Remembering Beloved Gay Civil Rights Activist Harvey Milk

On May 22, 1930, Harvey Milk was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Woodmere, New York. Though closeted in his earliest years, Milk would go on to become one of history’s most notable out and outspoken champions of gay rights. He made his biggest mark in the 1970s, a time when simply being “out” was a form of bold activism. During his extraordinary career, he galvanized community support around a measure intended to expel gay teachers from public schools in California. 

He also spearheaded historic rights protections, which banned discrimination based on sexual orientation across employment, housing, and public accommodations. That landmark Human Rights Ordinance was signed into law on April 11, 1978, by San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. It passed by a vote of 11–1. Later that year, both Milk and Moscone would be assassinated by the sole city supervisor who cast a vote in opposition.

Today, Harvey Milk’s date of birth serves to commemorate one of our most beloved queer activists, to celebrate his legacy of securing rights where they were lacking, and to honor his example of unabashed authenticity.

The Early Years

Opera fan, football player, and jokester. By high school, the big-eared kid from Long Island knew that he was gay. After graduating, Harvey Milk studied at New York State College for Teachers and worked on a student newspaper column where he began digging into issues around diversity. In 1951, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he was a deep-sea diver and operations officer on rescue submarines—until 1955, when he met the fate of many gay people in the military: risk of losing benefits and facing a possible court-martial after being questioned about his sexuality. Milk voluntarily resigned after admitting to the Navy that he was gay.

For a time, he worked as a teacher, then a stock analyst on Wall Street, and dabbled in production work for Broadway musicals, including Hair. It was the “Age of Aquarius” during the 1960s and early 70s, and Milk took to demonstrations against the Vietnam War, and began heeding the call to advocacy.

After moving to San Francisco in 1972, Milk opened a camera store on Castro Street where his popularity and commitment to local politics began to blossom. When a few business owners tried to stop two gay men from opening a store, he formed the Castro Village Association, consisting of mostly queer businesses—a first in the nation and a roadmap for future similar fights.

Milk ran for local office. Embodying a spirit of persistence, it took the self-proclaimed “Mayor of Castro Street” four tries over several years to finally win a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (District 6). In 1977, he became the first openly gay person elected to office in California. 

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The victory sparked widespread joy: it wasn’t just a candidate’s win, but a win for a movement. Suddenly, gay people had someone to represent them, and he endeavored “to open up dialogue to the sensitivities of all the people,” as he told Channel 5 News the night of his win.

From this platform, Milk spoke out on behalf of marginalized communities. He sponsored bills to establish daycare centers for working moms and to convert city military facilities to low-cost housing. He worked with the mayor to improve library services, establish a police oversight committee, and was committed to advancing the rights of senior citizens.

Charismatic, brimming with personality, and a fantastic mobilizer, Milk is best known for working fiercely for gay rights. He threw his focus on a landmark gay rights ordinance in San Francisco that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Signed in March 1978, this bit of legislation was considered among the most encompassing in the country.

Famously, he worked to defeat Proposition 6, spearheaded by State Senator John Briggs. Also known as the Briggs Initiative, the statewide ballot measure targeted lesbian and gay teachers in public schools, seeking to ban them and require that they be fired.

In a famous “Hope” speech at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, Milk urged his “gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight” against this and other discriminatory legislation. This was a time when Anti-gay activists, like pageant finalist Anita Bryant, were campaigning across the country to roll back what progress had been made, preaching that queers were perverts and pedophiles.

Milk reached out to the White House. He called for President Jimmy Carter “to take a leadership role in defending the rights of gay people”—to take a stand against Proposition 6, reminding him that this was not only a state ballot, but a matter of national human rights. Despite Jimmy Carter’s evangelical sister’s offer to convert Harvey Milk to Christianity so that his homosexuality would disappear, President Jimmy Carter, along with predecessor President Gerald Ford and future President Ronald Reagan, publicly opposed the bigoted initiative.

Proposition 6 was defeated by about 1 million votes.

Hate Targets Love

The recipient of much hate mail, Milk was aware that at any given time, his life could be in danger. Ten days after being named Supervisor, he stated that he knew that “a person who stands for what I stand for” becomes a target. Prophetically, he made an oral will, “…to be played only in the event of my death by assassination …if a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”  

Several weeks after the defeat of Proposition 6, on November 27, 1978, ex-firefighter Dan White, a clean-cut former fellow City Supervisor (District 8), brought a grudge and a gun with a pocket full of extra ammo to City Hall and snuck in a window. White was upset with Mayor George Moscone for refusing to reappoint him after White had resigned.

White found Mayor George Moscone in his office and shot him dead. He reloaded his gun and went for Harvey Milk, whom he also blamed. The first shot hit Milk as he was rising, hands outstretched. After Milk fell, White fired three more times, then leaned over the activist and fired again with the gun to Milk’s head.

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Shock reverberated across San Francisco and beyond. That night, an entire community gathered on Market Street in the Castro, and in a vigil marked by silence and tears, began marching toward City Hall. Soon, an expanse of people and candlelight surfaced as far and wide as the eyes could see. Over 25,000 people had come together to grieve the passing of Harvey Milk – people who well understood the struggle for which he lost his life. 

The Aftermath

Five months later, Dan White’s trial got underway. Dan White confessed, but some in the jury—composed entirely of white people—actually cried in sympathy at the killer’s claim to be troubled and under pressure. The defense argued that depression contributed, in part, induced by gorging on junk food, Twinkies in particular. (The term “Twinkie defense” is used today to refer mockingly to an improbable defense.) Charges were reduced from murder to voluntary manslaughter, and far from the electric chair, which had been possible, White got eight years for both murders, prompting riots on the streets. He was ultimately released after five years and, within two years, took his own life.

Harvey Milk’s ashes were scattered by his friends in San Francisco Bay. Additionally, a portion of his ashes were mixed into the sidewalk cement at 575 Castro Street, where his camera store was located. There is also a memorial to him at the Neptune Society Columbarium in San Francisco. Several public schools were named in his honor, including the Harvey Milk High School in New York City.

On November 6, 2021, the USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO 206) oiler ship was christened in San Diego, to honor Harvey Milk as a gesture of amending the wrong against him. “Leaders like Harvey Milk taught us that diversity of backgrounds and experiences help contribute to the strength and resolve of our nation. There is no doubt that the future Sailors aboard this ship will be inspired by Milk’s life and legacy,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said.

Harvey Milk will be remembered for the hard-fought battles that he won. But his greatest legacy will always be that of encouraging gay people, particularly young people, to be out and proud, true to themselves. He said we couldn’t win the fight by staying quietly in closets. “We must continue to speak out, and most importantly, most importantly—every gay person must come out.”

To learn more about the life of Harvey Milk, check out the Harvey Milk Foundation and these Oscar-winning films: the 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk, and 2009 drama, Milk, starring Sean Penn.