This Wednesday, May 22 is Harvey Milk Day, recognized in California as a “day of special significance” in public schools for the 10th year now. Whether or not your kid’s school has any lesson plans or hallway displays or community meeting recognitions of it, we’ve collected ten resources you could consider for your own family’s discussion of the day.
Most of the ten jumping-off points listed below provide links to yet more. Each child and each family is unique, so as you do with everything you introduce to your kids, by all means check out the book(s) first yourself, and give a thought to conversations you can have to provide depth and context. (E.g., see the Educator’s Guide to The Harvey Milk Story below)
Background/ Wikipedia
- Biography of Jose Julio Sarria, first openly gay candidate for elective office in the U.S. (San Francisco Supervisor, 1961) [Wikipedia]
- Biography of Harvey Milk (first ran for SF Supervisor a dozen years later in 1973; won office in 1977 following redistricting to reflect neighborhoods) [Wikipedia]
- A list of the first openly LGBTQ elective office-holders in the U.S. [Wikipedia]
Picture books, chapter books, and books for young readers
- Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, by Rob Sanders [2018, Penguin Random House]
- The Harvey Milk Story, by Kari Krakow [2002, Two Lives Publishing]
- Educator’s Guide to The Harvey Milk Story (written by Krakow) [PDF]
- Gay & Lesbian History for Kids: The Century-Long Struggle for LGBT Rights, with 21 Activities, by Jerome Pohlen [2015, Chicago Review Press]
Young Adult books
- Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World, by Sarah Prager [2017, Harper Collins]
- Hear Us Out! Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, 1950 to the Present, by Nancy Garden [2007, Farrar Stauss and Giroux]
