7 Weeks of Protest for Equality Called in honor of Harvey Milk

[FreeState]

http://sevenweekstoequality.com/

"Now is the time.

We call on President-Elect Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to take personal responsibility for involving our nation’s religious leaders and the GLBT community in a national dialogue to encourage understanding and reconciliation.

We also call on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to heed the call of Harvey Milk, when he spoke thirty years ago on the steps of San Francisco City Hall: “You must come out, my brothers and sisters, you must come out!”

We call on gay people everywhere to seize this moment, to understand that freedom will not come until we are willing to commit the full strength of our own voices, minds and bodies to the struggle. We must personally introduce ourselves to those who would discriminate against us. We must make ourselves visible.

We call on all supporters of equality to sustain and intensify the nationwide campaign of mass protests and non-violent civil disobedience, for seven weeks, starting on November 27, 2008, the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk, and to then gather together in mass, from all corners of our country, in Washington, DC on the morning of Tuesday, January 20, 2009, to honor the inauguration of our President, Barack Obama.....

It has been thirty years since Harvey Milk gave his life in our struggle for equality. We will not wait thirty years more. We demand that the Federal Government act immediately, decisively and unequivocally to ensure equal protection under law throughout the United States of America."

[FreeState]

1. Clive Jones (activist) and Dustin Lance Black (Milk writer) are the backers of this

http://www.towleroad.com/2008/11/activist-cleve.html

"ACTIVIST CLEVE JONES AND MILK WRITER DUSTIN LANCE BLACK CALL FOR NATIONAL SEVEN-WEEK EQUALITY CAMPAIGN LEADING TO INAUGURATION
Longtime gay rights activist Cleve Jones and close friend of Harvey Milk, who conceived of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1983, today with Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, announce the initiation of a seven-week sustained campaign to demand legislators and President-elect Barack Obama draft and submit to Congress a comprehensive piece of legislation protecting the civil rights of LGBT Americans in all areas"

[keepCAblue]

2. recommended...nt

[babydollhead]

3. kick

[Bertha Venation]

4. Excellent.

Just one niggling point about the text you quoted.

I wouldn't say that Harvey Milk gave his life in the struggle for equality. I may be misremembering, but Dan White was pissed that he lost his seat. He ate some twinkies and went batshit.*

* I'm kidding about the twinkies.

[FreeState]

5. Yes and no - the text was written by Harvey Milks close friend Clive Jones

however, Milk new he was in danger because he was so outspoken. He knew so much that he made this statement to be released in the case of his death:

"Since the race for the California State Assembly, Milk had been receiving increasingly violent death threats.<80> Concerned that his raised profile marked him as a target for assassination, he recorded on tape who he wanted to succeed him if he were killed,<81> adding: "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door".<82>" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk

While nothing is black and white, we can never really know what motivated Dan White - and I suspect it was a combination of things that pushed him over the edge - including his loss of power to a gay man.

[Bertha Venation]

6. Ah . . . I can see I need to reread

The Mayor of Castro Street.

Thanks :)

[FreeState]

7. Im really looking forward to the movie Milk that comes out shortly

Its a biopic so its not 100% truth but it looks like is going to be excellent:)

http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/milk/

[Bertha Venation]

9. I've been waiting for a movie since I first read Shilts's book

in 1994. :thumbsup:

[Rainbowreflect]

8. K&R

[asteroid2003QQ47]

10. K&R

“More people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, my friends, that is true perversion.”
--Harvey Milk