Northgate High School pays tribute to Milk’s historic 1978 debate in their gym, against a conservative state senator who was pushing a state proposition that would bar LGBTQ+ teachers from wo…
Principal Kelly Cooper, history teacher Meg Honey and student Ares Foster, 16, from left, with a plaque dedicated to former San Francisco supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Milk debated Republican state Sen. John Briggs in September 1978 at the school over the Briggs Initiative, a proposition that would have made it mandatory for school boards to fire gay and lesbian teachers.
State Sen. John Briggs photographed debating San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk in their historic debate over Prop. 6 at Northgate High School on Sept. 15, 1978. “I am so proud to be part of a school community that uplifts the experiences and contributions of marginalized groups,” Honey said. “Harvey Milk helped protect the human rights of school employees, and it is time that his courageous leadership during the debate at Northgate High is honored.”
The native New Yorker, former Broadway producer and self-described hippy arrived in San Francisco in 1972 and opened his storied camera shop on Castro Street, as the neighborhood was seeing an influx of new gay and lesbian residents. He found his calling in politics by becoming the “champion of the little guy” and “an articulate champion of progressive causes,” biographer Randy Shilts wrote.
With his growing statewide visibility, Milk challenged Briggs to debate Prop. 6. They squared off several times, including in Orange County. Their showdown in the Northgate High gym “looked like as heated an exchange as could be found in American politics,” Shilts said. In his famed 1978 “Hope Speech,” Milk lamented “the Anita Bryants and John Briggs who are doing their bit on TV” to denigrate young gay people’s sense of self-worth.
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