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THE NEWS June 20,1985
True Britt:
A Conversation With Harry Britt
Harry Britt is a superv isor for the City
of San Francisco. He is Harvey Milk's,
successor and he. like Milk, is openly
gay. Mr. Britt will be the guest of honor
at a reception for the Atlanta City Com
mittee of the Human Rights Campaign
Fund this Saturday. June 22 at 8:00 P.M.
at the Golden Key National Honor Socie
ty Headquarters on Ponce de Leon at
Moreland.
THE NEWS talked with Harry by
phone recently. He talked with us about
growing up in the South (his parents are
from Georgia) about Harvey Milk, and
about, as you might expect, politics.
TN: Why did you choose a life in
pol itics?
HB: I have always been interested in
political activity. I cut my teeth on
politics in the South: Governor Rivers of
Georgia was the politician I met ancf I
thought he was a big shot. I never meant
to become an office holder. I don't have a
politicians* ego. I never saw myself as
having a career in politics but when I
moved to San Francisco I became involv
ed with Harvey Milk. He convinced me
that lesbians and gay men must organize
politically around our experience or the
world will never learn to deal with us. I
was the president of the political club that
was Harvey's base in the gay community,
when he was killed I was one of the
names on the list. So I never chose to be a
supervisor, it was a concurrence of events
around my relationship with Harvey-that
lead to my being here: Now that I am
here I find that the things that happened in
my life before then, all seem to come
togetherpretty well. My work in the
church, my work in communtiy organiz
ing. and other things that I have done
seemed to have prepared me pretty well
for this job. I am enjoying it but I never
took any aptitude test as a kid that said I
should become a homosexual supervisor.
TN: Do you think that an openly gay
political candidate could be elected in
Atlanta?
HB: Part of my excitment about my trip
to Atlanta is to find out things like that. I
don't come with a lot of assumptions.
There is in the Southern people a very
strong strain of populism, a very strong
appreciation for the common touch. It
seems to me fairly natural for our com
munity to communicate to Southerners. A
lot of people outside the south view the
South as a very narrow place, I can’t do.
that because so much of my childhood
was spent in Georgia. I know that there is
a real, sense of democracy there, that if
we can plug into that it should work.
Atlanta has a good reputation nationally,
as far as what gay activist have done. We
have to succeed in the South. In many
ways the South is the frontier of the
future. We must reach the southern peo
ple. I don’t want kids growing up in the
South right now who are gay to have to
deal with what I had to deal with what I
dealt with I was growing up in the South.
I would think that people who have gone
through the experience of growing up gay
in the South have a very special motiva
tion to want to make things a little better
for the next generation. /
TN: What advice would you give to a
young gay person who might be consider
ing a career in politics?
HB: You must not make compromises
early, politics is all about compromise but
our strength politically is our own ex
perience. Just as the black south had to
learn that their strength was not their
ability to please, but their ability to plug
into the pride and selfworth of their peo
ple, we have to do the same thing. Our
strength is our pride and our anger and
our determination to get rid of
homophobia. We have to do that. The
reason I say all of that is there is such a
temptation in politics to use our ability to
please peoplemore powerful than we are
and to ingratiate ourselves to people who
don’t really understand or care about us.
That is a very deadly thing. The main is
when we come together in our bars, or
wherever we come together, to feel good
about one another and fell angry about the
way we have been treated. We must
organize around that and form relation
ships with other political people who
understand what it is like to be
mistreated.
TN: Aside from AIDS what do you see
as being the key issues . facing Gay
Americans?
HB: There is a common theme; we are
teaching America how to deal with us, we
are penetrating all of the structures of
American society the churches, the
business world, the political system... It
is not so much a matter of just fighting for
our rights, which we must do, it's a mat
ter of letting America seeing us well
enough that they learn how to deal with
us. Once people perceive us as a part of
the community we don’t have to fight to
fight for our rights.
TN: Was there any trepidation on your
part to take over where Harvey Milk left
off?
HB: I didn't have time for trepidation. I
had learned enough about fear. I was in
the closet not to be fearful anymore. I am
not a fearful person. Of course it was an
awesome thing to be asked to take over
for Harvey, who was a giant of a person
to me, and a pivotal force in my cfwn life.
The first year I think that showed I was
very timid, very unsure of who I was,
always comparing myself to Harvey.
That was not good, that was the limitation
on my ability to be effective. I don’t do
that anymore, I still think of Harvey alot.
I try to visualize how he would act in my
role, but history has moved on and those
of us who loved him have had to take new
responsibilities. So, yes, it was a difficult
thing to be asked to do and I would not
have chosen it. I have found since then
when you do it that we have the ability
and the strength to be effective than we
think we do.
TN: Harry, we will look forward to
meeting you this Saturday when you
come to speak to the Human Rights Cam
paign Fund Committee here in Atlanta.
HB: I have spent many months of my
life in that town. I am really looking for
ward to getting back to the South. See
you Saturday.
Terry Anderson
BACKSTREET
Salutes Gay Pride ’B5
AUG. 3RD/SAT. 6PM
Stonewall
A New Attitude
Pride '85
SAGE Meeting
(Senior Atlantans
in a Gay Environment)
Time: 7:00 pm
Place: Atlanta Gay Center - 63 12th St
Topic: Are we repeating the 1930’s & 40’s
Speaker: J. Michael Clark, Ph. D.
For more info: 876-5372