STUART MILK
TAKING ON GLOBAL LGBT RIGHTS
by thom senzee
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING that the Harvey Milk
Foundation’s founding asset is the ever-deepening reservoir of goodwill toward the legacy of its name- sake, slain LGBT human rights leader and late San Francisco City and County Supervisor Harvey Milk. Building on that legacy with tireless efforts to im- prove the plights of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender people around the globe is Milk’s nephew and Milk Foundation President, Stuart Milk. Milk, the younger, is heir to his uncle’s passion for equality, justice and human rights. He also inher- ited the elder Milk’s legendary ability to take on the problem of homophobia with practical alliances and relatable outreach efforts. Milk’s hands-on pragma- tism is evidenced by the Harvey Milk Foundation’s decidedly globally focused program, informally titled “Beyond Tolerance—Equality Around the Globe.” He just returned from France where there has
been a large right-wing movement away from mi- nority rights including LGBT rights. According to the foundation, some of the largest anti-marriage equal- ity demonstrations in the world have happened in France recently. In cooperation with the U.S. State Department, Milk brought together nearly two dozen French civil society and LGBT-rights organiza- tions that had never previously collaborated with one another. The foundation indicated that the effort will prove to be a vital first step toward keeping the French progress on equality for LGBTs. The ongoing campaign, now in its fifth year, has
Stuart Milk meeting dignitaries to local community advocates in places as far apart as Dublin, Santiago, Hanoi, Vilnius and Istanbul. “Both I and my cofounder, my uncle’s campaign manager Anne Kronenberg, have believed in the need for global equality for over a decade now. Anne and I have traveled across the globe, often going where others won’t in the understanding that history can repeat itself. We need not just a Western oasis of LGBT rights, but a global paradigm that sees equality for all as a prime ingredi- ent for the success of humanity,” Milk told The Rage Monthly in an exclusive interview. At the time of this writing, Milk was in southeast
Asia, where he is a guest of honor and headlining speaker at the third annual VietPride event. Stuart Milk, who is gay, serves as a human connection in a way that no one else on earth can to a storied past when his uncle became America’s first openly gay publicly elected official. “Asia from the Euro-Asia corridor to the subcontinent is where more than two thirds of humanity resides,” says Milk. “We must work with all doors that open up for us whether southeast Asia, Turkey, Nepal—all those nations that have created a crack. We need to support the local LGBT heroes and allies, on the ground, face to face, even
16 RAGE monthly | AUGUST 2014
photography by brook pifer
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80