Quick Facts<\/p>\n
FULL NAME: Harvey Bernard Milk
BORN: May 22, 1930
DIED: November 27, 1978
BIRTHPLACE: Woodmere, New York
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini<\/p>\n
Early Years and Naval Service<\/p>\n
Harvey Bernard Milk was born on May 22, 1930, in Woodmere, New York. Reared in a small middle-class Jewish family, Milk was one of two boys born to William and Minerva Milk. A well-rounded, well-liked student, Harvey played football and sang in the opera at Bay Shore High School. Like his brother, Robert, he also worked at the family department store, Milk\u2019s.<\/p>\n
After graduating from the New York State College for Teachers in 1951, Milk joined the U.S. Navy, ultimately serving as a diving instructor at a base in San Diego during the Korean War. Following his discharge in 1955, Milk moved to New York City, where he worked a variety of jobs, including public school teacher, production associate for several high-profile Broadway musicals, stock analyst, and Wall Street investment banker. He soon tired of finance, though, and befriended gay radicals who frequented Greenwich Village.<\/p>\n
LGBTQ Activist and Politician<\/p>\n
In late 1972, bored with his life in New York, Milk moved to San Francisco. In California, he opened a camera shop called Castro Camera on Castro Street, putting his life and work right in the heart of the city\u2019s gay community.<\/p>\n
For much of his life, Milk had stayed quiet about his personal life. He had known since high school that he was gay, and even in the wake of an emerging gay rights movement, the deliberate and careful Milk chose to remain on the sidelines. But things had started to turn for him toward the end of his time in New York, as he befriended a number of openly gay people who frequented Greenwich Village.<\/p>\n
In San Francisco, his life and outspoken politics evolved even further. As Castro Camera increasingly became a neighborhood center, Milk found his voice as a leader and activist. In 1973, he declared his candidacy for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to help lead the city and the county. A novice politician with little money, Milk lost the election, but the experience didn\u2019t deter him from trying again. Two years later, he narrowly lost a second election for the same seat. By then, Milk had become a political force\u2014an outspoken leader in the gay community with political connections that included San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Assembly speaker and future city mayor Willie Brown, and future U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n Harvey Milk sits outside his camera shop in San Francisco in 1977.Getty Images<\/p>\n In 1977, Milk, who was known affectionately as the \u201cMayor of Castro Street,\u201d finally won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was inaugurated on January 9, 1978, becoming the city\u2019s first openly gay officer, as well as one of the first openly gay individuals to be elected to office in the United States.<\/p>\n While his campaign certainly incorporated gay rights into his platform, Milk also wanted to tackle a wide variety of issues, such as childcare, housing, and a civilian police review board.<\/p>\n Assassination<\/p>\n Milk\u2019s ascension had come at an important time for the gay community. While many psychiatrists still considered homosexuality a mental illness at this time, the liberal<\/p>\n San Francisco Mayor George Moscone had become an early supporter of gay rights and had abolished the city\u2019s anti-sodomy law. Moscone had also appointed several gay people and lesbians to a number of high-profile positions within San Francisco.<\/p>\n On the other side of Moscone was Supervisor Dan White, a Vietnam veteran and former police officer and fireman, who was troubled by what he perceived as a breakdown in traditional values and a growing tolerance of homosexuality. Also elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, he frequently clashed with the more liberal Milk on policy issues.<\/p>\n A year after his election, in 1978, White resigned from the board, citing that his salary of $9,600 wasn\u2019t enough to support his family. But White was prodded on by his police supporters and subsequently changed his mind regarding his resignation and asked Moscone to reappoint him. The mayor refused, however, encouraged by Milk and others to fill White\u2019s spot with a more liberal board member. For White, who was convinced that men like Moscone and Milk were driving his city \u201cdownhill,\u201d it was a devastating blow.<\/p>\n On November 27, 1978, White entered City Hall with a loaded .38 revolver. He avoided the metal detectors by entering through a basement window that had been negligently left open for ventilation. His first stop was at the mayor\u2019s office, where he and Moscone began arguing before eventually moving to a private room so that they couldn\u2019t be heard. Once there, Moscone again refused to reappoint White, and White shot the mayor twice in the chest and twice in the head. White then went down the corridor and shot Milk, twice in the chest, once in the back, and twice in the head. Soon after, he turned himself in at the police station where he used to work. Milk died at age 48.<\/p>\n Dan White\u2019s Trial<\/p>\n White\u2019s trial was marked by what came to be known as the \u201cTwinkie defense,\u201d as his lawyers claimed that the normally stable White had grown slovenly prior to the shootings due to abandoning his usually healthy diet and instead indulging in sugary junk food such as Coke, doughnuts, and Twinkies. In a surprising move, a jury convicted White of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.<\/p>\n In the wake of White\u2019s downgraded conviction, peaceful demonstrations by Castro\u2019s gay community outside City Hall turned violent. More than 5,000 policemen responded by entering nightclubs armed with truncheons and assaulting patrons. By the riot\u2019s end, 124 people were injured, including 59 policemen. This episode is known in history as \u201cThe White Night Riots.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n White subsequently served just six years in prison. In 1985, a year after his release, a distressed White died by suicide.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or self-harming behaviors, call or text 988 to get help from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a>.<\/p>\n Milk Movie<\/p>\n In the years since the killings, Milk\u2019s legacy as a leader and pioneer has endured, with numerous books and movies made about his life. In 1984, Milk was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk<\/a>. Nearly three decades after its release, the project was added to the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in 2012.<\/p>\n![\"harvey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/27b06ca9d1eeb43007784c166ce099f7.jpeg\"\/)
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