Harvey Milk's Impact On LGBTQ Community

Civil rights issues stand at the core of Anne Moody’s memoir. However, because my last two journal entries centered on race and the movement, I have decided to shift my focus. In her adolescent years, Anne Moody must live with her mother, her mother’s partner Raymond, and her increasing number of siblings. As she reaches maturity, she grows to be a beautiful girl with a developed body. Her male peers and town members notice, as does her step father Raymond. Though he may not want to feel attracted to her, he does, and he does not do a very good job at hiding it. Anne looks at her with what she calls “wanting eyes.” While it is entirely disturbing that Raymond would look at his step daughter in such a way, he also blames her for looking the

The Stonewall Riots were the spark for the LGBTQ+ rights movement, affecting the social and political environments for people of the LGBTQ+ community. It took decades of organized struggle to get the political and social environment for queer people to where it is today. The watershed moment for that struggle was started in the early morning of June 28, 1969

This week, the readings point the spotlight at the some of the depressing hardships that the African-American population frequently experience. In “Naughty by Nature”, Ann Ferguson covers the different perceptions that society has of colored boys. David Knight’s work “Don’t tell young black males that they are endangered” seeks to explain the differents outcomes of African-American youth that arise when society constantly oppresses them. The last article by Carla O’Connor, “The Culture of Black Femininity and School Success”, focuses on the image of African-American woman that is created as a result of them attempting to preserve in a system that opposes them.

The Stonewall riots are widely believed to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. Considered by some to be the "Rosa Parks" moment of the gay rights movement in America, the riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York, in the early hours of June 28th, 1969. This single event has left a resounding impact on the fight for LGBT rights that can still be seen today.

In “The Common Elements of Oppression” by Suzanne Pharr, she writes that isolation is a “major component” to the oppression of “minority groups”. The LBGT community depicted in the Harvey Milk film were disowned by their own communities that they lived, worked and were even born in. They were treated as “others” and had no say-so, no voice, no authority- that is until Harvey Milk decided enough was enough. Just as Pharr stated, it wasn’t until those afflicted by these actions, came together and created a movement, a uniformed voice for a call to do something to change the wrongdoings of those who were considered a

Economic privileges generally blind people to the unfavorable social conditions of their community, as wealth is commonly used as a method of physical escape. As a result, many of those belonging to this socio economic strata continue to live under the illusions of an idealistic identity, as they fear to uncover a past that may disrupt their supposed utopian lifestyle. The rare amount of people who defy and challenge the blindness evoked by economic privileges are usually awarded with a mental awakening in which they will uncover a social purpose beyond the pursuit of materialistic wealth. In the Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison explores the social transition of Milkman, a privileged individual, through the use of a spiritual awakening. Due to

“I have a dream” Martin Luther King Jr.. MLK jr. protested on how African Americans (blacks) were treated, for example they couldn’t go to certain place without getting arrested or beaten up. Without Martin, Kids wouldn’t be able to go to school, parents get jobs, or even go out in some public places without getting arrested!

He move to San Francisco and open his own small business there. He run for a board of supervisors in San Francisco and he want to use his voice to tell everyone doesn’t be afraid of gay, and gay are just as normal as others.

“A group of people decided they’d had enough. They took a stand and in doing so

Although the African-American civil rights movements have been going on since the early 1600’s, it shares some differences and similarities to the LGBT civil rights movement that started in the early 1940’s. Growing up in a very conservative area, some topics are not acknowledged as being real. Struggling to be heard, struggling to be seen, the LGBT civil rights pleads to be mentioned anywhere. These two civil rights movements have shaped American culture in their own way. Each point in American history had its own leaders that made these movements happened, laws that impacted both movements, and social impacts on modern culture today that can be compared and contrasted.

Growing up, I dreaded going to school. People shouting at me, people pointing at me, snickering at me. Never being ordinary. I would get home and go to the bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror, tasting salt water on the tip of my lips. Wondering why I couldn’t fit in with everyone else. Wondering why nobody wanted to be my friend, coming to the realization that I had to endure all of this because of one simple thing: my skin color. A dark side of the nation reared its ghastly head in the 1950s and 60’s. Segregation and discrimination teemed in the streets. Martin Luther King Jr. captured that monstrosity in 1963 in Letter from a Birmingham Jail, utilizing devices such as diction, pathos, and metaphors to convey

As the course of time runs our lives, the inhabitants of Earth rely increasingly more on the services of technology to perform our the tasks we face in our daily lives. Books are growing increasingly unpopular as modern interactive entertainment services advance. The society built by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 inhabits a shallow human race at their weakest, living false lives within the walls of their television screens. When the protagonist, Montag, joins a group of wandering book lovers who have all memorized a book to preserve and pass down to the next generation, he is faced with the demanding task of choosing one book; however, if I were faced with the task of choosing one book for its meaning and contributions

In the article “Zoot-Suit Fighting Spreads on Coast” (1943) it discusses the racial tension between sailors and soldiers and the “zoot suits” on the west coast. Zoot Suits were mainly Mexican Americans and some African Americans who wore certain outfits that showed that they opposed these “wartime authorities” on the west coast. Most of the Zoot Suits were young men, some as young as twelve years old. This racial tension eventually turned into the soldiers and zoot suits hating each other and this eventually resulted in a week of rioting where more than 150 people were hurt. During this time in 1943 the US was still fighting a world war, so there was no need for anymore chaos to be going on. Officials had to frantically try to figure out a solution to end the fighting/riots. The first idea that the city council came up with was to provide a thirty-day jail sentence to anyone who was wearing a Zoot Suit outfit. This was a very unfair and unconstitutional rule, because not

Don’t let the movie title, Milk, fool you. The movie’s title has nothing to do with the milk beverage. Sorry milk enthusiast. On the other hand, for those who love politics then this is the movie for you. This movie is solely focused on American Democracy. The protagonist, Harvey Milk, is an openly gay politician who is a victim of the discrimination that occurs against the LGBTQ society. In efforts to create change, Harvey Milk decides to run for city supervisor. Throughout his candidacy, he is confronted by idealist who want unconstitutional ordinances to be passed. When Harvey Milk is finally elected he establishes ordinances that protect homosexual’s rights. Many people vote against him, but in the end he wins with plurality of votes.

We chose the subject of Harvey Milk, and his stand against LGBT oppression, because we had a personal connections to the LGBT community. We also wanted to expand our knowledge of the subject and how they came to be as open as they are today.