Harvey Milk
| Harvey Milk | |
|---|---|
Milk in 1978
|
|
| Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from District 5 | |
|
In office January 8, 1978 – November 27, 1978 |
|
| Preceded by | District Created |
| Succeeded by | Harry Britt |
| Constituency |
The Castro, Haight-Ashbury, Duboce Triangle, Noe Valley |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Harvey Bernard Milk May 22, 1930 Woodmere, New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 27, 1978 (aged 48) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Political party | Democratic (1972–78) |
| Other political affiliations |
Republican (before 1972) |
| Alma mater | University at Albany |
| Profession | Politician, business owner |
| Awards |
 2009 (posthumously)
|
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 United States |
| Service/branch |
 United States Navy
|
| Years of service | 1951–1955 |
| Rank |
 Lieutenant, junior grade
|
| Unit | USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) |
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Politics and gay activism were not his early interests; he was not open about his homosexuality and did not participate in civic matters until around the age of 40, after his experiences in the counterculture of the 1960s.
Milk moved from New York City to settle in San Francisco in 1972 amid a migration of gay men to the Castro District. He took advantage of the growing political and economic power of the neighborhood to promote his interests, and three times ran unsuccessfully for political office. His theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and Milk won a seat as a city supervisor in 1977, his election made possible by, and a key component of, a shift in San Francisco politics.
Milk served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor, who had recently resigned to pursue a private business enterprise but who had sought to get his position back after that endeavor failed.
Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States".Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager, wrote of him: "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
...
Wikipedia