dan White

Also elected was Dan White, a former police officer and firefighter. And while White was a Democrat, he was labeled as a conservative within the party and saw himself as a defender of family values and religious life against homosexuals, pot smokers, and cynics. And in one of his election brochures, he wrote that he wasn't going to be forced out of San Francisco because of radicals and social deviants.

Now, despite this, he and Milk initially worked well together, and Milk was one of three people from City Hall invited to the baptism of White's newborn child shortly after the election. He also encouraged fellow supervisor Dianne Feinstein, who is the president of the board of supervisors, to appoint Milk chairman of the streets and transportation committee. But things soon took a turn, and some of this seems to be a bit overlapping, so apologies if I don't have the exact chronological order.

Early in his tenure, Milk sponsored a civil rights bill that outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation in San Francisco. And White was the only supervisor who voted against it, and Mayor Moscone signed it into law in late March of 1978. Then, around April, the Roman Catholic Church proposed putting in a mental facility in White's district for juvenile offenders who had committed murder, arson, rape, and other crimes which would be operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Both Milk and White opposed it. But when Milk learned more about it, he changed his vote, which resulted in White's loss on the issue. And this became a sore spot for White, and he subsequently opposed every initiative and issue Milk supported.

Now, separate from these issues, Milk also focused on another bill that was meant to solve the number one problem according to a recent San Francisco poll. People weren't picking up after their dogs. So, Milk got to work on a city ordinance that required owners to pick up after their pets, which was dubbed the Pooper Scooper Law.

18:10 – Proposition 6

Now, a more serious matter. Inspired by the county ordinance, California State Senator John Briggs was hoping to be elected governor of California in 1978 and wrote a bill to ban gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools throughout the state, known as Proposition 6. In response, Milk led a statewide campaign against Prop 6 and debated Briggs and challenged his claims that gay teachers pose a threat to children. Surprisingly, even former Governor of California Ronald Reagan, then-Governor Jerry Brown, and President Jimmy Carter all opposed the proposition.

And, during that summer's pride, Milk gave his famous hope speech. Here's an excerpt:

“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. We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets. 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. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out.”

Come out to your parents, your relatives. Then, on November 7th, 1978, Prop 6 lost by more than a million votes, with 75% of San Francisco voting against it.

19:20 – The Assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone

Three days later, White resigned from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, claiming his annual salary wasn't enough to support his family.

However, a few days later, he requested that his resignation be withdrawn and he be reinstated. While Mayor Moscone initially agreed, he opted to appoint someone who was more aligned with the growing ethnic diversity of White's district and the liberal leanings of the Board of Supervisors. And several of the more liberal city leaders, including Milk, lobbied Moscone not to reappoint White.

Moscone planned to announce White's replacement on November 27th, 1978. However, that same morning, White entered City Hall through a basement window to avoid metal detectors. He then proceeded to Moscone's outer office and met with him to request being reappointed to his former seat.

However, Moscone refused and things grew heated. He wanted to avoid a public scene, so he suggested that White join him in a private lounge adjacent to his office. As Moscone lit a cigarette and poured two drinks, White pulled out his .38 caliber service revolver from his work as a police officer and shot at Moscone's shoulder and chest.

He fell to the floor and White then approached him and pointed his gun six inches from the mayor's head and fired two additional shots into his earlobes, which killed him instantly. White reloaded his gun and hurried out of the mayor's office and shared office of the Board of Supervisors, which was at the other end of City Hall. When he arrived, he interrupted Milk, who was speaking to a radio reporter and an acquaintance, and asked him to step inside White's former office for a moment.

They proceeded into his former office and White closed the door behind them. He then stood between Milk and the doorway and had a brief conversation before he opened fire. His first shot hit Milk in the right wrist as he was trying to protect himself and White continued to shoot rapidly.

Ultimately, Milk was shot twice in the chest and then in the head, which killed him. Then White fired a final shot into Milk's skull at close range. He fled the office before Milk's body was found and was able to leave City Hall.

He then drove to a diner to call his wife and they met at a nearby church. Then, approximately 30 minutes after he left City Hall, he turned himself in to the police and later confessed that afternoon to shooting Moscone and Milk but denied it was premeditated. The evening of the murders, a candlelit march took place with approximately 25,000 to 40,000 people joining from Castro Street to City Hall.

The next day, the bodies of Moscone and Milk were brought to the City Hall Rotunda where mourners paid their respects. Governor Jerry Brown ordered all flags in California be flown at half-staff and Jimmy Carter, who was shocked by both murders, sent his condolences.

21:44 – The Trial, Twinkie Defense, and Aftermath

Meanwhile, White was charged with two counts of murder and held without bail.

The death penalty was also on the table following the recent passing of a statewide proposition that allowed death or life in prison for the murder of a public official. And his later trial created tension between San Francisco's liberal population and the more conservative city police, who were unhappy with the growing gay population and the city government's liberal direction. According to Warren Hinckle, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who later went on to write a book about the assassinations, while White sat in his cell, his former colleagues on the police force told Harvey Milk jokes.

Some even wore t-shirts that said Free Dan White in the days that followed. And in his book Doubleplay, which explores the assassinations and subsequent trial, author Mike Weiss claims that White showed no remorse for his actions. Additionally, the jury selection process was criticized for excluding potential jurors perceived as gay and for the lack of diversity among the jurors ultimately seated, because the jury was predominantly white and middle class and many jurors were Catholic.

