A Love Letter to Harvey Milk

By Roland Finger
Staff Writer

This play is a love letter to Harvey Milk. Patricia Loughrey collected stirring and provocative interviews, letters, news clippings, and images to make Dear Harvey.

Performed by talented actors, The voices of people who knew Harvey Milk, supported him and were supported by him, surge throughout the play.

Some of the strongest moments in the performance come directly from Harvey Milk’ s writings, reminding us what a compassionate, eloquent, and strong person he was. This show stresses the power of the spoken word.

Full of liberated 70s political thought and language, accentuated by music and a slide show, Dear Harvey fits perfectly with Coming Out Week, which happens to be getting a belated celebration at MSUM this week.

The play fuses the oral tradition with documentary work and political thought. We hear from activists pushing for equality, seeking a sense of belonging, creating a world against those who are narrow-minded. Dear Harvey emphasizes the importance of voting to improve our communities.

One great line in the play calls out war-mongers, accusing them of sexual repression, people who vent their frustrations and use war as a distraction from domestic social issues. We catch wind of those who vilify difference, promoting witch-hunts and paranoia.

Milk believed that “ your difference is the medicine that the world needs.” The world gets sick without uniqueness and creativity in all its forms: sexual, political, social, ethnic, artistic, spiritual, and physical.

The play recruits us to join Harvey Milk, who stands for an individualistic and yet communal voice. He was dubbed San Francisco’ s Mayor of Castro Street, a small neighborhood symbolizing the place over the rainbow, a return to a home of acceptance that many people had never really known.

Milk fought for the rights of all people, parents, kids, old people, minorities, and laborers. He supported equitable redistricting in neighborhoods so that minorities would be heard in the political process.

Milk passionately defended the right to privacy, fighting against labor discrimination that prevented gay people from being teachers. Director Craig Ellingson, who also performs in Dear Harvey, points out that to this very day in the great state of North Dakota, people can be fired from jobs for being gay. Homophobic discrimination still exists legally.

Was Dan White’ s murder of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk an extreme version of workplace bullying? White’ s “Twinkie Defense” is still a scandal after all these years because he only served five years in prison.

We hear Harvey’ s fan mail but also the hate mail. Harvey Milk taught us to push for our rights, doing it with a sense of humor, style, and justice. Milk was not overly sentimental, wimpy, or utopian. He realistically stood up for what he knew was right, confidently believing that others felt the same way. With charm and aplomb, Milk could dish out jokes and speak about social issues. That’ s why he was loveable.

He exposed façades, facing ignorant people who picked on gay parents. Today, Harvey would stand for gay marriage, just as he stood against police harassment of gays and minorities.

Although he was murdered before the AIDS crisis hit, Milk would have stood against the bigotry that called it a gay disease, and the hushed manner with which many families closeted the deaths of gay sons. For Harvey, “silence did equal death,” which is why he was bold in speaking up, in letting his political views be known.

Harvey Milk advocated “coming out,” which didn’t just mean revealing sexual orientation. He meant emerging, standing, raising your voice, artistically, creatively, socially, politically. He wanted you to vote and shape the world.

Milk said, “ If man was only himself we would be a lot better… I do wear the costumes. I do wear the makeup, but I do try to stand naked and be myself. My strength is that if I stand naked on my own, no one can ever strip me and expose me and embarrass me.”

Milk had hope and inspiration, a firm belief in the power of individuality to help the world. He led by example; when you make life your work, you have to give it your all. Milk wants you to vote, selecting the candidates who stand for human rights, kindness, dignity, choice, and a belief in people’ s best qualities.

Gus Van Sant popularized Harvey Milk’ s story, and Sean Penn played the fiery, sweet-hearted activist. Don’ t be Harvey Milk-intolerant. Take a pill, and enjoy a glass real tall, because anytime is the right time for Harvey Milk. This play pushes you to give a diva performance in your own life: No matter who you are, be a diva citizen.

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If You Go

What: Dear Harvey
Where: Gaede Stage at MSUM
When: Fri, Oct 22, 7:30pm
How Much: Free and open to the public