White Manhood in the "Times of Harvey Milk"
This film tells the story of a great political hero in gay history. It also shows the tragic violence that comes from a "petulant" man.
“On November 27th 1978, first openly gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk was murdered, along with Mayor George Moscone , by Supervisor Dan White.” So begins the obituary of Harvey Milk.
Today we will be viewing the award winning 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk. In the film, we meet an amazing human who advocated for his city, San Francisco, for working people, for people of color, and for the LGBTQ community with humor, grace and courage. It was a shock when a fellow supervisor assassinated him, along with the mayor of San Francisco George Moscone.
As the film suggests, the manhood of Dan White was threatened. His response was murder.
In the post 2024 election genderscape, we are seeing further evidence of how dangerous “petulant” masculinity promoted by the “manosphere” can be to women. See this article “How Trump Supporters Lay Claim to Women’s Bodies.” The reporting and the statistics are truly shocking. Here is another article from The Guardian on how women in Europe are responding to misogyny.
For class discussion credit for today, watch the film and comment below on your takeaways from the film and how it relates to gender politics today.
Watching the film about Harvey Milk, it felt interesting to learn about Harvey Milk and how he was able to win and become a supervisor for his city even with his ideals. Harvey was a voice for those who were scared to come out the closet because how society will reject them, and because of this, Harvey took his power and made it possible to protect the rights for the LGBTQ. As of today, it's still a challenge for many LGBTQ individuals as of their rights are slowly being stripped away from them by the states.
I made the comment about the candles in the window.
Harvey Milk's blissful and thought- out- lack of a fear of death connects to the inextinguishably of his flame. The darkest depths of despair cannot extinguish a single flame. The death of a joyous, charismatic leader lead to the entrance, straight out of the closet of thousands of close allies; not to be extinguished.
Even when justice was not served, the fight was not over. Hate cannot stall good. We saw the codification of gay marriage and I believe society today to be closer to what Harvey Milk would have wanted it to look like.
In my church, there is an argument that regardless of belief in God, sexuality, racial or gender identity, we will all be saved. The church then logically concludes that our main pursuit should be earthly; to establish a good living circumstance for all people while we are here.
Another pastor from an African Episocal church spoke of the importance of shining an internal light within. She spoke of the internal light as independent of circumstance. That one could handle themselves as gracefully in times of war as times of peace.
In stories of resiliency in the face of persecution, there is a focus on one's self and family. These stories do not attack the grandios of their entrapped systems, but rather of daily life. Of the way the sun still shined in the face of hate, that the flowers still bloomed in seasons of darkness.
I think Milk is comfortable in his death; comfortable because he knew that he was one droplet of water in a growing wave. The wave might ebb and flow, but it will reach home. And then, we will be whole at last. We will be OK.
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