Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!
The Man Who Kept Harvey Milk’s Dream Alive
A new Queer Serial
sister series
Original release: June 18, 2022
Episode 7
“Strength, Power, Beauty”
Meet some of Harry's closest friends & allies when he was leading the gay community, and listen to his final speech, given at the 40th anniversary memorial for Milk & Moscone. 💐
Listen to the full cuts of Will’s guest interviews on my Patreon!
Click here.
“Come out in the fucking rain and celebrate.”
Instagram @queerserial
JUNE 22, 2022
"Part of being queer is that we've had to form communities outside of the traditional communities, and that's made us a little freer I still have hope that instead of trying to become married we develop alternatives to being married that reflect our experience and not the experience of Henry VIII."
—Harry Britt
📸 Harry & marchers with the Gay Democratic Club at the National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights, October 14, 1979. Photo by Ted Sahl. San José State University.
JUNE 26, 2022
Tough fights are ahead, but we will survive. Happy Pride! 🌈
📸 Supervisor Harry Britt at the 1979 Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco. The second photo is of Harry with Steve Shiflett. (Steve, like Harry, was a gay activist from Texas. Steve died while suffering from AIDS in 1992. He has a rather interesting story you can read here: texasobituaryproject.org/050192shiflett.html)
JUNE 25, 2022
"If there's gonna be a queer movement, it has to say that there's something about our experience as queers that gives us an insight into something that is wrong with our culture that's beyond homophobia that needs to be changed." —Harry Britt 🌈
📸 Harry Britt & the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club at the Lesbian & Gay Freedom Day Parade, 1982. Photo by Rink Foto, Bryan Monte and Paul Melbostad with flags; Britt and Phil Burton in car, Bob Ross driving; John Bardis under banner in jacket; Ron Huberman on right.
JULY 2, 2022
"This community has a history that has more love in it, and more compassion, and more sense of justice, and more possibility of peace than any other community I know."
Harry Britt speaking at "Night of Candles," the memorial for Milk & Moscone at San Francisco City Hall, November 27, 1980.
JUNE 23, 2022
“Come out in the fucking rain and celebrate.”
Harry Britt’s final speech, as heard on the podcast, at the 40th anniversary memorial for Milk & Moscone.
📸 Recorded by William Gilders
JUNE 23, 2022
GIVE ‘EM HELL 🔥🔥🔥
All my new Patreon girls & donors got recreations of Harry’s original button! 💖 I still have a bunch for you!
JUNE 24, 2022
CHALLENGE THE VALUES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT 🔥
JUNE 28, 2022
Miss Britt's a busy bee 🐝
📸 Mostly unknown photographers and dates. The second collage is of photos by Rink Foto.
JULY 18, 2022
FIGHTING BACK!
JUNE 30, 2022
You can now hear Harvey Milk’s unedited “in case” audio will on the Queer Serial podcast feed. Harvey shares his choices for possible successors if he is assassinated while in office, and his vision for the gay community’s future.
JULY 23, 2022
A kind (and perhaps flirtatious?) letter from Harry Britt:
Dear Peter,
I just finished reading the materials you gave me, and I want to thank you for the obviously outstanding work you're doing. You're a very impressive guy, and I hope we'll manage to develop our friendship. Please keep in touch, and share with me anything you learn that I might be able to use in my work. Let me know when you're going to be in San Francisco—I'd really like to spend more time together.
Warmly -
Harry
Juana SamayoaJUNE 29, 2022
"If we all get together...this is our town." #intersectionality
📺 Juana Samayoa interviews Supervisor Harry Britt on her program "News Talk."
JULY 4, 2022
"I think we always have to be on the guard against bigotry, whether it's against gay people or Black people or Jews or women or whoever. However, I agree with Harvey—history is on the side of people coming to be more open, more accepting of each other."
📺 Juana Samayoa interviews Supervisor Harry Britt on her program "News Talk."
JULY 11, 2022
that closing music 💕💕
📺Juana Samayoa interviews Supervisor Harry Britt on her program "News Talk."
JUNE 30, 2022
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to produce a show about Harvey & Harry's story—a part of Milk's legacy that I never knew, and the extraordinary job his successor did carrying out a vision for a better gay future. 🌈
Harry was genderqueer, raised religious, and dealt with a series of neuroses. I deeply related to his story. Will & I hope you all were inspired by Harry's journey.
He wouldn't have wanted a movie or a celebration about him, but it's time we give Harry Britt his flowers.
💐🌹🌸 🌺 💐🌹🌸 🌺 💐🌹🌸 🌺 💐🌹🌸 🌺
xo
Devlyn
📸 Harry Britt c. 1979.
