MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

Remembering Tyler Clementi: Gay teen driven to suicide by cyber bullies

By Kittredge Cherry (Jesus in Love)

Tyler Clementi (1992-2010) brought international attention to bullying-related suicide of LGBT youth when he jumped to his death on Sept. 22, 2010 (one year ago today). Clementi was an 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey when he died. A talented violinist, he came out to his parents as gay before leaving home for college.

Three days before his suicide, Clementi’s room mate used a webcam to secretly record Clementi kissing another man in their dorm room and streamed the video live over the Internet. In messages posted online before he took his own life, Clementi told how he complained to authorities about the cyber-bullying and asked for a new room assignment. Then he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. It took a week to find his body.

The room mate, Dharum Ravi, also 18 at the time, is charged with several crimes in connection with Clementi’s suicide, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. His accomplice, Molly Wei, avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against Ravi. He is scheduled to be back in court Oct. 20.

Anti-LGBT statements by public figures are also partly responsible for Clementi’s death. They created the hostile environment that drove Clementi to suicide. Artist Louisa Bertman emphasizes this point in her powerful ink illustration, “Tyler Clementi, JUMP!” She makes visible the hateful voices that may have been in Clementi’s mind. In her drawing, his head overflows with people urging him to jump.

They are politicians as well as the actual students who bullied him. Their names are listed in a stark statement at the bottom of the drawing: “Message brought to you by Sally Kern, Kim Meltzer, Nathan Deal, Carl Paladino, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Tom Emmer, Jeremy Walters, Rick Perry, Bob Vander Plaats, Dharun Ravi, & Molly Wei.”

Bertman, an artist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is known for her non-traditional portraits. Clementi’s highly publicized tragedy made him into a gay martyr whose untimely death put a public face on the problems of LGBT teenagers. His story sparked efforts to support LGBT youth, raise awareness of the harassment they face, and prevent suicide among queer young people. Another result is new legislation stiffening penalties for cyber harassment.

Clementi helped inspire the founding of the It Gets Better Project and Spirit Day. The It Get Better Project aims to stop suicide among LGBT teens with videos of adults assuring them that “it gets better.” Spirit Day, first observed on Oct. 20, 2010, is a day when people wear purple to show support for young LGBT victims of bullying.

Unfortunately Clementi’s experience is far from rare. Openly lesbian talk show host Ellen Degeneres spoke for many in a video message that put his suicide into context shortly after he died: “I am devastated by the death of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi….Something must be done. This month alone, there has been a shocking number of news stories about teens who have been teased and bullied and then committed suicide; like 13-year-old Seth Walsh in Tehachapi, California. Asher Brown, 13, of Cypress, Texas and 15-year-old Billy Lucas in Greensberg, Indiana. This needs to be a wake-up call to everyone: teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic in this country, and the death rate is climbing.”

Help is available right now from the Trevor Project, a 24-hour national help line for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens. Contact them at 866 4U TREVOR or their website: thetrevorproject.org.

___ Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian author who blogs on LGBT spirituality and the arts at the Jesus in Love Blog, where this is cross-posted.

Image credit: “Tyler Clementi, Jump!” by Louisa Bertman

EXCLUSIVE: Gandhi's Grandson Denies Gay Rumors

Arun Gandhi tells MyOutSpirit that his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, was not gay, as claimed in the new Joseph Lelyveld biography, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India. According to widely reported reviews of the book, Lelyveld claims that the legendary leader was in at least one homosexual relationship (read the Wall Street Journal review). 

Arun Gandhi says:

"I am sorry to say there is no truth in this claim. He (Mahatma Gandhi) had given up all sexual activity not just with his wife. It is Indian culture to show greater affection between sexes than in the western culture. In India you will find men walking arm in arm and women also. Westerners feel that is the sign of sexual orientation. But that is not true. Every day he walked with arms around men who came to meet him or women who came to meet him. But that did not mean that he had sexual relations with everyone he touched. But Western writers (or I should say) modern writers are basically muckrakers. They like to create controversies and sell more books."

Long an ally to the LGBTQ community, Arun Gandhi continues to stand up for equality as well as peace and nonviolent activism. With his late wife, Sunanda, he founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, and currently serves as President of the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute to "help eradicate the scourge of poverty and human degradation." Arun is also a columnist for The Washington Post's ON FAITH series. (And, in the interest of full disclosure, Arun endorsed MyOutSpirit founder's book on "How to Win Gay Rights.")

