With no blacks, no Jews and no gays

Today would have been the 85th birthday of the world-famous Harvey Milk, the (first in the US) out-gay public official in San Francisco who was assassinated in 1978.

By way of a little tribute to the "first modern-day gay martyr" (as some Americans would have it), and in recognition of our usual upbeat way to celebrate a weekend, I simply must play one of my favourite disco choons from that era - a time when Mr Milk represented what everyone thought may have been a new epoch of freedom for us gayers...

Produced by the genius that is August Darnell, who also gave us Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band and Kid Creole and the Coconuts, here is Machine and There But For The Grace Of God Go I:

Machine - There But For The Grace Of God Go I

Carlos and Carmen Vidal just had a child
A lovely girl with a crooked smile
Now they gotta split 'cause the Bronx ain't fit
For a kid to grow up in
Let's find a place they say, somewhere far away
With no blacks, no Jews and no gays

There but for the grace of God, there go I
There but for the grace of God, there go I, I, I, I, I, I, I

Poppy and the family left the dirty streets
To find a quiet place overseas
And year after year the kid has to hear
The do's and don'ts and the dears
And when she's ten years old she digs that rock'n'roll
But Poppy bans it from the home

There but for the grace of God, there go I
There but for the grace of God, oh go I (could be me, could be you)
There but for the grace of God, oh go I, I, I, I, I, I, I

Baby, she turns out to be a natural freak
Gaining weight and losing sleep
And when she's sweet sixteen, she packs her things and leaves
With a man she met on the street
Carmen starts to bawl, bangs her head to the wall
Too much love is worse than none at all

There but for the grace of God, there go I
There but for the grace of God, there go I
There but for the grace of God, oh go I
There but for the grace of God, oh go I, I, I, I, I, I, I

Thank Disco It's Friday!

RIP Harvey Bernard Milk (22nd May 1930 – 27th November 1978)

Read our previous tribute to Harvey Milk

No to Hate

We attended a very important event last night, along with hundreds of others.

The third No To Hate Crime vigil was held in Trafalgar Square, to mark the anniversary of the murder of Ian Baynham in a homophobic attack in the Square, to remember all the victims of hate crime, and to celebrate diversity. Yet again we were disappointed by the turnout (as last year) - what is it about so many queens these days that their hedonism outweighs important matters like this? Or is it because the message is too "wooly", trying to embrace all forms of hate?

Once again among the speakers were Harvey Milk's nephew Stuart, activists including Lindsay River and Peter Tatchell, and politicians including Ken Livingstone. Unfortunately, although we saw Mr Milk, and observed the two minute silence before the roll-call of the victims, we never saw the final speakers. We left prematurely as some imbecile among the organisers had decided that a rapper - purveyor of that most hateful of musical genres - would be a good idea to put on stage. I don't give a damn whether he was gay or whatever, this was not what we came to hear. We wanted the choir, a solemn observance of the silence and some rousing and meaningful speakers - not the very "urban yoof culture" that berates us daily!

Lynne Featherstone MP, however, summed up the reasons why we were there rather well I thought:

"Listening to the roll call of those killed by hate, I was shocked by the length of that roll. Hate is the most terrible of emotions. It is a destructive emotion. Evil in its manifestation.

And hate for reasons of sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or race is also pathetic! It’s ignorant. It’s about impotence. It’s about inadequacy. And it’s about fear.

Only this week, sadly, I witnessed such hatred unmasked, and there is a frightening insanity that feeds that fire. And whilst we put have laws around us to protect us from such hate, and we do have good laws, we still, sadly, have a long long way to go.

Whilst we may be more civilised, we may walk safely in many areas, we know that round any corner that hatred may be lurking. And we still have to get to the very heart of that hatred.

I cannot, literally cannot understand how any human being can hurt another human, because they are frightened or threatened by difference. As individuals and as a community we should be embracing each others differences, not persecuting each other for them.

So as well as the law, each and every one of us has a duty to challenge this hatred wherever and whenever we see it and I call on everyone to do so.

And never, ever walk silently by."

More photos are on Flickr

Apathy or resistance?

One most telling thing about society these days is the "five-second memory" that is encouraged by TV, music videos, video games, and yes, dear readers, social network sites. This "Twitter generation" is actively engaged in snippets of nothingness, and reality matters less and less to some people. In the words of the late, great Dame Joan Sutherland "Them's my sentiments, anyhow..."