JULY 16, 2022
Please help support my next queer history projects by subscribing to my Patreon for $3/month!! 💖💖💖 & you can listen to all the fun bonus stuff I've been making over the years!
Exclusive episodes, spin-off series, gay history dives, peaks into the archives, and lots more. (Often NSFW, heads up.) Also I send you stuff in the mail. 💌
patreon.com/queerserial ✨
link in my bio
📸 May 21, 1979. White Night riots. AP.
JUNE 22, 2022
"We were fascinated by Harry when we learned his story, being this former minister who had left Texas and come out to San Francisco and made this whole new life for himself." —Gwenn Craig
📸 “BLACK LESBIAN FEMINIST” Gwenn Craig at the Democratic Convention in San Francisco, 1980.
📸 Gwenn Craig, Anne K, Bill Kraus, Bobby Kennedy, Jr, Hugh Guilbeau, and Harry Britt. c.1980
📸 Bill Kraus Memorial on Corona Heights. Harry Britt and Gwenn Craig on right. Date unknown.
🗞 Bay Area Reporter; November 1, 1979. Endorsement for Britt written by @gwenndolina and Bill Kraus.
JUNE 25, 2022
Hear Gwenn Craig, friend of Harry and mentee of Harvey, tell her full, edited story on this week's bonus episode of Forgotten Fairy Tales, only on Patreon 💖
📸 @gwenndolina at the Democratic Convention in San Francisco, August 14, 1980. Bettmann/Corbis.
📸 Craig in the @latimes, 2022.
🗞 More ephemera on sale at Bolerium Bookstore in SF.
JULY 3, 2022
Meet some of Harry's closest friends & allies when he was leading the gay community. 💐
Hear the FULL versions of the interviews on my Patreon now!
SCROLL DOWN BELOW for a full list of the interviews!
📸 Sharon Johnson on the far left, David Weissman in the left corner with mustache, Harry Britt on the far right. Photo from David.
📸 Tim Wolfred & Carole Migden with Elizabeth Taylor!! Art Against AIDS benefit, 1989.
📸 @david.weissman.film and Cleve Jones. Photo from David.
📸 @gwenndolina at the Democratic Convention in San Francisco, August 14, 1980. Bettmann/Corbis.
📸 Randy Alfred interviewed for film "Thanks to Hank" c. 2019.
JUNE 24, 2022
Harry passed 2 years ago today, June 24, 2020.
In the final episode, we're celebrating the life, friendships, and the astonishing impact of Supervisor Harry Britt 🎈
JULY 2, 2022
Harry Britt and friend Brad in the mural at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco, where Harry died June 24, 2020.
Second photo with the season’s host Will Roscoe! @willrxf
JULY 22, 2022
Some real cute pics of Harry Britt with historian Will Roscoe, fabulous host of this sister series 🎉💖✨
@willrxf #harrybritt
JULY 29, 2022
Huge thanks to Dan Nicoletta for allowing us to use his photo of Harry Britt on the Milk “human billboard” for our series artwork! Dan also provided Harvey Milk’s unedited audio will. 💖 And thanks to our many fabulous sponsors! 📢
@dannic100 @harveymilkclub @onearchives @makinggayhistorypodcast @sfpubliclibrary @glbt_history @shapingsf #sistersofperpetualindulgence
JULY 30, 2022
Thanks for tuning in 📻
Listen to all of “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!” wherever you get podcasts! Sharing things from my next project very soon 💋
📸 Campaign supporters (Harry Britt with arms raised, Wayne Friday, David Weissman, Bill Krause, Allen French) cheering radio telecast on Harvey Milk's election night, November 8, 1977. Photo by Daniel Nicoletta @dannic100
JULY 31, 2022
“Last question, Jane. How do you see the future of the gay movement?”
🎧 Listen to the full story and learn more about @janefonda’s gay activism on GIVE ‘EM HELL, HARRY! 🔥
🎥 @kinolibrary
Mayor Dianne Feinstein walking in the Candlelight March for Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk on November 28, 1979, as discussed on the podcast.
October 4, 2023
Season 4 host Will Roscoe on Senator Dianne Feinstein's passing:
"I surprised myself today...and I'm sure all of you...when I decided at the last minute to go the city hall and file past Dianne Feinstein as she laid in state.
I never liked her politics. I always saw her as our implacable foe for progressive change in SF. For me she epitomized the liberal who says, 'be quiet and behave and we'll let you have your rights.' But I had gone to city hall in 1978 to file past the caskets of Harvey Milk and George Moscone, and somehow taking my cap off before Dianne's casket felt like closing a loop.
