Harvey Milk
1930-1978
Harvey Milk was an American politician and gay-rights activist. After graduating from the New York State College for Teachers in Albany, Milk served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and was discharged in 1955. He held several jobs before becoming a financial analyst in New York. In 1972 he moved to San Francisco, where he opened a camera store and soon gained a following as a
leader in the gay community. His popularity grew when he challenged the city’s gay leadership, which he thought was too conservative in its attempts to gain greater political rights for homosexuals.
In 1973 Milk ran for a seat on the city’s Board of Supervisors but was defeated. After another unsuccessful bid in 1976, he was elected in 1977, becoming one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history.
Milk was an eloquent speaker who passionately advocated for gay rights in California. “I ask my gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight. For themselves, for their freedom, for their country,” he said. “We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets… We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of our silence, so I’m going to talk about it. And I want you to talk bout it. You must come out.”
The following year Milk and the city’s mayor, George Moscone, were shot and killed in City Hall by Dan White, a conservative former city supervisor. At White’s murder trial, his attorneys successfully argued that his judgment had been impaired by a prolonged period of clinical depression. White’s conviction on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter sparked an uproar in the city that was subsequently termed the “White Night Riot.”
In 2009 Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.