Renner is a communications expert and LGBTQ+ advocate. He lives in University Heights.
When I found myself in the same room as California Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2018, I not only witnessed history, I felt the presence of the person who made it. Of particular note to me was the fact that she witnessed her final moments while serving on the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors with Harvey Milk in 1978. The late senator was meeting with community leaders and I was working for Mr. Harvey Milk. City Council member for San Diego 3rd Ward. Working for an openly gay elected official in a seat previously held by an LGBTQ+ person since 1993 was only possible because Harvey Milk paved the way. Milk, a homosexual with an interest in politics and public service, has long been a source of inspiration. The more I learned about local politics and activism, the more I realized how interconnected Harvey Milk and San Diego are.
Harvey Milk was the first gay man elected to public office in California. The country's first gay elected official was Kathy Kozachenko, who was elected to the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council in 1974. Although Milk served on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors for less than a year, she was able to sponsor the ban. Discrimination in public accommodation, housing, and employment based on sexual orientation. He and Mayor George Moscone were tragically assassinated in 1978. His fellow Superintendent Dianne Feinstein heard the gunshots, found Milk murdered, and announced both deaths to the press.
I first learned about Harvey Milk from the 2008 biographical film Milk. I never learned about him in school, so I saw this movie when he was a teenager and it really touched me. The film includes his speech featuring the line “You have to give them hope.” Milk's story and accomplishments continue to give me hope, including when Dustin Lance Black won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Milk. In his speech, he championed acceptance and marriage equality in the context of California's Proposition 8. Both the film and the speech made me feel seen and less alone.
Milk's legacy lives on far beyond his time as a San Francisco supervisor, and his influence has been a recurring theme in many aspects of my life and advocacy. When I worked at the Santa Barbara LGBT Center, I worked with his UCSB professor to create a class in which students designed and implemented his LGBTQ+ history lessons at local high schools. I accompanied one of my students as he created a lesson about Harvey Milk and presented it to his high school history class. I had to learn about milk from movies, but I was proud to see students actually learning about milk at school.
When I moved to San Diego and started working at the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center, one of the first big events I worked on was the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast. In the process of planning the event, we learned that Harvey Milk served in the U.S. Navy and was stationed in San Diego. In the end, he was dishonorably dismissed because of his sexual orientation. At this event, I met Kristin Kehoe, Toni Atkins, and Todd Gloria. Both are his LGBTQ+ trailblazers representing San Diego's 3rd Ward.
In addition to electing officials and building on Milk's legacy, San Diego activists and advocates have spearheaded many other firsts in Harvey's name. Across the street from The Center at Hillcrest is the nation's first Harvey Milk Street. The San Diego Court launched a national letter-writing campaign that resulted in a U.S. postage stamp honoring Milk, making him the first openly gay public servant to be honored on a stamp. A second national letter campaign that began in San Diego led to the naming of the U.S. Navy ship USNS Harvey Her Milk, built here at General Dynamics NASSCO.
Local leaders continue to praise him and his influence. This year, community members will host the 16th Annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast on Friday, May 24th at the Marriott Mission Valley. The event will honor civil rights icon Dolores Huerta with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and screenwriter and director Dustin Lance Black will be recognized as the recipient of the Legacy Award.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Dustin and asked him about Milk's legacy and the future of our movement. During our conversation, he acknowledged how scary the situation is for our community right now, but said, “As a Harvey Milk student, I believe in the power of hope.” Furthermore, he added: The work is never done. We must continue to do this forever, it is our position and what we must do and endure forever to protect our interests. ” Thankfully, we have past visionaries like Milk and current leaders like Lance Black to look to for inspiration.
Milk's influence is still clearly felt today, with homophobia and transphobia rife in the current political climate, but if we continue to live with pride in his legacy, Milk's own In the words of “Hope is never silent.''
