Top 64 Quotes & Sayings by Harvey Milk
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American politician Harvey Milk.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
Never take an elevator in city hall.
If you help elect more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.
I stand for all those who feel that the government no longer understands the individual and no longer respects individual rights.
If I do a good job, people won't care if I am green or have three heads.
It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions.
If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.
I will never forget what it was like coming out and having nobody to look up toward.
If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. And to do that, we must understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard of living.
Give me your support, and I'll fight for you... I'll fight for you because I am you.
More people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, my friends, that is true perversion.
Coming out is the most political thing you can do.
If every gay person were to come out only to his/her own family, friends, neighbors and fellow workers, within days the entire state would discover that we are not the stereotypes generally assumed.
How can people change their minds about us if they don't know who we are?
Having a small business and being one of thousands of people whom no one in government will listen to, I have decided to run for supervisor as a person.
All over the country, they're reading about me, and the story doesn't center on me being gay. It's just about a gay person who is doing his job.
You must come out. Come out... to your parents... I know that it is hard and will hurt them, but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth!
I personally will never forget that people are more important than buildings.
I'm a small businessman and I'm well aware of the uncertainties of the economy, exactly what the 'inflationary spiral' means when I'm forced to raise prices to my customers, and how taxes can eat into your earnings.
I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted.
Hope will never be silent.
Burst down those closet doors once and for all, and stand up and start to fight.
The first gay people we elect must be strong. They must not be content to sit in the back of the bus. They must not be content to accept pablum. They must be above wheeling and dealing.
A gay person in office can set a tone, can command respect not only from the larger community but from the young people in our own community who need both examples and hope.
My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you.
Once you have dialogue starting, you know you can break down prejudice.
I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted. I have a lot more to drink. For that reason, the political numbers game will be played. I know the rules of their game now and how to play it.
Lets make no mistake about this: The American Dream starts with the neigborhoods. If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. And to do that, we must
understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard of living.
Hope is never silent.
We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets.
Coming out is the most political thing you can do
All men are created equal. Now matter how hard they try, they can never erase those words. That is what America is about.
I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let that world know. That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights.
I fully realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes the target or the potential target for a person who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed with themselves.
I finally reached the point where I knew I had to become involved or shut up.
If I turned around every time somebody called me a faggot, I'd be walking backward - and I don't want to walk backward.
Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.
The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, THAT my friends, is true perversion.
Gay brothers and sisters... You must come out. Come out to your relatives... come out to your friends... Come out to your neighbors... to your fellow workers... to the people who work where you eat and shop... break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake. For the sake of the youngsters who are becoming scared.
To sit on the front steps — whether it's a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city — and to talk to our neighborhoods is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living-room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living color.
I ask for the movement to continue, for the movement to grow, because last week I got a phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and my election gave somebody else, one more person, hope. And after all, that's what this is all about. It's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power - it's about giving those young people out there in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, hope. You gotta give them hope.
All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.
Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if indeed they are your friends. You must tell the people you work with. You must tell the people in the stores you shop in. Once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and all. And once you do, you will feel so much better
I wish I had time to explain everything I did. Almost everything was done with an eye on the GLBT movement...last week I got a phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the voice was young, my election gave one more young person, hope
If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.
We don't want sympathetic liberals, we want gays to represent gays... I represent the gay street people-the 14-year-old runaway from San Antonio. We have to make up for hundreds of years of persecution. We have to give hope to that poor runaway kid from San Antonio. They go to the bars because churches are hostile. They need hope! They need a piece of the pie!
It takes no compromise to give people their rights
I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they'll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects I hope that every professional gay will say 'enough', come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.
I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you...And you...And you...Gotta give em hope.
I was born of heterosexual parents. I was taught by heterosexual teachers in a fiercely heterosexual society. Television ads and newspaper ads — fiercely heterosexual. A society that puts down homosexuality. And why am I a homosexual if I'm affected by role models? I should have been a heterosexual. And no offense meant, but if teachers are going to affect you as role models, there'd be a lot of nuns running around the streets today.
If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods.
San Francisco can start right now to become number one. We can set examples so that others will follow. We can start overnight. We don't have to wait for budgets to be passed, surveys to be made, political wheelings and dealings ... for it takes no money ... It takes no compromising to give the people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.
It's not my victory, it's yours and yours and yours. If a gay can win, it means there is hope that the system can work for all minorities if we fight. We've given them hope.
Every gay person must come out.... Once they realize we are indeed their children, we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all.
A reading of the Declaration of Independence on the steps of a building is widely covered. The events that started the American Revolution were the meetings in homes, pubs, on street corners.
We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it.
If you are not personally free to be yourself in that most important of all human activities... the expression of love... then life itself loses its meaning.
Freedom is too enormous to be slipped under a closet door.
Politics is theater. It doesn't matter if you win. You make a statement. You say, "I'm here, pay attention to me
I like to sit in the window and watch the cute boys walk by.
Let me have my tax money go for my protection and not for my prosecution. Let my tax money go for the protection of me. Protect my home, protect my streets, protect my car, protect my life, protect my property...worry about becoming a human being and not about how you can prevent others from enjoying their lives because of your own inability to adjust to life.
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