Human Rights Campaign Announcement It Will Occupy Harvey Milk Castro Camera Space Angers Milk’s Friends

Earlier in the week, I posted that an announcement made Monday by the Human Rights Campaign regarding a move by the San Francisco chapter to locate their action center and shop to now vacant storefront that was once home to Harvey Milk’s Castro Camera. The HRC will shutter its current location January 5th and re-open at the new space January 7th, having signed a one-year lease. The official opening party will take place May 22nd, not only the second anniversary of California’s Harvey Milk s Day of Remembrance, but also Milk’s birthday. Monday, the HRC said that in addition to its own brand of merchandise, it would sell items “emblazoned with the words and images of Milk,” the iconic gay rights leader, who in 1977 became the first openly gay elected official in the state as well as in a major American city. A year later, he was assassinated. The HRC intends to donate a portion from the sale of Milk merchandise to the both the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy (an alternative public school in the Castro) and the GLBT Historical Society. HRC President Joe Solomonese said Monday that “It is Harvey Milk's vision of hope that continues to inspire the work that we do at the Human Rights Campaign. We are the beneficiaries of his groundbreaking activism and are honored to be a part of the future that he envisioned.” Predictably, the announcement has angered many who knew Milk, most of whom, including Cleve Jones, are critical of the work that the Human Rights Campaign does (or does not), Jones telling the Bay Area Reporter that “Most San Franciscans are well aware of the fact HRC represents the antitheses of Harvey's own political philosophies and his strategies for organizing. What it comes down to really is foot traffic. HRC's got their little T-shirt shop up there on 19th Street and everyday they see the pilgrims coming from all over the world to see the store where Harvey worked and they want a piece of that. I am truly sickened by this.” Jones added that the space should instead be used as a safe space for gay youth, instead of a corporate headquarters, Jones saying “That camera store, I spent so much time there in my youth. It was a place for networking and activism. It was a place where young people arriving in San Francisco could find welcoming smiles and practical support. If they wanted to do something with that space to truly honor Harvey's memory, I think they should collaborate with LYRIC and local service providers to do some sort of drop-in for the kids”