Harvey Milk: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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'''Harvey Bernard Milk''' (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the [[San Francisco Board of Supervisors]].
Milk was born and raised in New York, where he acknowledged his homosexuality as an adolescent, but chose to pursue sexual relationships with secrecy and discretion well into his adult years. His experience in the [[counterculture of the 1960s]] caused him to shed many of his conservative views about individual freedom and the expression of sexualitysexual orientation.

You can read his story in Lithuanian and Latvian following the work of Clare B Dimyon MBE working with young Lithuanians and Latvians who did the translation work.<ref>https://www.lgl.lt/en/?p=2231</ref>

Lietuviška versija Hārvijs Bernards Milks

<ref>https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C4%81rvijs_Milks</ref>

Latviešu versija Harvis Milkas

<ref>https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk</ref>

Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and opened a camera store.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Van Horn |first=Haley |date=June 8, 2024 |orig-date=June 8, 2024 |title=Who Killed Harvey Milk? How the Politician Risked His Life Fighting for LGBTQ+ Rights |url=https://people.com/who-killed-harvey-milk-politician-life-legacy-8653005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240628090201/https://people.com/who-killed-harvey-milk-politician-life-legacy-8653005 |archive-date=June 28, 2024 |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=Peoplemag |language=en}}</ref> Although he had been restless, holding an assortment of jobs and changing addresses frequently, he settled in [[Castro District, San Francisco|the Castro]], a neighborhood that at the time was experiencing a mass immigration of gay men and lesbians. He was compelled to run for city supervisor in 1973, though he encountered resistance from the existing gay political establishment. His campaign was compared to theater; he was brash, outspoken, animated, and outrageous, earning media attention and votes, although not enough to be elected. He campaigned again in the next two supervisor elections, dubbing himself the "Mayor of Castro Street". Voters responded enough to warrant his running for the [[California State Assembly]] as well. Taking advantage of his growing popularity, he led the gay political movement in fierce battles against anti-gay initiatives. Milk was elected city supervisor in 1977 after San Francisco reorganized its election procedures to choose representatives from neighborhoods rather than through city-wide ballots.

Milk served almost eleven months in office, during which he sponsored a bill banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. The Supervisors passed the bill by a vote of 11–1, and it was signed into law by Mayor [[George Moscone]]. On November 27, 1978, [[Moscone–Milk assassinations| Milk and Moscone were assassinated]] by [[Dan White]], a disgruntled former city supervisor who cast the sole vote against Milk's bill.

Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the LGBT community.<ref group="note">Milk was described as a martyr by news outlets as early as 1979, by biographer Randy Shilts in 1982, and University of San Francisco professor Peter Novak in 2003. United Press International [October 15, 1979]; printed in the ''Edmonton Journal'', p. B10; Skelton, Nancy; Stein, Mark [October 22, 1985]. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-22-mn-12272-story.html S.F. Assassin Dan White Kills Himself] , ''Los Angeles Times'', Retrieved on February 3, 2012.; Shilts, p. 348; Nolte, Carl [November 26, 2003]. "City Hall Slayings: 25 Years Later", ''[[The San Francisco Chronicle]]'', p. A-1.</ref> In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significant openly [[LGBT]] official ever elected in the United States".<ref>Smith and Haider-Markel, p. 204.</ref> [[Anne Kronenberg]], his final campaign manager, wrote of him: "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us."<ref>Leyland, p. 37.</ref> Milk was posthumously awarded the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] in 2009.