"And to the bigots, to the John Briggs, to the Anita Bryants, to the Kevin Starrs and all their ilk... Let me remind you what America is... listen carefully. On the Statue of Liberty, it says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free...” In the Declaration of Independence it is written, “All men are created equal and they are endowed with certain inalienable rights...” And in our National Anthem it says: “Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free.” For Mr. Briggs and Mrs. Green and Mr. Starr and all the bigots out there: that’s what America is. No matter how hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of Independence. No matter how hard you try, you cannot chip those words from off the base of the Statue of Liberty. And no matter how hard you try, you cannot sing the “Star Spangled Banner” without those words. That’s what America is. Love it or leave it."
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United States Navy peopleLGBT rights activistsHuman rights activistsActivists from San FranciscoPoliticians from San Francisco
Original Language: English
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As quoted by Liz Tracey, Milk’s Gay Freedom Day Speech: Annotated, JSTOR, 13 June 2022
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk
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Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk (22 May 1930 – 27 November 1978) was an American politician and gay rights activist, and the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. He was assassinated in 1978, and is commonly seen as a martyr to the LGBT community.
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Harvey Milk →
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