And so it seemed to us last night, as the combination of cold damp weather and "more important" stuff such as X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing, or indeed sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll, appeared to have reduced the number of people who bothered to come out for the "Say No To Hate Crime" rally and vigil. Ian Baynham's murder in Trafalgar Square was, I suppose, still in the news this time last year when 10,000 people turned up.

This year, the gay press is more interested in Joe McElderry [no disrespect meant to the young man by the way, just he really isn't that important!] and numbers were reduced to around 2,000 at the most - a fairly small gathering given the magnitude of the problem.

From politicians to pioneers, from Amy Lamé to Harvey Milk's nephew Stuart (founder of the Milk Foundation), we had speakers from all backgrounds and interest groups - Ian Baynham's sister Diana, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Paul Burston, Lynne Featherstone MP (Minister for Equalities), Peter Tatchell, gay Deputy Mayor of London Richard Barnes, Sue Sanders (Schools Out) and many others gave heartfelt speeches.

A gay brass band tootled from the back of the crowd, (almost inaudible to anyone near the speakers' stage incidentally), and an assembled gay chorus sang some songs of hope and sadness. We all had glow-sticks, some people lit candles. Yet despite messages of support from David Cameron and Ed Milliband, there were no front-benchers or leaders of political parties.



It is sad to say that this felt like a message of hope speaking out to only an interested few. The facts are terrifying. Hate crime is evidently on the increase:

• 1,192 homophobic offences were reported in London in the year to September, up from 1,008 the previous year, a rise of 18.3%
• 1 in 5 gay and lesbian people have experienced a homophobic hate crime or incident in the last three years
• 3 in 4 did not report them to the police. Only 6% reported them to third parties
• 7 in 10 did not report hate crime and incidents to anyone.

A list of hundreds of names of people who have been murdered because of hatred against their "difference" was read out after the silence at 8pm.

One speaker told possibly the most emotional story of all. Artist Paul Harfleet decided to instigate the "Pansy Project" in 2005, to plant a pansy at the site of each reported site of such a hate crime. Since his project began he has planted 10,000.

That is five times the number of people who bothered to turn up last night; despised, beaten or even murdered because they were gay.

I sometimes feel ashamed of what passes for the gay "scene". I am really proud of everyone involved in organising this important event, and everyone who showed up.

Burst down those closet doors once and for all, and stand up and start to fight

"Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio, there is a young gay person who all of a sudden realises that she or he is gay. Knows that if the parents find out they’ll be tossed out of the house. The classmates will taunt the child and the Anita Bryants and John Briggs are doing their bit on TV, and that child has several options: staying in the closet, suicide... and then one day that child might open up the paper and it says, “Homosexual elected in San Francisco,” and there are two new options. One option is to go to California... OR stay in San Antonio and fight.

"You’ve got to elect gay people so that that young child and the thousands upon thousands like that child know that there’s hope for a better world. There’s hope for a better tomorrow."
Harvey Milk

As we await with predictable boredom the announcement of the Oscars tonight, with the inevitable feeling that the judges will go for the "safe option" in most of the categories, it will be interesting to see whether Milk gets any of the awards for which it has been nominated.

We are planning to go and see the film next week, so I cannot comment on how it works on screen, but the story of assassinated San Francisco politician Harvey Milk is (and should be) legendary.

Many years ago, I watched the documentary film The Times of Harvey Milk. I had not long come out when it was released, and the battles this heroic man undertook on his journey to election made a huge impact on me, in an era of Reaganite/Thatcherite politics and the looming backlash of tabloid opinion about gay people in the wake of AIDS.

Thirty years on from Milk's election and subsequent murder, and twenty years on from Reagan and Thatcher, the homophobia is still there - think of recent tabloid coverage of George Michael or Boy George (to name just the most prominent anti-gay reporting) - and in the recent US elections the euphoria over the election of a black President was clouded by the passing of homophobic laws in California, Florida and Arizona.

So this man's legacy remains vitally important today. And in a fascinating essay, written as an introduction to a book about his story, screenwriter and Oscar nominee Lance Black explains why we should never forget Harvey Milk.

If you read nothing else today, read this.

Harvey Milk's famous "Give them Hope" speech, read by Sir Ian McKellen:

The Hope Speech (Harvey Milk)

Harvey Milk on Wikipedia