217 Harvey Milk’s Gay Freedom Day Speech: Annotated
Harvey Milk’s Gay Freedom Day Speech: Annotated (1978)
Introduction to Primary Source:
Harvey Milk gave this speech on June 25, 1978 at the Gay Freedom Day held on the ninth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Milk responded to the actions of John Briggs, a California State Senator who was proposing legislation to fire lesbian and gay teachers in California, and Anitia Bryant, an anti-gay activists who was working to overturn equal rights ordinances in a number of states. In this Speech he called on the President of the United States to defend the rights of gay and Lesbian Americans.
