Narrator (21:56)
Location near you subject to credit approval. It's August 1947, a perfect summer's day in New York Central Park. It seems like all of Manhattan is out making the most of the weather. 17 year old Harvey Milk is among them, but he's not here for entirely wholesome reasons. Harvey's in an area of the park that's popular with gay men looking to meet others. Some of them are interested in friends or even dates, but plenty of these guys are looking for sex, so a lot of them have taken off their shirts, hoping it will act like a kind of signal to others on the prowl. This isn't Harvey's first rodeo. He knows all about cruising the park by now, and after years of playing multiple sports in high school, he's always eager to show off his body. Finding a clear space on the grass, he unbuttons his shirt and sits, propping himself up on his elbows so he can keep an eye out for anyone who looks appetizing. Unfortunately for Harvey, he's not the only one familiar with the city's popular gay hookup spots. The NYPD are well aware of what goes on in Central park, and they don't want it happening on their watch. So soon after Harvey settles down for the afternoon, he hears the blast of a police whistle. Before he's figured out what's going on, there's a hand wrapped tightly around his arm and a cops yanking him up to his feet. In the space of just a couple of minutes, Harvey's being hustled towards a fleet of waiting police vans on the edge of the park. When he asks what he's being arrested for, he's told it's for indecent exposure. It's mortifying for Harvey. He can feel the Eyes of hundreds of New Yorkers on him as he's shoved through the park by aggressive cops. Once he's in the van on his way to jail, Harvey makes up his mind about what he has to do. Harvey avoids spending the night in jail by playing dumb. He tells the cops that he had no idea that the park was a cruising spot for gay men. He's just a high school kid who was looking to get a tan. Honest. The story saves Harvey the shame of having to explain anything to his parents. Though not everyone the police arrested that day can say the same thing. Plenty of them spend at least a night at lockup. But for the most part, gay men targeted by the police and roundups like this aren't charged with anything. It's too much paperwork, apart from anything else. Mostly, the cops are doing it to frighten the community, to stop them from gathering. Harvey doesn't know that. Not yet. But the experience is a terrifying and formative one all the same. Just weeks after his brief arrest in Manhattan, Harvey starts classes at New York State College for Teachers in Albany. And he's disappointed in what he finds there. Thanks to the war, there are very few men in the junior and senior classes. That means that women occupy most of the positions of leadership in the student body. There's basically no athletic program for men, and almost all of the fraternities have been closed for years. For Harvey, who's desperate to conceal his sexuality, this is unacceptable. He needs to surround himself with as much masculine energy as possible so that no one suspects his true nature. He desperately wants to be seen as just one of the guys. So he joins one of the few surviving fraternities on campus, Kappa Beta, a Jewish group that was founded in a time when no frat would admit Jews. This way, he'll have baked in guy friends around him at all, all times. No one will accuse him of being soft if he's always surrounded by men. And just to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea, Harvey wears athletic sweats basically every day. He won't let people forget that he's a jock. Nothing gay to see here. With that taken care of, Harvey sets about filling up his time. Like in high school, he only gets average grades, but he's great at extracurriculars. He covers sports for the college paper, which solidifies his macho credentials. But he also takes time to pontificate a little when the urge strikes first, it's about the culture of hazing and fraternities, which Harvey hates. From there, he writes about anything that he, capital B, believes in. He thinks that the student body doesn't display enough school spirits, so he writes a column about it. They don't attend enough of the college sporting events, he says. They need to support their community. Not for the last time. Harvey's displaying an unwavering instinct that he knows what's best for people and a determination to push his agenda. At this stage of his life, Harvey's beliefs are a mixed bag. He's certainly not a feminist, but he hates most kinds of discrimination. And in one column, he praises a campus sorority for ignoring its own organizational bylaws and welcoming a black student into its membership. Soon enough, though, Harvey's not just writing about issues, he's campaigning on them. He runs for class president in his freshman year, but he finishes fourth in a field of five. Undeterred, he also runs for treasurer of the athletic association. He doesn't get enough votes for that either. Neither setback batters Harvey's ego too much, though. And by his senior year, he's ready to go after a position he really wants. Miscania is a secretive society on campus that, among other things, plays a role in representing the student body before the administration members are chosen by outgoing seniors. And Harvey desperately wants to be one of the lucky few. To be tapped from Miscania would be confirmation that he's one of the civic, moral and intellectual leaders on campus. Plus, there's a ceremony where new members are plucked from the crowd and take