Lessons from Behind the Scenes with MLK

{By  Rev. Megan Rohrer, LivingLutheran.com}

The words and the life of Martin Luther King Jr have inspired millions. I imagine that tales, sounds and video of his life and ministry will be passed from generation to generation for centuries to come.

However, sometimes when we tell the stories of great leaders, prophets and priests, we remember all the qualities that are rare or vitally needed in contemporary society, but we forget all the bits that make that individual truly human.

In the days following the assassination attempt in Tucson, in our 10th year at war in Afghanistan, with racial disparity, racism and violence still an issue, King’s work to bring an end to the Vietnam war, his impassioned cries for racial justice and his example of how to live life to the fullest knowing that death is around the corner, are certainly things worth remembering today.

Yet, it is a little known story of King’s humanity that may have the most to say to our belovedELCA.

When most people think of King, they think of nonviolence. Yet in his early days, armed guards protected him.

He, like all of us, had to learn the principles of nonviolence.

One of his teachers was a man named Bayard Rustin. Rustin organized the logistics of many of King’s most remembered marches and bus boycotts.

While he was planning the logistics for the famed March on Washington, where his “I Have a Dream” speech would capture the heart of the nation, King asked Rustin to step down from his position after he learned that the press was going to “out” Rustin as a gay man.

While King had long known that Rustin was gay, it was believed the papers would use the information in order to discredit King and the civil rights movement.

In this human moment, King, a man known for teaching tolerance to so many others, was unable to follow the strength of his own convictions.

Later, when it was clear that the march could not happen without Rustin, King invited him back.

Someone needed to schedule the buses so they would arrive on time. Someone needed to make sure there would be sandwiches and water for the individuals who were so excited to be there that they no doubt would forget to bring food.

Someone had to clean up the litter after the crowds dispersed. Though he was humiliated by his exile, Rustin came back and the buses came as scheduled, everyone had food and the litter was picked up at the end of the rally.

Rustin, like so many minorities before and after him, was tolerated because of his usefulness.

Rustin’s work did not go unnoticed, for it was Rustin and A.J. Muste (one of the other leaders who taught nonviolence to King) not King, who were featured on the cover of Time magazine after the march.

This Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I pray that we continue to pursue the dream that was inspired by Jesus’ trip to the mountaintop.

In the same way that King had to learn nonviolence, we (a mostly White church) need to unlearn racism, reject privilege that keeps others down, listen to diverse voices, support struggling inner-city Black congregations, address the inequality in wages for minority pastors and follow through with our promises to become a more diverse church.

Also, if only for this holiday, let’s remember the names and faces long forgotten who did the behind the scenes logistics work so that King could inspire the nation.

We remember Rustin and the women in the front of the March on Washington who told King that he should tell the crowd about his dream, after he pulled out a different speech.

And while we’re at it, let’s give thanks for the people who work behind the scenes in our congregations, like the faithful people who make coffee, clean toilets and set up the altar.

I hope you’ll also remember that King was a human, he made mistakes and he learned from them.

His humanity is important to remember, because it means that we, too, despite our failures, missteps and contradictions, can share the gospel, inspire others, cause change beyond our lifetime and find hope in the darkest of times.

---

Megan M. Rohrer is a queer ELCA pastor called by four congregations, who has served as a missionary to the homeless in San Francisco since 2002.

May We Not Forget: Transgender Day of Remembrance

{by Rev. Paul M. Turner, Gentle Spirit Christian Church of Atlanta}

Saturday is a day of mourning. It is not a day that is on the national calendar. In fact with the exception of a small percentage of people in this country, this day of mourning will pass completely unnoticed - the twelfth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Those who take a moment and remember on this day will find themselves swinging between tears of grief and deep waves of anger not to mention a certain amount of fear of further attacks.

The devastating images of those viciously killed in 2010 for simply trying to be themselves is something we should remember, something that should burn in our souls.

The people we mourn for this day are apart of a community most would just as soon not deal with. Oh, we go to watch the drag shows and we have added a “T” to the GLB_Q, but still don’t take seriously enough that folks in the transgender community live in a very dangerous and unsupportive world.

