In 2009 Governor Schwarzenegger declared May 22 Harvey Milk Day. Some California parents, led by SaveCalifornia.com, disturbed that Milk may be held up as a role model, have elected to keep their children home from school on that day.
Objections to the holiday included Milk’s ongoing homosexual relationships with much younger men, documented in Randy Shilts’ biography of Milk The Mayor of Castro Street. At least one of these relationships would have been illegal had it taken place in California, where the age of consent is 18.
Perhaps more serious was Milk’s alliance with, and defense of, the Peoples Temple. The rise of Peoples Temple as a major political force was one of the biggest San Francisco stories in the 1970s, and the Jonestown massacre of November 18, 1978 was one of the biggest stories in American history. The Jonestown massacre, in which over 900 followers of the Reverend Jim Jones were either killed or forced to commit suicide, represented the largest single-day loss of civilian life in American history, natural disasters excluded, until 9/11.
That Jones was an ally of San Francisco/California politicians, including Jerry Brown, Willie Brown, San Francisco mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk was well-known, although California’s Democratic politicians would like it to be forgotten. Dan White’s murder of both Moscone and Milk nine days after the massacre probably prevented further investigations into the relationship.
However, some people do want to make sure Jonestown is not forgotten. The department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University sponsors a website devoted to keeping the memory of Peoples Temple alive. The site, www.jonestown.sdsu.edu, is a storehouse of memories, reflections, and news articles. Some are from relatives or friends of the victims of Jonestown, some are from former Peoples Temple members, some are from reporters who covered the events. The site tracks contemporary developments that have some bearing on the Peoples Temple.
In 2009, Volume 11 of the site’s Jonestown Report/templenews reported:
Perhaps the biggest story involving Peoples Temple in 2009 was its lack of mention in conjunction with the Oscar-nominated film, Milk. As noted in articles by Sylvia Marciniak and Will Savive in this year’s Jonestown Report, the movie biography of San Francisco Councilman Harvey Milk – who, along with Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated on November 27, 1978 – does not mention the deaths in Jonestown which had occurred nine days earlier. More difficult for a number of conservative columnists and television personalities was that the movie failed to mention Milk’s relationship of mutual respect with Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones.
Milk received two posthumous awards in August, 2009 – the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, and an announcement by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that Milk would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame in December – and Schwarzenegger signed a bill designating May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in California. As some of the same critics pointed out, none of the sponsors of these awards and proposal mentioned Jim Jones, Peoples Temple, or Jonestown in pressing for Milk’s recognition.
Should they have? Yes. As early as 1972-73, disturbing revelations from Peoples Temple cult members had appeared. By the mid-1970s reporters had begun serious investigations into the Temple. This did not prevent Milk from accepting Jim Jones’ help in his failed 1976 campaign to the state assembly. At the time, Randy Shilts quoted Milk as saying of the Peoples Temple “They’re weird and they’re dangerous, and you never want to be on their bad side.”
Despite this statement, once he was elected supervisor, Milk hindered rather than helped efforts to rein in the temple. On February 19, 1978, Milk sent a letter to then-President Jimmy Carter praising Jones, and denouncing ongoing investigations against the temple. In the letter Milk called Jones “a man of the highest character.”
Given that he had called the temple “weird and dangerous” less than two years earlier, it must be concluded that Milk was telling an out-and-out lie. Further, he was lying about a life-and-death issue. The letter was sent to President Carter because concerns about the Peoples Temple, which had not been acted on in San Francisco, had grown so serious that Congress was becoming involved.
By that time Jones had moved a considerable portion of his congregation to Jonestown, Guyana. In the letter, Milk, a one-term supervisor from San Francisco, intimated to the president of the United States that congressional investigation of Jonestown would adversely affect diplomatic relations with Guyana. In November of that year, Congressman Leo Ryan (not from San Francisco) did lead an investigative delegation to Jonestown, where he was shot and killed by Jones’ assassins.
In the Jonestown Report article mention above, author Silvia Marciniak noted the airbrushing of Harvey Milk. She began “After the film, Milk, was released this year, I began to think that those who died in Jonestown did die in vain….”
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