Page 4 HIGH GEAR

Some final words from Harvey Milk

My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you. i want to recruit you for the fight to preserve your democracy from the John Briggs' and the Anita Bryants who are trying to constitutionalize bigotry.

We are not going to allow that to happen. We are not going to sit back in silence as 300,000 of our gay sisters and brothers did in Nazi Germany. We are not going to allow our rights to be taken away and then march with bowed heads to the gas chambers. On this anniversary of Stonewall, I ask my gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight. For themselves, for their freedom, for their country.

their silence more than her biblipeople who 'pulled the trigger? The people who gave us Vietcal gymnastics! nam? The people who built the concentration camps right here in California and then herded ali the Japanese-Americans into them during World War II ... The Jew baiters? The nigger knockers? The corporate thieves? The Nixons? The Hitlers?

And I'm tired of John Briggs talking about false role models. He's lying through his teeth and knows it. But I'm even more tired of the silence from educators and psychologists who know that Briggs is lying and yet say nothing. I'm tired of their silence more than of Briggs' lies.

I'm tired of the silence. So I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it.

Gay people are painted as child molestors. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about the myth of child molestations by gays. I want to talk about the fact that in this state some 95% of Here in San Francisco, we child molestations are hetero-

recently held an election for a judgeship. An anti-gay smear campaign was waged against a

presiding judge because she was supported by lesbians and gay men. Here, in so-called liberal

San Francisco, an anti-gay smear campaign was waged by so-called liberals.

And here in so-called liberal San Francisco, we have a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, a columnist named Kevin Starr, who has printed a number of columns containg distortions and lies about gays. He's getting away with it.

These anti-gay smear cam paigns, these anti-gay columns, are laying the groundwork for the Briggs Initiative. We had better be prepared for it.

In the Examiner, Kevin Starr defames and libels gays. In the Chronicle, Charles McCabe warns us to be quiet, that talking about gay rights is counterproductive. To Mr. McCabe, I say that the day he stops talking about freedom of the press is the day he no longer has it.

The blacks did not win their rights by sitting quietly in the back of the bus! They got off!

We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets... We are coming out! We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths the distortions! We are coming. out to tell the truth about gays! For I am tired of the conspiracy of silence.

I am tired of listening to the Anita Bryants twist the language and the meaning of the Bible to fit their own distorted outlook. But

I'm even more tired of the silence from the religious leaders of this nation who know that she is playing fast and loose with the true

meaning of the Bible. I'm tired of

What standards do you want us to set? Clean up your own act, clean up your violence before you criticize lesbians and gay men because of their sexuality. It is madness to glorify the killing

and violence on one hand and to be ashamed of the sexual act that conceived you on the other hand.

There is a difference between morality and murder. The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, my friends, is the true perversion!

For the standards that we set, should we look to next week's

headlines.

Well, I'm tired of the lies of the Anita Bryants and the John Briggs. I'm tired of their myths. I'm tired of their distortions. I'm speaking out about it.

Gay brothers and sisters, what are YOU going to do about it? You must come out. Come out to your parents, I know that it is hard and that it will hurt them but think of how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to sexual and usually committed by your relatives. I know that it is a parent.

I want to talk about the fact that

all child abandonments are heterosexual.

I want to talk about the fact that all abuse of children is by their heterosexual parents.

I want to talk about the fact that some 98% of the six million rapes committed annually in this country are heterosexual.

I want to talk about the fact that one out of every three women who will be murdered in this state this year will be murdered by

their husbands.

I want to talk about the fact that some 30% of all heterosexual marriages contain domestic violence.

And finally, I want to tell John Briggs and Anita Bryant that they talk about the myths of gays, but today I'm talking about the facts of heterosexual violence and what the hell are you going to do about that?

Clean up your own house before you start telling lies about gays. Don't distort the Bible to hide your own sins, don't change facts to lies, don't look for cheap political advantage in playing upon people's fears. Judging by the latest polls, even the youth of this state can tell you're lying!

Anita Bryant, John Briggs: Your unwillingness to talk about your own house, your deliberate lies and distortions, your unwillingness to face the truth, chills

my blood-it reeks of madness!

ards. What standards?

will some twenty million lesbians and gay men be able to say that Jimmy Carter is our president too!

Jimmy Carter, you have the choice: How many more years? How much more violence? How much more damage? How many more lives? History says that, like all groups seeking their rights, sooner or later, we will win. The question is: When?

Jimmy Carter, you have to make the choice, it's in your hands: either years of violence, history that much faster. It is up or you can help turn the pages of to you. And now, before it becomes too late, come to California and speak out against Briggs.