Stonewall saints fought back, launched LGBT movement

LGBT people fought back against police harassment 41 years ago today (June 28) at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, launching the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender liberation movement.

The Stonewall Rebellion (aka Stonewall Riots) became known as the first time that LGBT people rebelled against government persecution of homosexuality.  It is commemorated around the world during June as LGBT Pride Month.

The queer people who fought back at Stonewall are not saints in the usual sense.  But they are honored here as “saints of Stonewall” because they had the guts to battle an unjust system.  They do not represent religious faith -- they stand for faith in ourselves as LGBT people.  They performed the miracle of transforming self-hatred into pride.  These “saints” began a process in which self-hating individuals were galvanized into a cohesive community.  Their saintly courage inspired a justice movement that is still growing stronger after four decades.

Before Stonewall, police regularly raided gay bars, where customers submitted willingly to arrest.  The Stonewall Inn catered to the poorest and most marginalized queer people: drag queens, transgenders, hustlers and homeless youth.

Witnesses disagree about who was the first to defy the police raid in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969.  It was either a drag queen or a butch lesbian.  Soon the crowd was pelting the officers with coins, bottles, bricks and the like.  The surprised police beat some people with nightsticks before taking refuge in the bar itself.  News of the uprising spread quickly.  Hundreds gathered on the street and a riot-control police unit arrived.  Violence continued as some chanted, “Gay power!”

Drag queens started spontaneous kick lines facing the police with clubs and helmets.  That dramatic moment is captured in the painting “It was Beautiful” by Douglas Blanchard. The drag queens taunted police by singing,

We are the Stonewall girls
We wear our hair in curls
We wear no underwear
We show our pubic hair
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!

That night 13 people were arrested and some hospitalized.  The streets were mostly cleared by 4 a.m., but a major confrontation with police happened again the next night, and protests continued on a smaller scale for a week..

A month later the Gay Liberation Front was formed, one of many LGBT rights organizations sparked by the saints of Stonewall.  GLBT religious organizations, including JesusInLove.org, are indebted to the saints of Stonewall for our very existence.

I think of the saints of Stonewall as I pray this standard prayer for all saints:

God,
May we who aspire to have part in their joy
be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives.
Amen.
(Image credit: “It was Beautiful” by Douglas Blanchard shows the Stonewall Rebellion
___
This was written by Kittredge Cherry, a lesbian Christian author who blogs regularly at the Jesus in Love Blog on GLBT spirituality and the arts.

 

Remembering Hands Around the God Box

Hands Around the God Box was an interfaith prayer vigil to end religious homophobia.  It was held at the Interchurch Center in New York City on June 24, 1994.

More than 500 people from 15 lesbian and gay religious groups joined hands and were linked by a rainbow ribbon that completely encircled the Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive.  The box-shaped building housed the headquarters of the National Council of Churches (NCC) and many other religious agencies.  This historic event is highlighted here in celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. 

I came up with the idea for Hands Around the God Box and organized it as MCC’s national ecumenical director.  I will never forget the solemn power of our combined prayers as LGBT Christians and our allies joined hands at the God Box.  The building is huge, covering an entire city block, and our group of 500 barely managed to surround it -- with help from a super-long rainbow ribbon.  The need for churches to accept LGBT people is just as true now as in 1994.  Our prayers for full inclusion continue.

The peaceful demonstration began at noon Fri., June 24, with a short worship service.  “Today 475 Riverside Drive is our Stonewall Inn.  We need to turn the tables on the religious ‘police’ of our day, and fight back,” said Rev. Nancy Wilson, chief ecumenical officer of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC).

Demonstrators then joined hands around the building in silent prayer for full inclusion of lesbians and gays in religious life.  NCC General Secretary Joan Campbell and many NCC staff members joined the demonstration, even through the NCC refused to grant membership or even observer status to MCC, which ministers primarily in the LGBT community.

The event concluded with tying a rainbow ribbon around the God Box to symbolize continuing prayers for the church to honor the diversity God created.

Hands Around the God Box was coordinated by Kittredge Cherry, MCC national ecumenical officer, and Kim Byham of Integrity.  It was held on the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion that launched the LGBT liberation movement. 

