Milk is coming out. If you don't know the story of Harvey Milk, well, let's just say he's one of the most important figures in the fight for gay equality within this country. I posted a video for his most famous speech, "You Cannot Live on Hope Alone" awhile back, but here are the words. It's sad that today, California no longer is that bastion of safety that Milk envisioned. But maybe one day Prop 8 will be overturned and the world will come out of this gay-hating phase we exist in. I have hope, however slim at times.
"Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all the sudden realizes that he or she is gay; knows that if their parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, their classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryant's and John Briggs' are doing their part on TV. And that child has several options: staying in the closet, and suicide. And then one day that child might open the paper that says "Homosexual elected in San Francisco" and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight. Two days after I was elected I got a phone call and the voice was quite young. It was from Altoona, Pennsylvania. And the person said "Thanks". And you've got to elect gay people, so that thousand upon thousands like that child know that there is hope for a better world; there is hope for a better tomorrow. Without hope, not only gays, but those who are blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us's: without hope the us's give up. I know that you can't live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you, and you, and you have got to give them hope."
-Harvey Milk, 1978
His life changed history, his courage changed lives
Someone contacted me last night out of the blue. It was rather surprising, because I had written that section of my life, well out. Over this summer, a "friend" decided that I was a bad influence on their life. This was based on my reaction to him almost cheating on his boyfriend, who I was also friendly with. This was the culmination of months of their relationship ebbing and flowing into everyone else's lives and also our own strange start as "friends". At the time, I was kinda bummed. I went away, I came home, and then I just got over it. Instead of talking things out, I was "deleted" as a friend on facebook. That's the mature response that anyone is looking for when they are dealing with things as civil adults. It made me step back and go, "Ok, well now I think I feel better about the whole thing. You really are a major tool."
So last night I was contacted by a friend of that circle. And I am not astonished to find that nothing has changed. They are still as messed up as when we stopped being friends. There is still that drama circulating about and threatening to tear everyone involved apart.
But you know what? I am so much better without it.
It consumed me last year. It took away a part of my life and made me lose touch with friends at my job, the people I actually give a shit about. I've reorganized my life and I am so happy that all of that is gone and beyond me.
It's funny what you realize you don't miss when you haven't thought about it in awhile, huh?