Harvey Milk was a gay politician who fought for gay rights and was elected as San Francisco’s first openly gay supervisor in 1977. He sponsored anti-discrimination legislation and fought against the Briggs Initiative. He was assassinated in 1978 by Dan White, who used the “Twinkie Defense” in his trial. Milk’s legacy paved the way for more openly gay politicians in the United States.
Harvey Milk was a San Francisco politician who is sadly probably most famous for his death at the hands of former supervisor Dan White; at White’s trial, the infamous “Twinkie Defense” was used to justify his actions. However, Milk achieved a number of notable achievements during his lifetime, the most notable of which was his election as an openly gay candidate at a time when homosexuality was still widely regarded as a mental illness. When Harvey Milk became San Francisco’s first gay supervisor in 1977 and one of the first openly gay politicians in the modern world, he became an inspiration to gays and lesbians everywhere.
He was born in New York in 1930 and entered the Navy in 1951. After being honorably discharged, Harvey Milk worked as a teacher in New York City and eventually moved to San Francisco in 1972. Milk had no interest in politics, but quickly became a leader in the Castro, San Francisco’s gay neighborhood. He also became a prominent activist in the city, fighting for gay rights and representing the gay community at City Hall.
After several unsuccessful political campaigns, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He sponsored successful anti-discrimination legislation and also fought the Briggs Initiative, an attempt to ban gays and lesbians from working as teachers in California . Along the way, he clashed repeatedly with fellow supervisor Dan White, and White eventually resigned, claiming that he could not afford to support his family on a city salary.
On November 27, 1978, Mayor George Moscone was about to announce an official replacement for Dan White. White slipped into City Hall with a revolver, evading detection at the entrance, and after a brief verbal altercation, shot Moscone and Milk. White turned into a police station hours later and insisted during his trial that the crime had not been premeditated. He also claimed to have been depressed, citing his junk food consumption as evidence of his altered mental state. The jury convicted him of manslaughter and sentenced him to just seven years, sparking angry riots in and around City Hall.
Harvey Milk has left a legacy in American politics. Speaking about the possibility of homicide before his death, he once said that “If a bullet should enter my brain, let me smash every closet door,” referring to the term “closed” for gays and lesbians who weren’t open on their sexuality. Milk certainly paved the way for more gays and lesbians to come out, and today gay politicians can be found serving at various levels of government across the United States, thanks in large part to Harvey Milk’s first step.
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