And White's lawyer, Doug Schmidt, used the diminished capacity legal defense. And you may remember that we touched upon that in the Gay Panic Defense episode. Specifically, psychiatrist Martin Blinder testified that White had been depressed at the time of the assassinations and highlighted the behavioral changes he associated with his depression.

White had quit his job, shunned his wife, and had a sloppy appearance compared to his normal clean-cut look. And despite being physically fit and a health food advocate, he had begun consuming junk food and sugary drinks. With that in mind, Blinder mentioned that elements of diet could worsen existing mood swings.

Now going off of the junk food discussion, Twinkies were mentioned at some point, I guess one of the foods White may have been eating, and his consumption of junk food was presented to the jury as one of several symptoms of depression but not the cause of it. But despite this, local reporters quickly dubbed it the Twinkie defense and it quickly took off. Now his lawyer wasn't trying to contest that White killed Moscone and Milk, but they were trying to convince the jury that due to White's mindset, he was incapable of the premeditation required for a murder conviction.

That instead of planning it out, it just happened in the moment. And the jury bought it. On May 21st, 1979, White was acquitted of first-degree murder and was instead found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for both victims.

He was sentenced to serve 7 and 2 thirds years, but was ultimately released after 5 years for good behavior. And understandably, the local LGBTQ+ community was outraged, and the night of his verdict, a riot broke out, which became known as the White Night Riots. A mob of more than 30,000 people threw rocks at the buildings, lit police cars on fire, and even shoved a burning newspaper dispenser through the broken doors of City Hall.

One reporter asked a rioter why they were destroying parts of the city, and they allegedly replied, just tell people that we ate too many Twinkies. That's why this is happening. Police then retaliated by raiding gay bars and beating patrons.

And approximately 120 people, including 60 police officers, were injured, and this became the most violent reaction by gay Americans since the Stonewall Riots, which took place almost 10 years prior. The assassination of Milk and Moscone changed the city's politics, with San Francisco ending its district supervisor elections in 1980, since they feared that a board of supervisors so divisive would be harmful to the city and that they had been a factor in the assassinations. However, in the mid-90s, a grassroots effort formed to restore district elections, and the city re-implemented neighborhood representatives in 2000.

Additionally, the California legislature abolished diminished capacity as a defense in 1982, reducing the ability of defendants to argue that impaired mental capacity prevented them from forming the mental state required for a crime. However, evidence of a mental disorder could still be relevant to whether a defendant actually formed the mental state required for a particular offense. Meanwhile, White was released from prison on January 14, 1984, and that same year, he allegedly confessed to former police inspector Frank Falzon that the murders were premeditated and that he also planned to kill assemblyman Willie Brown and supervisor Carol Ruth Silver. And on October 21, 1985, he died by suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning.

25:45 – Harvey Milk's Legacy

After years of campaigning, Harvey Milk spent just over 10 months in office, but despite his short tenure, he certainly made a difference, not only in his local community in the Castro, but across the country. In the last year of his life, he emphasized the importance of gay people coming out publicly, since that would create more visibility, which could help end discrimination and violence against the community.

And in that final year, he was concerned there may be assassination attempts due to his height and profile, so he recorded his thoughts on tapes. Most famously, in one such recording, he said, If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country. In the years that followed, schools, buildings, and public centers throughout California have been named after Milk.

His life was featured in the 1982 biography The Mayor of Castro Street by Randy Shilts, Rob Epstein's 1984 Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, and the critically acclaimed 2008 film Milk by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and starring Sean Penn. In 2009, Milk's birthday, May 22, was officially recognized in California as Harvey Milk Day, and he was posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. He was also inducted into the Legacy Walk in Chicago and named one of the inaugural 50 American pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument.

And on August 16, 2016, the second ship of the Military Sealift Command's John Lewis-class oilers was named after Milk, with the ship being launched in November 2021. However, in June 2025, Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the ship's to USNS Oscar V. Peterson and removed Milk's name from the ship, with a defense official claiming that the announcement was intentionally timed to take place during Pride Month. But despite these insults from the Dan White trial to having his name removed from the ship, Harvey Milk's memory not only lives on but has inspired countless LGBTQ+ people to be a positive force of change in their communities and will hopefully continue to inspire generations to come.

27:42 – Episode Closing

And connecting it to the tarot, the six of wands in reverse, again, this card is full of masculine energy and our passions, but it's telling us that we might be feeling stuck and that things aren't going our way. And in the case of Harvey Milk, he was passionate about his community and making his neighborhood a better place. He ran for office several times unsuccessfully, but he didn't give up.

While he may have felt disappointed, he persevered and eventually was elected and achieved his goal. And while he served for less than a year before his assassination, his passion planted the seeds for further LGBTQ+ activism. Sure, after his death, the pendulum swung backwards, but his spirit lives on and it's inspired new generations of LGBTQ+ people to be their authentic selves and also work to make our community a better place.

So, remember, any setback we experience is temporary. And even when we're feeling stuck or hopeless, keep persisting because eventually we'll see the change we're looking for. So, thank you all for listening.

I hope you enjoyed that history episode. I would definitely recommend checking out the 2008 film Milk. It's a really powerful movie. And remember, our voices matter, so get out and be sure to vote today.

28:47 – Connect with A Jaded Gay

And if you have any feedback or questions, you can email rob at ajadedgay.com. Also, let's keep the conversation going. Head on over to our official Discord server, the LGBTQuties Lounge, to connect with myself and other listeners.

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And remember: every day is all we have, so you gotta make your own happiness. Mmm-bye.

30:15 – Outtake

Anyway, with that in mind, since today is election day, we are going to be talking about the life and legacy of Harry Milk. Oop, not Harry Milk.