The Washington Post covered Hands Around the God Box on June 25, 1994 with an article by Christopher Herlinger of the Religion News Service titled “Gays Returning to Religion, but Few Arms Open: Little Acceptance of Homosexuals 25 Years After Stonewall Uprising.”  The article stated:

“A protest yesterday by a coalition of gay and lesbian Christians at the Interchurch Center here spotlighted what Wilson and other protesters called the ‘exclusion of lesbian and gay people from full participation in the life of the nation’s churches.’

The protest, a ‘human chain’ around the Interchurch Center, was called ‘Hands Around the God Box,’ -- a reference to the building’s popular nickname.  The building, in upper Manhattan, is home to a number of denominational offices and the national headquarters of the National Council of Churches, the nation’s largest ecumenical organization.

The 32 member churches of the council are divided over the issue of homosexuality.”

Some said that Hands Around the God Box was the spiritual heart of the whole Stonewall 25 celebration in New York.  Reaction to the God Box event was summed up later by Mary Hunt, cofounder of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and ritual, in her sermon the next day: “How about those Hands Around the God Box people?  What a feat of religious athleticism: holding hands, singing, praying, protesting and talking to the press all at once ought to merit some sort of miraculous metal or actual grace!”

Online references:
More Light Update, a publication of Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns.  March 1994.
http://www.mlp.org/news/update/03.94

Voice of Integrity: the quarterly publication of Integrity, Inc., the lesbian and gay justice ministry of the Episcopal Church.  Summer 1994.
http://www.integrityusa.org/voice/1994/Summer1994.htm

Photo above: Hundreds of LGBT Christians form a ring around New York’s Interchurch Center to protest religious exclusion in Hands Around the God Box.  This photo was published in the Washington Post on June 25, 1994.

Demonstrators join hands around the God Box to pray for an end to religious homophobia.  This photo by William Tom was published in the August 1994 issue of “Keeping in Touch: News and Notes from the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.”

Kittredge Cherry speaks at Hands Around the God-Box, a prayer demonstration to end homophobia in the church.  MCC founder Troy Perry is clearly visible in the crowd.

The Washington Post covered Hands Around the God Box in an article titled “Gays Returning to Religion, but Few Arms Open” on June 25, 1994.

___
This was posted by Kittredge Cherry, lesbian Christian author who was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches. She blogs regularly at the Jesus in Love Blog on GLBT spirituality and the arts.

We all wear the triangle: Remembering the Holocaust

On Holocaust Remembrance Day we recall the genocide of 6 million Jews in state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany during World War II.  The Nazis also murdered millions of people in other groups, including thousands of gay men and lesbians.  Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoah, is April 11 this year.

One of those killed was an anonymous 60-year-old gay priest who died at the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, Germany in 1940.  Heinz Heger gives an eyewitness account in his book, “The Men with the Pink Triangle.”  The priest was brutally beaten and tortured, and yet there was a moment of grace when a narrow beam of sunlight shone on the priest’s face.  For a detailed account, visit: http://queering-the-church.blogspot.com/2010/01/priest-with-pink-triangle.html

The gay priest is honored in the icon above, “Holy Priest Anonymous One of Sachsenhausen” by Father William Hart McNichols, a renowned iconographer and Roman Catholic priest based in New Mexico.

The icon shows the priest wearing the pink triangle, the badge used by the Nazis to identify prisoners sent to concentration camps for homosexuality.  Originally intended as a badge of shame, the pink triangle has become a symbol for the GLBT rights movement. 

The pink triangle appears in a variety of monuments that have been built around the world to commemorate LBGT victims of the Nazi regime.  Since 1984, more than 20 gay Holocaust memorials have been established cities ranging from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia, from Germany to Uruguay.  Some are in the actual concentration camp sites, such as the plaque for gay victims in Dachau.

To see powerful photos of all the memorials and read the stories behind them, visit: http://andrejkoymasky.com/mem/holocaust/ho08.html

Some lesbians claim the black triangle as their symbol.  The Nazis imposed the black triangle on people who were sent to concentration camps for being “anti-social.”

We observe Holocaust Remembrance Day here with the prayer “We All Wear the Triangle” by Steve Carson.  It appears in the book “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations,” edited by Kittredge Cherry and Zalmon Sherwood.  Carson was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served congregations in New York, Boston and San Francisco.
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One:  We are in many ways a culture without memory.  The Holocaust, a series of events that occurred just over a generation ago, changed the world forever.  Yet by some the Holocaust is forgotten, or seen as irrelevant, or even viewed as something that never happened.

All: As people of faith, we refuse to forget.  We refuse to participate in the erasing of history.  As a community of faith, we decide to remember, as we hear the historical record from Europe a generation ago and reflect upon events in our own time.  We dare to listen to the voices of the past, even as they echo today.

One: In this moment, we are all Jews wearing the yellow Star of David.

All: We are all homosexuals wearing the pink triangle.

One: We are all political activists wearing the red triangle.

All: We are all criminals wearing the green triangle.

One: We are all antisocials wearing the black triangle.

All: We are all Jehovah’s Witnesses wearing the purple triangle.

One: We are all emigrants wearing the blue triangle.

All: We are all gypsies wearing the brown triangle.

One: We are all undesirable, all extendable by the state.

…Leader:  To God of both memory and hope, we pledge ourselves to be a people of resistance to the powers of death wherever they may appear, to honor the living and the dead, and to make with them our promise: Never again!

___

(Image credit: "Holy Priest Anonymous one of Sachsenhausen" by William Hart McNichols © www.fatherbill.org)

This post was written by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry.  She blogs regularly about LGBT spirituality and the arts at the Jesus in Love Blog.  The logo for the Jesus in Love Blog also shows the face of Jesus in a pink triangle.  He joins queer people in transforming suffering into power.

Art confronts homophobia in new paintings

Men killed in gay-bashing murders are honored in powerful new paintings by gay artist-philosopher Matthew Wettlaufer. He painted Matthew Shepard (1976-98), a university student who was killed in Wyoming, and Allen Schindler (1969-92), a naval officer who was killed by two of his shipmates in Japan. Both were brutally beaten to death for being gay.

Wettlaufer makes connections between the anti-gay hate crimes, other human-rights struggles and his own art in the following interview with Kittredge Cherry, founder of JesusInLove.org and author of “Art That Dares.”

Born and raised in America, Wettlaufer lived in El Salvador and South Africa before returning recently to California. He has a doctorate of philosophy from South Africa’s Kassel University and moved to Capetown to teach philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch. He paints a variety of subjects, but his large political landscapes focus on issues of homophobia and political violence.

It is especially appropriate to reflect on gay martyrdom now during the season of Lent, when the suffering and death of Christ are remembered. In the following interview, Wettlaufer is especially eloquent at discussing the meaning of his art because he is a philosopher as well as an artist.

KC: You have a doctorate in philosophy and taught philosophy at the university level. That's unusual for an artist. So I am going to ask you some about the philosophy behind your art. Why did you decide to paint the difficult subject of the gay-bashing murders of Allen Schindler and Matthew Shepard?

MW: I was strongly affected by their murders, it was one of the reasons why I found myself leaving the United States, because of the entrenched homophobia in society which served as a foundation for these acts of brutality. In 2006 I saw the film Brokeback Mountain and it reawoke all these feelings of anguish and pain that I had managed to put aside after moving to South Africa. I walked around in a daze for a week. Then I painted the Matthew Shepard painting, which was my first political narrative. I was actually embarrassed about showing it to anyone, it was too personal and too private, but over time I grew out of that reticence as I started to get feedback from people about it.

I m not sure if this is related but I was at the March on Washington in 1993 and I saw Allen Schindler's mother address the crowds on the Washington Mall. I knew his story already because of an article I had read that described the events leading up to his murder and the murder itself, which the Navy initially tried to cover up. Hearing his mother speak brought me to tears.

All my life I have sought ways of recording the memory of people martyred under conditions of oppression, by working in El Salvador during the 1990s in health care, by teaching philosophy (critical theory) in El Salvador at the University in San Salvador, by activism in the gay community. Painting these people made sense to me as a way of creating an archive of what their deaths meant, so that they never be forgotten. It was in some ways easier to paint Salvadoran subjects as I am not Salvadoran, it was much harder to bring myself to paint gay subjects, especially the subjects of Shepard and Schindler, as this was so close to home and so personal...

(Click here to read the whole interview and see more Wettlaufer art at the Jesus in Love Blog on GLBT spirituality and the arts.)

(Image credit: The Murder of Matthew Shepard by Matthew Wettlaufer, tahquitzpeakartist@gmail.com)

Gay King Wenceslas

There’s good reason to believe that Good King Wenceslas was gay. Yes, the king in the Christmas carol.

Saint Wenceslaus I (907–935) was duke of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). The carol is based on a legend about Wenceslaus and his loyal page Podiven. According to the story, it was a bitterly cold night when they went out to give alms to the poor on the Feast of St. Stephen, Dec. 26. Podiven could not walk any farther on his bare, frozen feet, so Wenceslas urged him to follow in his footsteps. His footprints in the snow stayed miraculously warm, allowing the pair to continue safely together.

Many details in the Christmas carol are pious fiction, but the king and his page are both grounded in historical truth. Dennis O’Neill, author of “Passionate Holiness,” shared with me his unpublished research about the loving relationship between Wenceslaus and Podiven.

The earliest accounts of Wenceslaus’ life mention his page -- but not the woman who supposedly gave birth to his son in more recent versions. An account written in the late 10th or early 11th century describes the young man who was a “worthy page” and “chamber valet” to Wenceslaus.

It says that Wenceslaus used to wake his page in the middle of the night to join him in doing charitable works. The page is described as “a youth from among his valets who, of all his servants, was the most trustworthy in secret matters. The saint himself truly loved him during his lifetime.”

Wenceslaus was murdered in a coup by his brother at the door of a church on Sept. 28 in the year 935. The records say that Podiven “was often overcome by grief, sorrowing for days on end.” The brother also had Podiven killed to stop him from spreading stories of the saintly Wenceslaus. Both Wenceslaus and his beloved Podiven are buried at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

The icon above was painted by New Mexico artist Lewis Williams of the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO). It is dedicated to the memory of Father Larry Craig, a Chicago priest known for service to the Latino community and prison ministry. Before his death in 2006, Father Craig used to stand outside the Cook County Jail at night, giving sandwiches and bus passes to surprised inmates who had just been released. He served as the model for Podiven’s face in this icon.

I hope that these facts warm your heart whenever you hear or sing the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas.”

______________

Image credit: “St. Wenceslaus (Vaclav) and Podiven, his Assistant” by Lewis Williams, SFO. © 2007. Courtesy of www.trinitystores.com (800.699.4482)

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This was written by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry as part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog.

Remembering Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk (1930-1978) is the first and most famous openly gay male elected official in California, and perhaps the world.  He became the public face of the GLBT rights movement, and his reputation has continued to grow since his assassination on Nov. 27, 1978 (31 years ago today).  He has been called a martyr for gay rights

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country,” Milk said.  Two bullets did enter his brain, and his vision of GLBT people living openly is also coming true.

Milk has received many honors for his visionary courage and commitment to equality.  In 2009 he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the state of California designated his birthday (May 22) as Harvey Milk Day.  He was included in the Time “100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century” for being “a symbol of what gays can accomplish and the dangers they face in doing so.”

He is the subject of two Oscar-winning movies, “Milk” (2008) and “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984), as well as the book “The Mayor of Castro Street” by Randy Shilts. 

Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 after three unsuccessful efforts to run for office.  He served only 11 months before he was killed, but in that short time he was responsible for passing a tough gay-rights law.

Haunted by the sense that he would be killed for political reasons, Milk recorded tapes to be played in the event of his assassination.  His message, recorded nine days before his death, included this powerful statement:

“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.”

Shots fired by conservative fellow supervisor Dan White cut Milk’s life short.  More than 30 years later, the hope and the movement for GLBT rights are more alive than ever.

The Harvey Milk icon painted by Robert Lentz (pictured above) was hailed as a “national gay treasure” by gay author/activist Toby Johnson.  Milk holds a candle and wears an armband with a pink triangle, the Nazi symbol for gay men, expressing solidarity with all who were tortured or killed because of their sexuality.

It is one of 10 Lentz icons that sparked a major controversy in 2005.  Critics accused Lentz of glorifying sin and creating propaganda for a progressive sociopolitical agenda, and he temporarily gave away the copyright for the controversial images to his distributor, Trinity Stores.  All 10 are now displayed there as a collection titled “Images That Challenge.”

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This is cross-posted is part of the new “GLBT Saints” series at the Jesus in Love Blog.  Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.  It was written by lesbian author Kittredge Cherry.

Image credit: Harvey Milk of San Francisco
By Brother Robert Lentz, OFM.  Copyright 1987
Courtesy of www.trinitystores.com (800.699.4482)