Harvey Milk

His grandfather Morris Milk came from Lithuania as a Yiddish-speaking peddler, opened a department store in Woodmere on Long Island, and organized the first synagogue in the area. The grandson took a mathematics degree at Albany in 1951 and went into the Navy, serving as a diving officer aboard the submarine rescue ship Kittiwake and then as a diving instructor in San Diego. On February 7, 1955, the Navy made him resign at lieutenant junior grade with an other-than-honorable discharge rather than court-martial him for being homosexual. He taught high school. He analyzed insurance risk. He researched securities at Bache and Company on Wall Street, offended his elders by ignoring them, and worked for Barry Goldwater in 1964. He was past 40 before he moved to San Francisco for good.

Castro Camera opened in March 1973 on the last 1,000 dollars he and Scott Smith had, after a shop ruined a roll of their film. He lost three elections from that storefront: 10th of 32 candidates in 1973, seventh and one seat short in 1975, and the Assembly to Art Agnos in 1976. He built coalitions the gay establishment would not — the Teamsters wanted the Coors boycott honored in gay bars, and he traded that for union jobs. District elections gave him the seat on November 8, 1977, by 30 percent over 16 opponents. In just over 10 months he passed the most far-reaching gay rights ordinance in the country, 11 votes to one, and a law requiring dog owners to clean up after their animals, which he introduced by stepping in the evidence at Duboce Park, on camera.

He came home one evening in 1978 to find Jack Lira, the boyfriend whose drinking he had decided he was finished with, hanged. Lira had attempted it before, and a note said the Bryant and Briggs campaigns were more than he could take. Milk had already recorded a tape naming who should take his seat if he were killed, and told it that if a bullet entered his brain, that bullet should destroy every closet door. Dan White quit the board on November 10, wanted the seat back, and did not get it. On November 27 he entered City Hall through a basement window, shot Mayor George Moscone in the shoulder and chest and then twice in the head, walked to Milk's office, asked him to step inside, and shot him five times, twice in the head.

Friends looking for a suit to bury him in found every jacket coming apart and every sock holed — the supervisor's salary had cost him money. His ashes were divided: most into San Francisco Bay, some sealed under the sidewalk at 575 Castro Street. A jury convicted White of voluntary manslaughter in May 1979 and gave him seven years and eight months. The city burned that night. White was out in 1984 and killed himself with carbon monoxide in 1985. Obama gave Milk the Medal of Freedom in 2009, San Francisco named an airport terminal for him, and the Navy named an oiler. In June 2025 the Defense Secretary ordered his name taken off it, during Pride Month.

Harvey Milk's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Castro Camera company
  A storefront at 575 Castro Street that worked mainly as a campaign office 1973
• Castro Village Association company
  A merchants' group he founded and led after the existing one blocked a gay-owned shop 1973
• San Francisco gay rights ordinance law
  Called the most stringent in the nation. It passed 11 to one, with Dan White voting no. 1978
• The pooper scooper law law
  Aimed at the city's single largest complaint, and covered by every camera in town 1978
• The Hope Speech speech
  Delivered in versions through 1977 and 1978, most famously at Gay Freedom Day 1978
• The campaign against Proposition 6 other
  The Briggs Initiative lost statewide by more than a million votes 1978

• February 7, 1955 aged 24 Forced out of the Navy with an other-than-honorable discharge The alternative was a court-martial for participation in a homosexual act.
• 1964 aged ~34 Works for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign He was then a securities researcher at Bache and Company.
• 1972 aged ~42 Settles in San Francisco for good He had first come through in 1969 with the touring company of Hair.
• March 1973 aged 42 Opens Castro Camera on the last 1,000 dollars he and Scott Smith had
• November 8, 1977 aged 47 Wins a seat on the Board of Supervisors on the fourth try District elections finally let the Castro elect its own. He beat 16 opponents by 30 percent.
• 1978 aged ~48 The gay rights ordinance clears the board 11 to one Moscone signed it with a light blue pen Milk had given him for the purpose.
• November 7, 1978 aged 48 Proposition 6 is defeated by more than a million votes San Francisco voted 75 percent against it.
• November 27, 1978 aged 48 Dan White shoots Mayor Moscone and then Milk inside City Hall That night between 25,000 and 40,000 people carried candles from Castro Street to City Hall.
• May 21, 1979 aged 48 White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and the city riots The sentence was seven years and eight months. He served just over five.

• Barack Obama b. 1961
  44th President and first African American to hold the office, known for the Affordable Care Act. awarded by
• Larry Kramer 1935–2020
  Writer who co-founded Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT UP — forcing faster federal response to AIDS. successor in the argument
• Marsha P. Johnson 1945–1992
  Transgender activist and Stonewall uprising figure who co-founded STAR to help homeless LGBTQ youth. predecessor in the movement
• Bayard Rustin 1912–1987
  Civil rights strategist who organized the 1963 March on Washington and championed LGBTQ and labor rights. organizer he learned from
• Nancy Pelosi b. 1940
  First female Speaker of the House who shepherded major healthcare and economic legislation. represented the same city
• Barry Goldwater 1909–1998
  Senator and presidential nominee whose 1964 campaign helped create the modern conservative movement. campaigned for in 1964