City Hall Welcomes Back Harvey Milk
District Five Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi
accomplished something momentous Friday night; not only did he manage to convince us to travel down to City Hall for the first time since we spent four hours trying to register a business name (all the good ones are taken by the way), he brought back former Supervisor and slain gay rights legend, Harvey Milk as well.
Contrary to what you might be thinking, Mirkarimi has not discovered a rift in the space-time continuum; instead he's continuing his monthly art exhibitions in his office. Up now through mid-July is, “Let’s Put Harvey Milk Back in City Hall,” an exhibition of photos and memorabilia of the activist and politician’s private life and career.
Assassinated less than a year into his post as Supervisor, Milk is known to many as a martyr of the GLBT community. He was the first openly gay elected official in the country, sponsored and helped pass a much-debated gay rights bill and was instrumental in defeating Proposition 6 which would have allowed openly gay teachers to be fired based on their sexuality. In short, the man known as the “Mayor of Castro Street” was paving the way for the gay rights movement in San Francisco, all from his neighborhood camera store.
SFist Shelley, contributing
The despicable and horrific details of his murder are available for everyone to read, but what we found most interesting was that Milk realized the threat of his impending assassination and left audio tapes to be played in the event it actually happened. On one he famously said, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country."
He may not have liberated all gay men and women from the closet, but he certainly gave them a rally cry and his death served as the catalyst for significant change in San Francisco and beyond. And so it seems appropriate that an exhibition celebrating Gay Pride Month at City Hall should honor Milk’s life and contributions and be the inaugural show in Mirkarimi’s new series of art openings.
Unfortunately, the exhibition itself seemed to be thrown together at the last minute; the black and white series of photos from Milk’s childhood in New York through his assassination in 1978 were in no particular order and without accompanying text (although we later found a list of titles stapled to a wall). We’re not exactly sure what we were expecting since these events are more about mingling than much else, but perhaps some sense of organization would have helped give more tribute to Milk’s legacy.
Regardless of the presentation, it was hard to escape Milk’s affable and sometimes exuberant personality staring at the images of him battling it out on the campaign trail, lovingly embracing his partner Scott Smith or riding a pony as a cherubic child. His smile was infectious and we could feel the excitement and pure electricity in the photos taken on election night outside Castro Camera as Milk ran toward the gathered crowd, arms open wide, grinning like a madman.
Memorabilia including the original front page headlines announcing his murder and the numerous books written about his life are also on display and underscore the importance of his work to further acceptance of the GLBT community and show the country that an openly homosexual man could live an exemplary life.
Let’s Put Harvey Milk Back in City Hall!
On view through July 17
Hours: 8 a.m. -- 8 p.m.
City Hall, 1 Dr Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 282
If you would like to donate to the Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial fund, you may do so here. The money raised will go toward erecting a sculpture in Milk's honor at City Hall to be unveiled on his birthday, May 22, 2007.