Harvey Milk, Openly Gay Man, Elected San Francisco Supervisor
Gay rights activist Harvey Milk was elected a San Francisco Supervisor (the equivalent of city council in other cities) on this day, making him one of the first openly gay elected officials in the country.
He served for 11 months before being assassinated, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, on November 27, 1978.
The assassin was Dan White, also a Supervisor and an angry opponent of LGBT rights. White was convicted, after unsuccessfully arguing the “Twinkie defense” which held that his judgement had been affected by certain foods. After being released from prison he committee suicide in 1985.
Milk had become known as the “Mayor of Castro Street,” the center of the lesbian and gay community in San Francisco, for his gay and lesbian rights activities.
Harvey Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
See and hear Harvey Milk speak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzQ3NFXwpV8
Learn more: Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (2008)
Learn more about the trial of Dan White who murdered Harvey Milk: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/milk/milkhome.html
See the Hollywood biography: Milk, with Sean Penn as Harvey Milk: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013753/
Or see the independent film: The Times of Harvey Milk (1984): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088275/
Learn more: Donald P. Haider-Markel, Out and Running: Gay and Lesbian Candidates, Elections, and Policy Representation (2010)