The end

Because my life is hard and I don't know what is going to happen next.

Me, Gandhi and Martin Luther King

One of these days I was surfing in the net and I found this interesting video about my life and the life of two amazing and brave men that also fought for big causes. They're Gandhi and Martin Luther King and they're heroes, it is an honour to be compared to them!

Golden days

As you know I was involved in politics. I was the first gay being elected in California. I only won the elections by the third time, so my advice for you is to never give up!
Today I want to say thanks to everybody that helped me. During my journey there I made lots of friends that were by my side. It wasn't always easy but we have to see the good side of things and I want to show it to you. I'm going to put here pictures from my campaigns, from my work, from my people so that you can see how these were my "golden days"!

It's time to celebrate, gay parades!

It makes me so happy to see that people are finally accepting homossexuality. Some are against it but gay parades aren't wrong. I'm gay and I don't care, I want to celebrate it, I want to be able to go to the streets and tell people that I'm okay with it, we define it as gaypride!

The times of me

Probably you're a bit bored of me always talking about myself, but this is my blog and when people do amazing things for me I have to give them thanks and show their work! So today I bring you the trailer of a documentary about my life, it is called "The times of Harvey Milk" and it won an academy award!

The Castro street

In my life there were lots of places were I lived, New York, Dallas.. But the place were the most important moments of my life happened is San Francisco. The second time I went there I opened my store in the Castro street, which was the place where gays used to be.
It is a really special place to me and so I'm going to show you some pictures of me there and a picture of it now!

My foundation

Today I want to show you something that makes me really proud. My nephew, Stuart started an initiative which is The Harvey B. Milk Foundation. It is so flatering for me to read this and to see that I can still inspire people.

" Harvey believed broad public education and dialogue was paramount to his life’s work as a civil rights leader and, as if riding on Harvey’s shoulders, the Milk Foundation seeks to inspire individuals, communities and organizations to carry on his values in a timeless vision for a better world."

If you want more information you can go to:  http://milkfoundation.org/

The fight isn't won yet

This video is from the National Equality March and it is a speech made by Lady Gaga at Washington DC. It makes me proud to see that there are still people fighting for our rights but it makes me sad at the same time that by this year we still present homophobic behaviours in the middle of our society.
 Lady Gaga is considered one of the most controversial stars from these days, and the things she is taking are just amazing. For me she is a good example because she is using her position to fight for something, she is giving her face and trying to change things. It's fantastic to see that people are taking your battle till the end.
To finish I just want you to think about something she said "they say that this country is free and they say that that this country is equal but it is not equal if it's sometimes".

The legendary Patrick Neil Harris

This my friends is the legendary Patrick Neil Harris, he became famous by playing Barney Stinson in the American tv show "How I met your mother". His character is a womanizer and it suits him perfectly, but the funny part about this is that in the real life he likes men.
This just shows everybody that you can separate your work from your real life, and it's sad that lots of actors in ourdays have to keep their sexuallity to theirselves. You should take him as an example and stop the stereotypes.

Patrick, you're representing us!

Childhood

Well, that i'm gay and that in the past I fought for my rights you allready know, but I never told you what my childhood was like and what kind of person I was.
First of all I was born in Woodmere, New York. My grandfather was an immigrant from Lithuania and he had a department store, my father also worked on that during his life. In fact I was a normal child  with a regular family.
At high school I was the class clown and I really was into sports (yes gays play sports too in their childhood), but i had a speciall passion, opera, it was my secret. In fact i had another secret, i allready knew i was gay but i decided to keep it to myself at least for a couple of years.
I choose to tell you this because sometimes there is that idea that gays aren't normal, that being gay is some kind of label and it makes who you are. No. We are people as you and well, we're not all the same, we don't do all the same things, we don't have the same tastes, we are just persons and we don't have all the same story. I was just a normal kid, like you all were, and that's the point, we're not "gays", we're people just like you.

ps. that's me and my old brother, Robert

Letters...

Dear friends,
today I thought I could share with you one of my many letters to Joe Campbell. In case you don't know he was one of the men in my life that I loved and will always love the most.

Here it is:

                                                                                                                                  April 6, 1963
                                                                                                                                               Miami Beach

Dear Joe,
I am more relaxed now --the salt water, sand and sunshine is better than tranquilizers (I was taking them). In fact, I've been in the sun so much that the hair on my arms is all blond and my eyebrows are much much lighter--I'll be a southern blond yet--then I'll be my own type. Everyone looks so healthy here--the high school kids seem so different than those in New York.(...) Riding bikes and sunshine is the answer. (...)

Still living in the dump--a wild hotel--35% drunks, 10% homosexuals, 20% prostitutes, 20% dope addicts, 15% misfits (...). You can walk down the hall and smell who's in which room--whiskey, cologne, cheap perfume, and pot, and no odor, in that order. Was offered one halfway decent job at $92 per week for a small insurance company but turned it down, for it was not what I would really like--not that I know what I would like, but the people that I would have worked for looked too catty and small townish, and that is bad in Miami--the police here are always after the gay set. (...) One can find work here in some kind of a job if you really need one--but with my $50 a week check coming in each week--well, who is in a hurry. (...)  There is a possibility that I may go to California as there are 2 fellows from L.A. here who have asked me to go back with them-- but I don’t think I will. (...) Well, until next time.

                   
                          As Always,

                                           Harvey

The Iniative Briggs

Through my all life there were lots of fights and one of them was against The Briggs Initiative. This initiative was sponsored by John Briggs, a conservative state legislator from O.C. and the objective was to ban gays, lesbians and everybody who supported gays' rights, from working in public school's.
Thanks to the "No" on 6 campaign in which I was involved the initiative failed, and in the end it was a fight we had won, a fight for equal rights!
 In democracy everybody has the right to work and it isn't your sexual orientation that makes you a good or bad worker, you should be judged by your capacities, always remember that!

To finish my post, I'll just let you a video from an interview in "News Talk" where I discussed Briggs Initiative.

Medal of Freedom

Today i'm going to show you something that was really important to me. President Obama, in 2009, honored me with a Presidencial Medal of Freedom, it's really good to know that people didn't forget me, in fact it is an honour.

A woman with a big voice and a big heart

This my friends is Beth Ditto she is a lesbian and she is not ashaimed of it. As me she is fighting for our rights, but instead of using only words she uses music too. Here's one of her band major singles, "Heavy cross". Enjoy!

The Oscars!

This week I was watching the Oscar's cerimony and suddenly I remembered "Hey, I didn't talked about "Milk" in my blog!".
So, if you don't know "Milk" is a movie about my life and it was released in 2008. It was really aclaimed by the critics, and well,  it deserved it. I have to talk about the amazing cast made by James Franco (this year nominee), Emile Hirsh, Josh Brolin and Sean Penn who won the Oscar for best actor. The movie also won the Oscar for best writing - original screenplay. I've to say that I felt really flattered and it is an honour to be representated by such a great team.
But better than ear me talking about this, it's to watch it so, here's the trailer!

oh sweet yesterdays

To all my followers, today I want to show you some pictures from my old days. I was feeling a bit nostalgic and I thought "what would make me feel better? Pictures!"

1957

1965, Unidentified, Tom O'Horgan, and Me, New York

1965, Miami Beach

1973, San Francisco

Hope you like it!