1978 turned out to be the beginning of an epoch; for many of us the best of times and the worst. Dianne was omnipresent in those days. It was her nemesis, the gay progressive supervisor Harry Britt whom she appointed to take Harvey's place, that brought me to see another side. Dianne was the Pacific Heights matron; Harry was the Methodist minister whom she thought would be a calm, moderating influence on the increasingly flamboyant gay community she was now the mayor of. How did that work out, Dianne? LOL. Within weeks of appointing Harry she was heard to say it was the worst mistake of her career. Harry caused trouble on everything; always trying to get her to do things she couldn't do. Or shouldn't do.
The decades pass. The first time I visited Harry at Laguna Honda Hospital where he spent the last couple years of his life, I found an enormous bouquet of flowers in his room with a card embossed with the seal of the US Senate. It was a "get well" note from Diane. And she sent him an inspirational book as well. In end, it's true, she became a truer ally—atoning for her opposition in the 1980s to domestic partnerships by leading the fight against Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, in 2008. It was the best of times and the worst of times, it was the epoch I lived through—and Dianne was a part of both. Peace to you."
free bonus episodeS
Preview the series
A new sister series about Supervisor Harvey Milk’s final wishes.
On his audio will, Milk recommended a list of possible successors, including a relatively unknown volunteer in his campaign, Harry Britt.
Over three months in 2009, Roscoe recorded interviews with Harvey Milk’s successor, Supervisor Harry Britt, who turned Harvey Milk’s politics into reality. Will and Harry experienced Harvey’s assassination. They were in the candlelight march that night. And they were at City Hall when angry queers rioted, burning 14 cop cars. Harry Britt refused to apologize.
In a new series, we’ll tell you Milk’s story, and pick up where the movie left off. You’ll hear the story of a shy minister was chosen by Milk to fill his shoes in the event of assassination—and how he kept the movement going forward.
Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, & Harry Britt
Speak at Harvey Milk's 50th Birthday Dinner, 1980
Remember when Jane Fonda went viral in 2020 for a decades-old clip of her advocating for gay rights? Here’s the speech she gave later that night at the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club’s Milk birthday dinner on May 21, 1980. I believe the clip on YouTube is mislabeled as 1979, because her speech that night very specifically references the interaction with the reporter—but please correct me if I’m wrong!
This clip from “The Gay Life” hosted by Randy Alfred is courtesy our FABULOUS SPONSOR: THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY IN SAN FRANCISCO 💖 It features the voices of Randy Alfred, Supervisor Harry Britt, Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and Bill Kraus.
Happy 92nd birthday, Harvey! ✨
Original release date: May 22, 2022
“Harvey Milk's Political Will”
“This is Harvey Milk speaking from my camera store on the evening of Friday, November 18th. This is Tape #2…This is to be played only in the event of my death by assassination.”
This audio is provided courtesy of Daniel Nicoletta, a fabulous photographer who worked on Harvey’s campaigns and took some of the most well known photos of Harvey and Harry. You can read Dan’s history of the tapes and the transcript in a lovely new book here.
Infamous Crimes: White Night Riot Interviews
Producer Devlyn Camp talks to rioters who attended the legendary May 21, 1979
uprising following the verdict in the Dan White trial.
Listen only on Patreon.
Listen to the
preview here!
Sister Series Host
Will Roscoe
Professional Rioter
Jerry the Faerie
Anarchist
Joey Cain
Artist down the street
Rumi Missabu
Sister Mary Media
Cass Brayton
Forgotten Fairy Tales: Will Roscoe Interviews
Sister series host Will Roscoe interviews friends
and co-workers of Supervisor Harry Britt.
Listen only on Patreon.
Gwenn Craig:
Tom Ammiano:
Sharon Johnson:
Randy Alfred:
David Weissman:
Tim Wolfred:
Special thanks to the Hong-Murray Family Trust for their generous support of this project, in honor of the legacy of Stephen O. Murray.
Special thanks to the following
“No Apologies” & “Give ‘em Hell” donors on Indiegogo:
Timothy Dupps
Rafael Mandelman
Donald Hoffman
Tim Wolfred
Pat Gourley
Sharon Johnson
Sam Tepperman-Gelfant
P. Goldblum
Gerry Filby
Liz Ryan Murray
David Weissman
Tab Buckner
Daniel Nicoletta
Michael Epstein
Edward Wright
Angelica Jongco
Toby Johnson
Sparkle Jim Cartwright ✨
Duc Luu
David Bloxsom
Jason McKillican
Paul Di Ciccio
Eric Cervini
“Harry was progressive before the word became vogue. He was a powerful advocate for the gay community who never took no for an answer.”
—Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Listen to excerpts and learn more about Harry Britt on Will Roscoe’s website here, & sign up for periodic updates here!
Send inquiries to Devlyn here or Will here.
Donate to the production here.
Harry Britt and Will Roscoe, October 7, 2010.
“We needed to be a minority that you fear.”
Harry Britt