Harvey Milk

Harvey Bernard Milk (English: Harvey Bernard Milk, May 22, 1930 - November 27, 1978) was an American LGBT rights activist and the first openly gay politician in American politics (elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977). He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for District 5 in 1978. Milk, who was born and raised in New York state, knew of his homosexuality at an early age but never came out until he entered politics at the age of 40. At the beginning, he chose to go into business and often changed jobs. He could never calm down and could not tolerate boring things. In 1972, Harvey moved to San Francisco, California, and settled on Castro Street. At the time, a large number of gays and lesbians lived in the area. Harvey opened a photography store in Castro and decided to run for the City Board of Supervisors in 1973. His candidacy was a thorn in the back of gay organizations and conservatives at the time, because Harvey's views and approach to gay rights were completely different from theirs. Harvey was outspoken, impatient, energetic, and sometimes reckless. He used clever political propaganda techniques to successfully capture the media's focus and voters' votes, but unfortunately he still lost the election. He ran for office two more times but was not elected. Later, he also ran for California State House of Representatives, which greatly increased his popularity. He calls himself the "Mayor of Castro Street" and leads gays in political movements to fight against conservative anti-gay legislation. In 1977, the city of San Francisco changed the committee's election system, and Harvey was finally elected to the Fifth District of the Municipal Board of Supervisors. Milk served as a city council member for only ten months, and his main responsibility was to promote gay rights ordinances. On November 27, 1978, Harvey and then-Mayor George Mosconi were shot and killed by Dan White. White was elected as a new council member in the same term as Harvey, but he resigned due to disagreements with Mayor Mosconi and could not bear the pressure. Later, he went back on his word and wanted to return to the committee, but the mayor refused to agree, thus laying the foundation for murder. Milk went down in history in San Francisco and became a representative figure in the American gay rights movement. Before Harvey, the political climate in San Francisco had always required gay people to cooperate with conservative politicians in the Democratic Party. The main idea was to exchange repression for real purpose. Harvey's approach was completely different. He encouraged the gay community's growing influence in San Francisco and mutual exchanges.