DIVA Spotlight - Harvey Milk Meets John Briggs

Today's DIVA Spotlight is an excerpt from a KPIX-TV special report featuring scenes from a 1978 debate between Harvey Milk and John Briggs.

Here Milk and Briggs clash over issues relating to California Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, and the rights of gays and lesbians to teach in classrooms. Briggs states early on that: "I care about this country and I care about the family. And I really, sincerely, honestly and truly believe, from the bottom of my heart, that homosexuality is a real threat to the survival of this country." The segment ends with Milk challenging Briggs veracity: "You know you're lying! You know you're changing the statements around ... just like you shifted the money around in your campaigns ... You talk about morality and I question what is your real motive behind it. What is your real ambition behind this?"

Proposition 6 became the catalyst for the Log Cabin Republicans in 1977 and was opposed by former state Governor Ronald Reagan, then-president Jimmy Carter and former president Gerald Ford. The proposition was defeated on November 7, 1978 with 58.4% of Californian voters opposing it, including a majority of voters in Brigg’s home district.

Harvey Milk Meets John Briggs is part of the San Francisco Bay Area TV Collection and is hosted in DIVA.