If you don't then we will come to you! If you do not speak out, if you remain silent, if you do not lift up your voice against Briggs, then I call upon lesbians and gay

men from all over the nation to gather in Washington one year from now on that national day of freedom, the Fourth of July. To gather in Washington on the same spot where over a decade

ago Dr. Martin Luther King spoke to a nation of his dreams

Dreams that are fast fading. dreams that to many millions in this country have become nightmares.

I call upon all minorities and especially the millions of lesbians and gay men to wake up from their dreams to gather in Washington and tell Jimmy Carhard and will upset them butter and their nation: "Wake up... in the voting booth. Come out to racism, no more sexism, no more think of how they will upset you wake up, America. No more your friends, if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors, to your co-workers, to the people who work where you eat and shop. Come out only to people you know and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions for your own sake, for their sake, for the sake of the youngsters who are being terrified by the votes coming from Dade County to Eugene.

If Briggs wins he will not stop. They never do. Like all mad people, they are forced to go on, to prove they were right. There will be nos afe closet for any gay person. So break out of yours today, tear the damn thing down once and for all!

And finally, most of all, I'm tired of the silence from the White House. Jimmy Carter: You

talk about human rights alot, in fact, you want to be the world's leader for human rights. Well,

damn it, lead! There are some 15-

20 million lesbians and gay men in this nation listening and listening very carefully. Jimmy Carter, when are you going to talk about

their rights? You talk a lot about the Bible, but when are you going to talk about that most important part: "Love thy neighbor"? After

all, she may be gay.

Jimmy Carter: The time has And like the rest of you, I'm come for lesbians and gay men to tired of so-called "friends" who come out, and they are. Now the tell us that we must set stand-time has come for you to speak out. When will you? Until you speak out against hatred, bigotry, and madness, you are just speak out, then and only then) Jimmy Carter. When you do

The standards of the rapists? The wife beaters? The child abusers? The people who orderd the bomb to be built? The people

who orderd it to be dropped? The

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ageism, no more hatred No more!"

It's up to you Jimmy Carter. Do you want to go down in history as a person who would not listen? Or do you want to go down in history as a leader, as a president?

Jimmy Carter: Listen to us today. Or you will have to listen to all of us from all over the nation as we gather in Washington next year.

For we will gather there and we will tell you about America and what it really stands for.

... And to the bigots... to the ants'.. to the Kevin Starrs and all John Briggs'.. to the Anita Brytheir ilk: Let me remind you what America is. Listen carefully.

On the Statue of Liberty it says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free...." In the Declaration of Independence it is written, "All men are created equal and they are endowed with certain inalienable rights... " And in our national anthem it says: "Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave o'er the land of the free

For Mr. Briggs and Mrs. Green and Mr. Starr and all the bigots out there: That is what America is. No matter how hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of Independence. No matter how hard you try, you cannot chip those words from the base of the Statue of Liberty. And no matter how hard you try, you cannot sing the "Star Spangled Banner" without those words.

or leave it. That's what America is. Love it

Gay Dem Club honors Milk

The San Francisco Gay Democratic Club, the gay political organization most closely identified with Harvey Milk, changed its name last night to honor the slain supervisor, said club president, Harry Britt. The club's new name is the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic

Club.

The motion was made by Steve Badeau, gay rights lobbyist in Sacramento, saying that the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club most embodied what Harvey Milk stood for. Harvey Milk had been a founding member of the club and many of its members were active in his last campaign for supervisor. Milk had told officers of the club that he planned to announce his candidacy for reelection at the November 28 meeting.

Freedom day

a living memorial

memory but instead to help fulfill his dream of a national march and Friends of Harvey Milk are being asked not to send flowers in his rally in Washington, D.C., next July.

On June 15, 1978, speaking to a quarter of a million people gathered to celebrate Gay Freedom Day, Harvey Milk called for a National Day of Freedom. "I call upon all minorities and especially the millions of lesbians and gay men to wake up from their dreamsto gather in Washington where over a decade ago Dr. Martin Luther King spoke to a nation of his dreams-dreams that are fast fading, dreams that to many millions in this country have become nightmares." The message of the National Day of Freedom would be, in Harvey's words

"Wake up ... wake up America. No more racism, no more sexism,no more ageism, no more hatred. No more!"

To make that National Day of Freedom a living memorial to Harvey Milk, contributions can be given to a special fund for that purpose. United Nations Plaza, San Francisco, CA 94102. Checks should be made payable to "A United Fund" and mailed to: