In the Footsteps of Harvey Milk

Perhaps one of the most moving and inspirational films I have seen over the last couple of years is “Milk”. The story of community activist turned City Supervisor Harvey Milk who was assassinated in San Francisco in 1978 . Milk was by all accounts a strong and effective community organizer within San Francisco's lesbian,gay, bisexual and transgendered community at a time when much prejudice and discrimination existed across the United States. The Castro district became a safe haven for many including Harvey Milk who effectively mobilised members of his own community and formed alliances with other communities to fight for equality in the city. 

Today this legacy lives on in San Francisco with an estimated LGBT population of around 150,000. Unfortunately the city still attracts a large number of young people on a daily basis who have been thrown out of parental homes or face threats of violence from others in their home communities.  I interviewed Mila Pavlin Community Programs Manager at the San Francisco Center today who gave me a thorough overview of the LGBT community in San Francisco and organizing movements across the city.  The center provides a range of health, employment and advice and guidance services, which are funded by City Hall and are closely monitored, however the Center provides some clear and tangible cost benefit analysis in their work much akin to Social Return on Investment methodologies we have been piloting for some time in Great Yarmouth.

The center provides meeting space for a range of community organizing and policy initiatives, which include campaigns around marriage equality (same-sex marriage is no longer permitted in California), employment rights and most recently the repealing of the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy around sexuality in the US military. I will be observing a number of  meetings over the coming weeks to get a feel for this model of direct community action. It is fortunate that this month is also Pride month so there will be a range of activities and events going on throughout the city.

San Francisco is a real hive of community activity and I will be spending time over the next few weeks with churches, the jewish community, an organizing group within the large Latino community and some neighbourhood associations and housing committees. I also have a meeting scheduled with one of the City Supervisors and the City Hall Community Development Division aswell as a meeting with one of the leading founders of the community organizing movement in San Francisco in the 70s. All in all quite a busy schedule. It's also a really, really great city to explore!