As the nation prepares to celebrate the life of gay political icon Harvey Milk, I am somewhat overcome by the deluge of conservative-wing articles detailing Milk’s penchant for underage lovers. Awhile back, I too posted a short piece about Milk and the homosexual elite whitewash of his life; see http://www.josephsciambra.com/2013/01/harvey-milk-gay-saint-or-boy-lover.htmlYet, what has been less understood and discussed is the fact that Milk was sexually abused as a child. This goes back to his background in New York City, where he grew up as the son of a feckless and underachieving father, while being constantly under the megalithic shadow of his powerful and domineering mother. Early on, Milk was an artsy boy with an unusual fondness for the opera. As an adolescent, Milk’s mother allowed her son to travel unattended to the Met. There, in the cheaper standing-room only gallery section, Milk was repeatedly molested by older men. The best source of information in this regards remains the authoritative “The Mayor of Castro Street” (1982) by the late Randy Shilts. Although Shilt’s descriptions of the abuse seem rather flip – it’s because many gay men, especially during the pre-Stonewall era, were initiated into gay sex by overly aggressive older men. In many gay sectors, this remains the case. I myself was tackled by a wall of mature gay men when I first entered the Castro at age 18; later on, just before leaving the life – I too began to seek out and mistreat younger men. For, in the gay lifestyle, the pattern is cyclical – as the abused become the abusers.
“Sometimes he pushed back the wandering hands. But the dark tinglings were too powerful to be long denied. Random groping led to brief trysts after the performances. The encounters taught him more valuable information: where he could meet other men who liked junior high athletes, how to walk down the street just so, how to take a casual stroll through the gay sections of Central park without getting busted…Harvey learned all the tricks and, by his own account, was leading an active homosexual life by the age of fourteen…Though he had grave fears about the life he might end up leading - fears that sometimes troubled his sleep and tormented his days - his adolescent randiness drove him on.” From “The Mayor of Castro Street”