The first openly gay elected official in the United States, Harvey Milk is known as a civil and human rights leader who became a San Francisco icon after his election to the city’s Board of Supervisors. He named himself the “Mayor of Castro Street,” and his political impact earned him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the naming of US Navy ship, a place on Time’s 100 Heroes of the 20th Century, and an induction into California’s Hall of Fame. Sean Penn picked up an Oscar for his role as Milk in Gus Van Sant’s Milk (2008).
Milk was born in Woodmere, New York on May 22, 1930. He worked in Milks, his family’s department store. The family founded a Jewish synagogue and were heavily involved in New York’s “Litvaks” community.
Milk attended Bayshore High School. He was a popular student, interested in everything from opera to football. Milk knew he was gay by this time, had early sexual experiences in the balcony sections of matinee opera performances. He attended New York State College for Teachers (now State University of New York), where he studied math and history, and wrote a student newspaper column. He graduated in 1951.
After college, Milk joined the Navy and attended Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. Based in San Diego, he served as a diving instructor. Milk was also a lieutenant junior grade but resigned in 1955 after his sexual orientation was questioned.
After serving in the military, Milk worked as a public-school teacher on Long Island, a stock analyst in New York City, and a production associate for Broadway. He worked on Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair.
Milk became increasingly interested in politics throughout the 1960s and 70s. He demonstrated against the Vietnam War. In 1972, he moved to San Francisco and opened a camera store on Castro Street. Milk’s likability and charismatic nature made him a popular, and his store grew into a neighbourhood hub. However, frustrations with Watergate and local bureaucracy lead Milk to get involved in government.
Milk first ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1973, contrary to wishes of the gay political establishment, who considered him a newcomer. Milk’s fiery campaign style on a platform of marijuana legalisation and opposition to government interference in private sexual issues, earned him media attention and captured the votes of the Castro District and other liberal areas. Unfortunately, he lost the 1973 race.
That year Milk helped found the Castro Village Association with other business owners, to advocate for LGBT businesses, with Milk as president. As “The Mayor of Castro Street,” he formed relationships with organised labour and promoted the gay workforce. In 1974, Milk started the Castro Street Fair to bring customers to the area’s businesses.
With his reputation and influence growing, Milk ran for San Francisco City/County Supervisor and lost. His raised profile also made him a growing target of death threats. Mayor George appointed him to the Board of Permit Appeals, which made him the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States. After he lost the race for the state assembly to represent the Sixteenth Assembly District, he worked to pass an amendment, making the Board of Supervisors a district election. In 1977, the Castro District elected Milk to the Board of Supervisors.
On January 9, 1978, Milk was inaugurated as a San Francisco City-County Supervisor, and his election made headlines around the world. He served a broad constituency with a reform agenda including gay rights, day care centres for working mothers, low-cost housing, and tax code reform. Milk helped defeat Proposition 6, a California ballot initiative to fire gay public-school teachers. At the same time, growing crowds started participating in gay pride marches in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where Milk and others campaigned against gay discrimination.
“Gay people, 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 silence, so I’m going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out.”— Harvey Milk
On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a former city Supervisor. An hour before Moscone was set to announce his replacement on the Board of Supervisors at a press conference, White snuck into the basement of City Hall through the basement. With a police-issue revolver, he shot Moscone in the mayor’s office, and then returned to his former office and shot Milk. Moscone was 49 years old. Milk was 48.
Stuart Milk, Harvey’s nephew, joined countless more across the United States in coming out on the day his uncle was murdered. In San Francisco, nearly 40,000 people participated in a candlelight march to City Hall from Castro Street. Memorials for Milk were held at Temple Emanu-El and the Opera House.
Claiming junk food had affected his behaviour, White was acquitted of murder charges. He was only sentenced to eight years for manslaughter. On May 21, 1979, citizens stormed City Hall and burned police cars in what has been called the White Night Riots.
“Just tell people we ate too many Twinkies. That’s why this is happening,” a rioter said, explaining the destruction to a reporter. In retaliation, the police raided Castro, vandalised gay businesses and beat people on the streets. White suicided after being paroled only six years later.
Milk’s life and legacy have been immortalised in films like Robert Epstein’s The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), books like the Shilts’s biography The Mayor of Castro Street (1982), and an opera. Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Gus Van Sant’s Milk (2008), and Dustin Lance Black won for his screenplay. San Francisco named Milk’s birthday, May 22, as “Harvey Milk Day,” now celebrated around the world.
About the Authors
Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.
Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.
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