Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician who was 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 early, but chose to pursue relationships with secrecy and discretion.
Milk joined the counterculture of the 1960s, shedding many of his conservative views, and moved to San Francisco in 1972.
Milk settled in the Castro District, a neighborhood that was experiencing a mass immigration of gay men and lesbians. He decided to run for city supervisor in 1973, where he came up against the existing gay political establishment, earning their resentment. He was brash, outspoken, animated, and outrageous, and he equated politics with theater, earning media attention and votes, although not enough to be elected.
He campaigned again in the next two supervisor elections, dubbing himself the "Mayor of Castro Street", and also ran for the California State Assembly.
Harvey Milk served almost eleven months as city supervisor and was largely responsible for a city-wide gay rights ordinance.
On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned and wanted his job back.
Milk has become an icon in the city's history and a historic figure in the gay rights movement. While established gay political organizers in San Francisco were encouraging gays to work with liberal politicians and to use restraint in reaching their objectives, Milk outspokenly encouraged gays to seize their growing power in the city and to support each other, and his successes gave hope to disenfranchised gays around the country.
Sean Penn and James Franco star in the film "Milk". To be released later this year.
Read more about Harvey Milk
Source: wikipedia
