Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone Assassinated in San Francisco
Harvey Milk, an openly gay man who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (the equivalent of city council in other cities) and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated on this day by Dan White, a conservative member of the Board of Supervisors and an aggressive anti-homosexual activist.
Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on November 7, 1977, one of the first openly gay or lesbian people to be elected to a high office. After moving to San Francisco in 1972, Milk quickly became a leader in the emerging lesbian and gay community centered in the Castro District of the city, and became known as “the Mayor of Castro Street.”
As a city supervisor Milk was responsible for the passage of a strong gay rights ordinance for the city.
Harvey Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
See and hear a Harvey Milk speech: 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 the murderer, Dan White: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/milk/milkhome.html
Watch the Hollywood film, Milk: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013753/?ref_=sr_1 (2008)
Or watch the independent film: The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)