The weekend ahead of us might just be the turning point in Dubrovnik’s nightlife offer. Fifty square meters in size, the MILK club, located in Marojica Kaboga Street, arose as a spontaneous idea following the rhythm of the market.
Numerous members of the gay population have been warmly welcomed guests in Dubrovnik for years, even decades. Therefore, the idea of opening a gay bar was not only spontaneous, but also a completely logical step forward.
‘We follow trends, we follow the world scene. There is a big craze for MILK and we are very happy about that’, the owners told us – ‘there are a lot of gay friendly bars in Dubrovnik, but not a gay bar. Until this Saturday, May 7th!’
The MILK Bar is named after the American politician and activist Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in New York where he acknowledged his homosexuality as an adolescent, but chose to pursue sexual relationships with secrecy and discretion well into his adult years. His experience in the counterculture of the 1960s caused him to shed many of his conservative views about individual freedom and the expression of sexuality.
Milk was elected city supervisor in 1977 after San Francisco reorganized its election procedures to choose representatives from neighborhoods rather than through city-wide ballots. Milk served almost eleven months in office, during which he sponsored a bill banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. The Supervisors passed the bill by a vote of 11–1, and it was signed into law by Mayor George Moscone. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who cast the sole vote against Milk’s bill.
Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community.
