10 Heroic Information About Harvey Milk

In 1977, a charismatic camera shop owner named Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco board of directors. The triumph made him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the state of California and one of the first openly gay people to hold public office in America. Despite being a local race, Milk had a nationwide impact on the LGBTQ movement – both in life and in death.

1. As a young man, Harvey Milk worked on Wall Street – and Broadway.

Harvey Milk was a man of many interests. Born May 22, 1930 in Woodmere, New York, Milk loved opera, played several sports, and wrote columns for students at his alma mater, New York College for Teachers (now known as SUNY Albany). After graduating from the 1951 class, Milk built a formidable resume: Wall Street Research Analyst, Public School Teacher, and Associate Broadway Producer were among the various job titles he received before moving to San Francisco in 1972.

2. The Vietnam War changed Harvey Milk’s political ideology.

When Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Directors in 1977, he ran for Democrat. But his earlier forays into politics were on the other side of the aisle. More than a decade earlier, Milk had been recruited into Republican Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. It was the Vietnam War that changed his policy. “The day Nixon invaded Cambodia was the day I had to speak out against war profiteers, big corporations and so on,” Milk told NBC News in 1978. “And so I got rid of my Wall Street career … and when I went through that door, I moved on.”

3. Harvey Milk became known as the “Mayor of Castro Street”.

By the time Milk made its mark on Castro Street in San Francisco, the famous street – and the neighborhood around it – was already a hub of the city’s gay scene. In 1973 Milk and his then partner Castro Camera opened a small photo shop that developed into a meeting place in the neighborhood. Milk used the store as a campaign hub throughout all of his public office applications, which eventually earned him the nickname “The Mayor of Castro Street.”

4. Harvey Milk and the San Francisco Teamsters union worked together to organize a beer boycott.

In 1973, half a dozen large beer traders collectively refused to hire union truck drivers. The following summer, Allan Baird of the San Francisco Teamsters Union asked Milk to convince the city’s gay bars to participate in a mass boycott of these companies. Milk happily agreed, explaining, “If we in the gay community want others to help us in our fight against discrimination, then we have to help others in their struggles.” With Milk’s help, San Francisco gay bars blacklisted the vendors which caused five of them to reverse their attitudes towards union drivers.

5. Harvey Milk wasn’t the only LGBTQ politician to succeed in the 1970s.

Milk’s political success didn’t come overnight. Prior to the 1977 elections, Milk had unsuccessfully campaigned for a seat on the San Francisco board of directors and had not been elected California MP. However, Milk wasn’t the first open member of the LGBTQ community to win an American election. That honor goes to Kathy Kozachenko, who was elected to Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council in 1974. Then came Elaine Noble, the first openly gay candidate to hold national office in the 1975 General Assembly.

6. Harvey Milk helped kill a government initiative that would have banned LGBTQ teachers.

After being sworn in on January 8, 1978, Milk quickly threw himself into the fight against California Proposition 6. Better known as “the Briggs Initiative,” this election was championed by Orange County Senator John Briggs. If it had happened, California public schools would have had to fire all gay and lesbian teachers, teaching assistants, counselors and administrators in their service. Not only did Milk publicly debate the measure with Briggs, he also called on then-President Jimmy Carter to condemn it. When the Californians voted in November, the initiative was rejected by more than a million votes.

7. Dog poop was a big headache for Harvey Milk.

“I don’t want to put anyone in jail, I don’t want to pay anyone a fine. I just want to clean up the mess, ”Milk told KQED News in San Francisco in 1978. He sponsored a bill that imposed fees of $ 10 or more for dog owners in the area who didn’t restrain their pets. Milk’s ordinance, nicknamed the Scoop the Poop Act by future mayor (and current US Senator) Dianne Feinstein, was passed unanimously by the board of directors.

8. Harvey Milk was murdered by a colleague in town hall.

Former firefighter and police officer Dan White was another new addition to the board who was elected on the same day as Milk. The two overseers seemed to get along well at first, but things turned sour after Milk voted to open a troubled youth facility in White’s District. Citing financial problems and other concerns, White later resigned from the board. Then, in an abrupt twist, White asked Mayor George Moscone to reappoint him to the position that had just become vacant. Ultimately, the mayor refused.

Moscone’s decision was influenced by some of the more liberal board members, including Milk, who opposed White’s reappointment. On November 27, 1978, White – armed with a .38 revolver – climbed through a basement window in City Hall. Inside, he killed Moscone, reloaded his gun, and murdered Milk.

9. The trial of Harvey Milks killer led to the “White Night Riots”.

Despite the murder of two senior officials, White was never charged with murder. Instead, he was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser offense that earned him seven years and eight months in prison. About 5,000 demonstrators marched to City Hall, feeling that White had escaped justice. This was followed by the so-called “White Night Riots” of May 21, 1978, in which 124 demonstrators and 59 police officers were injured as a result of the controversial outcome of the process. (As for Dan White, he committed suicide on October 21, 1985, less than two years after he was released from prison.)

10. The US Navy named a ship in honor of Harvey Milk.

Milks name now graces a New York high school, an airport terminal in San Francisco, and street signs on the west coast. And then there is the USNS Harvey Milk, a marine replenishment oiler that is currently under construction. Milk himself had served in the Navy before being forced to resign because of his homosexuality.

“The naming of this ship after Harvey Milk is a fitting tribute to a man who was on the front line for civil and human rights,” said former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus in 2016 about the namesake of the ship.

One version of this story ran in 2020; it has been updated for 2021.