This is the story of the ‘other’ Harvey Milk. We all know about Harvey the San Francisco politician who was tragically assassinated less than a year after he became one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office in the US. But now, thanks to Lillian Faderman, we also know about Harvey the secular Jew, who renounced his faith but remained influenced and inspired by liberal Jewish values. The grandson of Lithuanian immigrants to the US, Harvey was, for many years, more out as a Jew than as a gay man.
We also discover the restless, wandering Harvey, who moved from state to state, man to man and job to job. He went from college jock to navy deep-sea diver, high school maths teacher, Wall Street securities analyst, bit-part actor, Broadway theatre assistant and camera store owner. It took him two decades to settle finally in San Francisco and find his calling in LGBT+ rights and political candidacy.
En route, he inexplicably briefly dallied with the Republican party, backing the right-wing Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, before soon afterwards campaigning against the Vietnam war, living a hippie lifestyle and becoming a fully-fledged west coast liberal.
Harvey’s first bid for election was in 1973 to the San Francisco city government, the Board of Supervisors. Spurned by the gay and Democratic party establishments, he had to find a way to create a constituency of support. As an outsider — gay and Jewish — he hit on the idea of an alliance of the marginalised: including Black, Hispanic, senior, disabled and LGBT+ people, as well as disadvantaged workers and tenants. It was a respectable first effort, with Harvey securing 17,000 votes, but not enough to win a seat.
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