As for Alinsky, his theories are actually a 'Gramsci For Dummies', the real source for the kulturekampf campaigns vis the media we're subjected to these days by the assorted deviants and sociopaths that dominate Democratic Party leadership now, for those who erroneously think this is all 'newthink' from the 1960's.. http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/gramsci-and-hegemony/ https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/11/all-things-all-people http://www.azquotes.com/author/5795-Antonio_Gramsci Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society. [/B] 'Secular humanism' is the Trojan horse currently in fashion for hiding the true 'cause' for most 'humanists'; F.A. Hayek's book The Fatal Conceit goes into some detail on 'constructivist rationalism' and how it differs from genuine 'rationalism', for those with time on their hands. One can contrast 'rationalist' socialism, i.e. Marxist-Leninism, with Henry George's socialism for a comparison with a non-constructivist form of socialism.
Mathew Shepard is not more 'famous'. His name retained some familiarity for about five years after his death as a victim of violent crime before subsiding, and only as a victim of crime and it dwindles with time. Milk had national exposure long before his death as a major spokesman for a nascent gay rights movement when he became a member of the San Franciso board of supervisors, organized the passage of the most stringent gay rights ordinance in the nation, wrote up this clever idea of a 'pooper scooper law' requiring dog owners to pick up, and then mobilized the first successful voter campaign against the Christian fundamentalist Anita Bryant movement.( which had been successful in rolling back civil rights ordinances in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; and Eugene, Oregon, throughout 1977-1978 and then Milk topped off beating back John Briggs statewide anti-gay proposition 6. So its not like Milk did not have a significant role in the movement, but it was as much showmanship and a knack for press manipulation and grass roots mobilization as long term national impact other leaders had behind the scenes for a lot more years of work. Harvey was a master of sizzle with a little bit steak, when others accomplished a lot more heavy lifting
I am going to add more on what I think the real contribution of Milk was. He was the first national figure to actually mobilize and control the forces Stonewall let loose, the young gays, the street people, the drag queens by mobilizing first Castro District then San Fransciso and then Northern California into a potent and radicalized marching and voting army and then even more remarkable, he could play the same kind of group identity politics of coalition building that heretofore only the Harry Hay/ matachine Society types had attempted, but without the grass roots energy of the second generation. As a member of the San Fransisco board, and THE representative of a new voting block he could sit down with the teamsters, or the catholic church or the business leadership in San Fransico despite the bizarre anti-establishment nature of his 'troops'. You know when you really see his legacy on the movement, its not in the blushing days of the gay rights movement he was part of. Oh no, that is not when the rabble-rousing, grass roots mobilizing sizzle skills of the Milk paid off. I swear I see his whispering presence in ACT-UP tactics and strategies as well as 80% of the urban and national gay activism in response to the AIDS epidemic that finally moved a nation to shake up funding sources, Washington DC, The CDC bureaucracy and fight the intransigence of the pharmaceutical and health care industries. He taught us how to street fight effectively by corralling media, and muscling reluctant and scared politicians.
