More than 30 years before there was the “It Gets Better” campaign in which prominent Americans assure struggling LGBT youth that things will improve for them, there was Harvey Milk and a telephone in the back of the Castro Camera store in San Francisco.
Calls came in almost daily from youth around the country who were struggling with their sexuality and had no one to turn to, Milk’s campaign manager Anne Kronenberg said today. “Some were disturbing. Some were sad,” she said. “Some were suicidal youth, youth who were feeling desperate.”
Kronenberg would answer the phone in the back of the office at 575 Castro St. and then hand it off to Milk, who was receiving national attention on his way to becoming the first openly gay city supervisor in the country.
“He would say (to the callers), ‘You’ve got to have hope,’” Kronenberg said. “That the world is not a bad place. That there’s a place for each of us, and you can come someplace that will accept you.”
Today, 575 Castro St. came full circle on what would have been Milk’s 81st birthday. The Trevor Project — a nonprofit that provides suicide prevention and crisis counseling to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth — opened a call center in the back of the Human Rights Campaign store that now occupies Milk’s former office space.
Dustin Lance Black (pictured above) won an Academy Award for the screenplay he wrote for the 2008 biopic “Milk” and sits on the board of directors for the Trevor Project, which has two other call centers and receives about 3,000 calls every month. The film he wrote has been credited with bringing global attention to Milk, who was the first openly gay politician in the U.S. when he and then-Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by their colleague, Supervisor Dan White, on Nov. 27, 1978.
In honor of Harvey Milk Day, held every May 22, Black took a few minutes to talk to me about what the call center means to him and why he has spent the last decade working to revive and preserve Milk’s legacy.
What was it about Harvey Milk that has made you embrace him as a model for the gay rights movement?
When I started reading about and researching Harvey Milk, I came face to face with this strategy of being out and open. Basically it was a strategy of coming out and self-representation, meaning we needed to tell those stories and dispel the stereotypes that had been used against us for so long. That also meant electing gay and lesbian leaders — actually electing (gays), not just allies. He believed we would look out for own interests more than others, which makes sense.
The second thing was outreach — outreach to other minority groups and working for them as hard as we were working for ourselves. That had not been happening in my lifetime. I had not seen outreach to the minority movement or the labor movement or the women’s movement in a way he had done, which I think was responsible for winning elections.
And then, he was not afraid to advocate. When we lost an election and someone said something against our community, he did not believe we needed to be polite. I saw our leaders had become so incredibly polite in my generation, and then I thought, “Boy if we could revive this guy’s story and the strategy, we might start winning again.”
But today is more about his other message, which is until we have full equality, we have to make sure young people across the country have someone to turn to. At the time, he was the only one. He was the one they were turning to because he was the most visible, out gay man in the country.
Does it frustrate you that more than 30 years after Harvey Milk was killed, we still need this type of crisis prevention call center for LGBT youth? This must be a bittersweet moment in some ways.
I will never be happy that there is a need for this. My other foundation is the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is responsible for the federal case against Proposition 8 in California. And until we win all those fights for equality against those messages from our government that these young people are worth less, from the churches that these young people are less —
— Until those stop, we have a need for (the call center). I would be remiss if I didn’t pay as much attention to our equality movement as I did to the kids who are being left behind until we get to that place. I am not pleased that we need this, but I am very pleased that we are providing it, because there is a need.
Who came up with the idea for the Harvey Milk call center?
Cleve Jones and I came up with the idea probably six months ago. There was a groundswell within the Castro saying, “Hey, we need actual services and to honor Harvey’s legacy.” It was the first time the shop had come open, the site of the space, since the film came out. So we heard that call and thought this would be a solution that the community would embrace. Thankfully they seem to have done so.
Any final thoughts?
I just think this is a beautiful way to celebrate Harvey’s birthday: to continue his legacy of spreading hope.
** You can also read the article I wrote for work on this topic here. Thanks to my brother, Nico Brancolini, for taking these lovely photos for us!