their place on stage before everyone. It couldn't be more perfect for Harvey, but the day of the ceremony comes, and Harvey's not one of the chosen few. He has to stand in the crowd while others are plucked from relative obscurity and pulled into the spotlight. Losing out again is disappointing for Harvey, and the blows keep coming. In the fall of 1950, his senior year, a group of his fellow columnists at the school paper write an article predicting who will be voted on to the homecoming court that semester. Their choice for homecoming queen is Harvey, who they rechristen Harriet. They name four other young men as homecoming princesses. But Harvey's the main target of the article. And after all he'd done to try and come off as a man's man, it seems it didn't work. Well, maybe something else will. After Harvey graduates in 1951, he feels a burst of patriotic duty and, like both of his parents before him, enlists in the Navy. If nothing else, he's hoping that it'll give him some sort of direction. Even after four years of college, he's not sure what he wants to do with his life. But it seems like everyone's heading to Korea, so he figures he'll do the same. Early on, Harvey singled out for his athletic abilities. After being sent to the Officers Candidate School, he trains as a deep sea diver and is initially sent to patrol the North Korean coast aboard a submarine rescue ship. Then after his tour of duty, Harvey's stationed in San Diego where he's chief petty Officer of the USS Kittiwake. Later, Harvey will tell people that he was only promoted because he coached the ship's wrestling team to a championship win. Whether that's the case or not, Harvey's position affords him the freedom to rent his own apartment off base. And with so many sailors stationed in and visiting the city, San Diego offers Harvey plenty of opportunities for extracurricular activities with some of his fellow sailors. He's far from the only gay man in the Navy, though. In fact, the abundance of queer sailors in San Diego helps gay bars and businesses thrive in the city. Sailors on leave cruise the gay friendly haunts, eager to connect after lifetimes of relative isolation. Then, some four years after he first signed up, Harvey's time in the Navy comes to an end. In a couple of decades, he'll start telling people that he was dishonorably discharged for being gay. But the truth is that he's a decorated sailor who's reached the rank of lieutenant junior grade and earned several medals. He receives an honorable discharge in early 1955 and suddenly, at the age of 25, has to decide what to do with his life again. After a year or so in Los Angeles and Miami, falling in and out of love with his first boyfriend, Harvey ends up back in New York with nothing else to do. He makes use of his credentials from the teachers college and gets a job teaching math and history to high schoolers. When he's not in the classroom, Harvey's looking for love and he's already got a distinct type. He tends to gravitate to fit men who are younger than he is and who could use taking care of guidance or just a roof over their heads. With a slim frame and dark hair, 19 year old Joe Campbell fits the bill perfectly. Harvey's great. At the early stage of a relationship, he writes Joe love letters, sends him flowers and makes wake up phone calls to his apartment. For the first couple of weeks they're dating, he takes Joe to the ballet and the opera, buys him gifts. After just a few weeks, Joe's moving into Harvey's apartment in Queens and they're starting their life together. But Harvey's a pretty restless guy. By the summer of 1957, he's already over the whole teaching. He briefly moves himself and Joe to Dallas, but finds it almost impossible to get work there as a Jewish man and despairs at the lack of decent culture. They don't last long in Texas, and when they get back to New York, Harvey scores himself a job as an actuarial statistician at an insurance company. It's a solid gig that pays him 140 bucks a week, which is about 50% above the average income for 1958. Joe, who gilds furniture for a living, brings in about 90 bucks a week. With their combined income, they run a nice apartment across the street from Central Park. Things between Harvey and Joe are solid for a few years. They meet each other's families and although Harvey never introduces Joe to his parents as his partner Minnie knits the matching afghans, suddenly signaling that she knows what's up. So for a while, Harvey and Joe have a happy life together. But slowly the passion burns out between them. Harvey loves the stability Joe offers him, but he also wants excitement, which they just don't have. By the early 60s, Harvey's getting bored at home and at work. Something's gotta give. And the day it does, it's his relationship that gets the job. One afternoon, Harvey walks into the living room where Joe's getting some ironing done. Harvey tells him that he should probably think about moving out. A few weeks later, in September 1961, Harvey's alone in the apartment regretting his decision. But Joe's not interested in coming back. Even when Harvey sends him pleading love letters, Joe knows his ex is just being dramatic. He's a big boy. He'll move on soon enough. He just needs to find a new object for his affection. Joe's instincts will prove correct. In time, Harvey will find a way to get over the seven years he spent with Joe Campbell. And eventually he'll discover a passion that will make him an icon in his community. In the meantime, time though a string of lovers will each shape Harvey Milk into the man he's destined to become.