Milk
This is Harvey Milk speaking
on Friday, November 18th.
This is only to be played in the
event of my death by assassination.
During one of
my early campaigns,
I began to open speeches with a line
and it became kind of a signature.
My name is Harvey Milk and
I want to recruit you.
If I was speaking to a
slightly hostile audience
or a mostly straight one, I might
break the tension with a joke.
I know. I know I'm
not what you expected,
but I left my
high heels at home.
who stands for what I stand for,
an activist,
a gay activist,
makes himself the target
for someone who is insecure,
terrified, afraid
and disturbed themselves.
It's a very real possibility you
see, because in San Francisco,
we have broken a dam of major
prejudice in this country.
room 200.
I'm in the mayor's office.
We are trying
to ascertain what is happening.
As President of the
Board of Supervisors,
it's my duty to
make this announcement.
Supervisor Harvey Milk
have been shot and killed.
I wish I had time to explain
all the things that I did.
Almost everything was done
with an eye on the gay movement.
Hey. Hey.
I'm Harvey.
Okay, Harvey.
Today's my birthday.
No, hey, actually it is
my birthday. At midnight.
Really?
And, believe it or not,
I don't have any plans.
Some people took
me out after work.
Hmm. And that would be at,
let me guess, Ma Bell or AT&T.
The Great American
Insurance Company.
Oh.
I'm part of that corporate
establishment that,
let me guess, you think is the
cause of all the evil in the world,
from Vietnam
to diaper rash.
You left out bad breath.
Just kidding.
You're not gonna let me spend my
birthday all by myself, are you?
Listen, Harvey,
you're pretty cute,
but I don't
date guys over 40.
Well, then, this
is my lucky night.
Why is that?
I'm still 39.
It's only 11:
15.Come on.
What's your name?
I'm Scott.
Very nice to meet you,
Mr. Harvey, insurance man.
Where are you from?
Jackson, Mississippi.
This isn't Jackson. You can't
respond to just every strange man
that picks you up
on a subway platform.
It's too dangerous.
Hmm, now you tell me.
The New York Police
are the toughest.
They're arrogant
and they're everywhere.
I'll show you all
the cruising spots,
but you have to be very
careful, little Scotty-san.
Are you on
some uppers or something?
No. This is
just plain me.
And you're scared
of the cops?
I'm just discreet.
I know a lot of people.
If they see me,
I could lose my job.
Oh, you're one of those.
Well, I think you need to find
a new scene. Some new friends.
I need a change.
- I know.
Yeah, you're 40 now.
Oh.
Forty years old and I haven't
You keep eating this cake and you're
going to be fat by the time you're 50.
That's if I ever
get to 50. Oh!
Happy birthday, old man.
Why don't we
run away together?
Where to?
In the past, and still now,
San Francisco was the place
To drop out,
to fall in love.
But by 1972, the Haight was boarded up.
Drug filled, crime filled.
The new place
for us refugees
neighborhood in the Eureka Valley,
six blocks square,
the Castro.
I cashed my last unemployment
check yesterday.
Well, I hope you
I bought
an ounce of pot.
Don't
move for a second.
I suppose
I can wait tables.
I don't want you to go anywhere.
I want you
right here with me.
I was thinking
about a little shop.
What kind of shop?
Just a little shop
with a little overhead.
Not too much work.
Just like Morris and Minnie
Milk of Woodmere, New York.
Did you see the little
place downstairs for rent?
Yeah.
What do you
think about that?
A little bit
up on the left.
Oh, it looks great.
Looks great.
Yeah.
You're the
new renters?
Well, hello.
Harvey Milk.
McConnely.
Scott.
Yeah. Like,
you know, I would like
to join the, what's it called,
The Eureka Valley Merchants Association.
I'm not an interloper.
A Jew, perhaps, but I
hope you'll forgive that.
If you open
those doors,
the Merchants Association will
have the police pull your license.
Under what law?
Excuse me?
There's man's law and there's
God's law in this neighborhood
and in this city.
You know, we pay taxes.
The San Francisco police force
Have a good day.
Yeah, thank you for the
warm welcome to the neighborhood!
Schmuck!
Well.
Hey.
Okay.
Customers, come on in.
We'll form our
own business association.
We'll start with
the gay businesses.
We'll get the addresses of every customer
that comes in the store for a roll of film
and we'll ask them what they
want, what they need changed.
We'll get some money rolling in here.
Revitalize the neighborhood.
Can I come in now?
One more minute.
And I can go to
the neighborhood banks.
They must have
some gay customers.
Look, Harvey, what's with all
this political activist crap?
I mean, I thought you
were a goddamn Republican.
I'm a businessman, Scott.
And businesses should be
good to their customers.
Even if their
customers are gay.
For God's sake,
it's San Francisco!
Yeah. Well, it's just like
any other city in the country.
They hate us.
Real surprise.
block in one city, right?
take over the neighborhood.
Maybe.
I'm coming in.
Okay,
you can come in now.
Finally.
This better be good.
Oh!
Happy birthday!
I had to do it! I had to do it!
I had to do it!
Sanctuary, sanctuary!
- Harvey Milk!
Sanctuary!
And Castro became
destination number one.
Hundreds of gay men were coming
every week from all over the world.
It was our area.
Our own neighborhood.
The police hated us.
They would come in and
attack us and beat us just for fun.
But that wouldn't stop us.
I made a list of shops that were
friendly to us and shops that weren't.
Those shops that
worked with us thrived.
Those that didn't,
went out of business.
Closed their doors.
Excuse me,
ladies and gentlemen.
Mr. McConnely, I just came by
to see how business was doing.
Just fine, Harvey.
You don't mind having all
these homosexuals in here?
Kidding, everybody.
He loves our kind. Spend away.
Tell your wife I said hello.
But people started
hanging around our store.
Not customers.
Activists, kids,
young people who were looking
for a home away from home.
There was Danny Nicoletta,
cute art student that I picked up at
Toad Hall, who worked in the shop.
Harvey, come on. Opera is so pass.
You're not understanding
the spectacle of it,
the bigger
than life emotions.
The bigger
than life emotions?
Jim Rivaldo, a great mind.
Harvard graduate, which nobody cared
about in those days in the Castro.
Including himself.
And somewhere along the line,
Jim picked up a protg,
a cute political kid from Wisconsin,
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"Milk" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/milk_13778>.
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