Cathy Woolard
The former Atlanta City Council president on Harvey's example.
Cathy Woolard
Cathy Woolard
Former Atlanta City Council President, District 6
Democrat
When did you first learn about the life (and death) of Harvey Milk? What did he mean to you then? How old were you?
I don’t really remember when I first heard about Harvey Milk. I was in college in Georgia when he was killed. I was barely out at the time. But when I really connected with Harvey’s legacy was when I ran for office (city council) the first time. I remember having seen some film footage of Harvey in a park talking about the need for “pooper scoopers” (my words, not his). It was reassuring to me as a first time candidate to watch him discussing neighborhood issues as part of his campaign. I could really identify with him.
Was Harvey Milk an inspiration to you when you ran for public office? What is it that inspired you about him?
The level of personal attention that comes with running for office is daunting for almost anyone. But for a gay candidate, even one who is/was fairly comfortable with being out, it’s quite a bit of a loss of privacy. I don’t know how Harvey felt about that day in and day out, but he was a role model for me and I thought about him many times during my campaigns. I also thought about him after I won. I received a number of hateful phone calls right after I won and the thought did cross my mind about the potential for a lunatic like Dan White to come after me, too. But ultimately I didn’t really worry about that. Harvey broke down so many barriers for those of us who followed him, that the response when I won was really generally quite positive.
What specific challenges did you face running (or serving) because of your own sexual orientation?
I think the biggest challenge, at first, was convincing people that I didn’t have some exclusively “gay agenda”. I was tested frequently in the early days of my first term by constituents (even gay constituents) who just wouldn’t believe that I was willing to tackle everything from poop in the park (it did come up) to zoning issues. Once I met the test though and people realized I was interested in all sorts of issues, my sexual orientation became less and less of an issue. In my final race, there was actually a newspaper article, for the first time, that referred to me as Cathy Woolard, “environmentalist” and said nothing of my sexual orientation. It took almost 8 years for that to be the case, but I saved that article because I was most proud of having finally earned a tag line other than “first openly gay elected official in GA” Cathy Woolard.
What has changed the most for a lesbian/gay politician since the days of Harvey Milk?
What has changed most for GLBT politicians since the days of Harvey Milk is that we now have the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund to train and support qualified candidates; that we have GLBT electeds in almost every state and at many levels of government and that laws are changing literally every day. We live in a country that has experienced 30 years of people coming out in large numbers and at earlier ages. We are debating marriage, not just decriminalization of sodomy! In 1978, we were still liable to be arrested for private consensual sex in Georgia and a number of other states. It’s been a remarkable transformation and Harvey’s election was an incredibly important milestone in that journey. We owe him such a debt of gratitude for his leadership and his sacrifice. I’m thrilled this movie has been made so that GLBT and non-gay audiences can know more about this important man and how far we have all come in such an incredibly short period of time. I hope Sean Penn earns an Oscar because Harvey himself deserves all that and more.
Cathy Woolard currently serves as the Executive Vice President for Global Advocacy and External Relations, has an extensive background in public affairs, advocacy and international affairs. She made history when she became the first woman to hold the position of Atlanta City Council President in 2002. From 1999 until she joined CARE, Cathy ran a successful public affairs consulting firm. From 1989 to 1996, she worked for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, DC; and prior to that, she served in the US Peace Corps in Moen, Truk, Federated States of Micronesia.
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