Harvey Milk Day, San Francisco, May 22, 2010

Today would have been Harvey Milk's 80th birthday and is the first time California has recognized it as a Day of Significance. Magnet Health Center on 18th St. near Castro, displayed one of Harvey's famous quotes.

Here is Harvey's protege Cleve Jones speaking at the dedication of a new plaque in front of Harvey's old Castro Camera store at 575 Castro Street.

There were several celebrations in the Castro today. My first treat was meeting Hugh G. Rection at the Cafe Flore just before the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence began their annual Tricycle Race.

Here's State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano speaking at the dedication of the new pedestrian plaza at the corner of Castro and Market Streets. That's the famous Donna Sachet in red to the right.

Also at the dedication, one of Harvey Milk's closest friends, photographer Dan Nicoletta, leader in the effort to keep Harvey's memory alive.

The school, on 19th street between Collingwood and Diamond, had a "Harvey Milk and Cookies" block party that hoped to raise $80,000. We can help them by going to www.zazzle.com/hmcra and buying Milk t-shirts and other items. The site should be up in a few days.

Levi's

Here's San Francisco City Treasurer Jose Cisneros at the Harvey party thrown by the Levi's store on Castro near 18th.

Here are a pair of Levi's actually worn by Harvey Milk.

Dedication of the New Plaque

The new plaque (shown at the top of this page) replaces a smaller one that was dedicated in 1998. Under the plaque are a small portion of Harvey's ashes, most of which were scattered at sea. Here's Frank Robinson, author of The Towering Inferno and other books, who was Harvey's close friend and speechwriter.

In the center is Paul Boneberg, director of the Gay Historical Society, which designed today's window display. They'll soon be moving into a space on 18th Street next to Badlands.

Dan Nicoletta, whom we met above, greets former Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver, a close colleague of Harvey's.

Before the ceremony started, Supervisor Bevan Dufty sang and danced to "I Will Survive," being performed by a wonderful singer.

Dan Nicoletta spoke.

Harvey's campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg, was joined by a young student who wasn't allowed to deliver a paper on Harvey until the ACLU intervened.

State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, holding Harvey's famous bullhorn, said that if Harvey met Sarah Palin he'd say, "Hate your politics, love your shoes."

This is the mural above the shop, showing Harvey looking out the window. The young men in the apartment threw confetti when the plaque was unveiled.

Here's part of the window display, with reflections of buildings from across the street.

This is more of the window display, including the wonderful mural of Harvey on the wall inside the shop. The black-and-white sign at bottom left reads,"I wouldn't spend $100,000 on a 'Muni Loves You' campaign - I'd spend it to repair Muni. - Harvey Milk"

Works featuring Harvey Milk

.	The Mayor of Castro Street by Randy Shilts, who became the first openly gay San Francisco Chronicle reporter, is an excellent account of the life of Harvey Milk.

.	The Times of Harvey Milk, based on The Mayor of Castro Street, won the 1984 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

.	The premiere of the musical The Harvey Milk Show by Dan Pruitt and Patrick Hutchison was in 1991.

.	1996 saw the debut of the three act opera Harvey Milk written by Stewart Wallace.

.	Hinckle, Warren (1985). Gayslayer! The Story of How Dan White Killed Harvey Milk and George Moscone & Got Away With Murder, Silver Dollar Books.

.	Weiss, Mike (1984). Double Play: The San Francisco City Hall Killings, Addison Wesley Publishing Company

Links

Wikipedia has an excellent bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_milk

Uncle Donald was a friend of Harvey Milk and has one of the oldest Castro web sites with extensive coverage of Harvey's life. See http://www.thecastro.net/milkpage.html

San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society has a wealth of information on Harvey. See http://www.glbthistory.org/

The James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center on the third floor of the San Francisco Main Library also has a wealth of Harvey Milk information. See http://sfpl4.sfpl.org/librarylocations/main/glc/glc.htm

The offical site of Gus Van Sant's Milk, starring Sean Penn is at www.milkthemovie.com

Harvey Milk, Second Sight, photos of the early Harvey Milk. See http://www.queer-arts.org/milk/index.html

Harvey Milk Opera. See http://www.stewartwallace.com/harvey_milk.htm

YouTube excerpts of Harvey Milk "Hope Speech." See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvfexvihri8

YouTube clip of NBC Nightly News the day of the Milk/Moscone assassination. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wroK3KMnAaI

"Harvey Milk: The Forgotten Populist." See http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/milk.html

"I Remember Harvey" by Ron Williams. See http://www.webcastro.com/harvey.htm

"Harvey Milk, Hero and Martyr" on KQED's Castro page. See http://www.kqed.org/w/hood/castro/resourceguide/harveymilk.html

The producer's site for the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. See http://www.tellingpictures.com/films/2.html

"Harvey Milk, a Reflection" by Harvey's successor Harry Britt. See http://www.shapingsf.org/ezine/gay/files/harvey.html

Strange photo history of Harvey Milk with photos by Dan Nicoletta. See http://www.strangebillions.com/harvey/

Milk movie: photos and videos of the making of the film and the subsequent openings, award ceremonies, etc. See http://www.flickr.com/groups/milkmovie/

Milk is out on DVD (Left) and Blu-ray (right)