“Harvey Milk and His Legacy” In 1974, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay elected official in California history. On November 27, 1978 he was shot and killed, along with beloved Mayor George Moscone, by Dan White, another city supervisor. Since his landmark years of service, San Franciscans have been represented in City Hall and the state legislature by out and proud LGBTQ+ officials, including people like Mark Leno, David Campos, and Scott Weiner. Two of the city’s most important political organizations are focused on LGBTQ+ issues, and are named in honor of local queer icons: Harvey Milk himself and Alice B. Toklas. These groups wield tremendous influence, meaning that the LGBTQ+ community always has a seat at the table when major decisions are being made in San Francisco.
Indeed, religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are highly immoral – that is, when pressing these concerns inflicts unnecessary and appalling suffering on innocent human beings. This explains why Christians like yourself expend more “moral” energy opposing abortion than fighting genocide. It explains why you are more concerned about human embryos than about the lifesaving promise of stem-cell research. And it explains why you can preach against condom use in sub-Saharan Africa while millions die from AIDS there each year.
“Humans are prone to the principle of least effort, often known as the ‘path of least resistance,’ which means they’ll go for whatever option requires the least work. Hypocrisy allows you to appear principled without having to be so, which is much easier than adhering to strict principles.”
“Fun? The only man I ever loved died when I was 21. The children I so desperately wanted were impossible, because my ovaries are dry as stone. And I’m a terrible artist, but I surround myself with people who have talent that I will never realize. It’s all hard, Ruth. We just made different choices.”
