The politician who led a revolution for gay rights

Harvey Milk was a politician who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States.

But his life and political career were cruelly cut short when he was murdered by a colleague on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978. 

Milk served 11 months in office, during which he sponsored a bill banning discrimination against people for their sexual orientation. 

He won his seat through a broad spectrum of support from the San Francisco community, including from its then growing gay population.

Politics was a late career choice for Milk, a veteran of the US Navy who served during the Korean War.
After leaving the military, he worked in New York as a schoolteacher, a stock analyst and a musical production assistant. He later moved to San Francisco and opened a camera shop, which, thanks to his theatricality and winning personality, quickly became a hub for the gay community.

Milk threw himself into making the lives of gay people better. He founded an association to fend off discrimination against businesses, creating a power base for gay business owners, and defeated a council proposition which would have prevented gay people from working as teachers.

As a gay man in such a visible position, Milk received innumerable death threats and accepted he might be assassinated for his activism. 

He recorded several versions of his will, one including the now-famous statement: “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”

Milk was assassinated on November 27, 1978, by disgruntled former city supervisor Dan White. White was acquitted of murder charges and received a light sentence for manslaughter. On the day of his sentencing, outraged locals stormed the city hall and set police cars on fire.

Officers retaliated by raiding a gay bar, vandalising gay businesses and beating people in the street.

Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.


Faggot Forefathers

This series highlights the lives of historically significant gay men and their contributions to our world.

Men have been fucking each other since time immemorial. Sons, brothers, fathers, soldiers, slaves.

Throughout history, our forefathers have faced persecution at every turn in pursuit of that animalistic – and natural – need to fuck their fellow man.

We should remember those who came before us.

Got a suggestion of someone we should be featuring? Email tommy@treasureislandmedia.com.


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