Harvey Milk

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Lore & Background

Harvey Milk was born on May 22, 1930, in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island, to William Milk and Minerva Karns. He was the younger son of Litvak parents and was raised in a Jewish household; his mother kept a kosher home. As an adult he did not consider himself a religious person, but his connection to the Jewish faith profoundly shaped his worldview. After graduating from Bay Shore High School in 1947, he attended New York State College for Teachers in Albany, majoring in mathematics. He joined the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, serving as a diving officer aboard USS Kittiwake and later as a diving instructor in San Diego. In 1955, he resigned at the rank of Lieutenant (junior grade), forced to accept an 'other than honorable' discharge due to his homosexuality. After teaching at George W. Hewlett High School, he met Joe Campbell in 1956 at Jacob Riis Park beach, a popular cruising location for gay men in Queens. They moved to Dallas in 1957 but returned to New York, separating in 1961. In 1962, Milk became involved with Craig Rodwell, who was 10 years younger; the relationship ended as Milk became alarmed at Rodwell's tendency to agitate the police. Milk later worked as a researcher at Bache & Company on Wall Street. Before his thirty-fourth birthday, he entered a relationship with 17-year-old Jack Galen McKinley, whom he had recruited to work on Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. Milk and McKinley moved to San Francisco in 1969 with the Broadway touring company of Hair. The city appealed to Milk so much that he decided to stay. In 1970, after letting his hair grow long and being told to cut it, he refused and was fired. He drifted from California to Texas to New York, becoming involved with Tom O'Horgan's theater company as a 'general aide' and associate producer. A contemporary New York Times story described Milk as 'a sad eyed man—another aging hippie with long, long hair, wearing faded jeans and pretty beads.' Rosa von Praunheim's documentary short film Homosexuals in New York shows Milk exuberant as a protester on Christopher Street Day 1971 in New York City. Milk met Scott Smith, 18 years his junior, and they returned to San Francisco. In March 1973, after a roll of film Milk left at a local shop was ruined, he and Smith opened a camera store on Castro Street with their last $1,000. Milk ran for city supervisor in 1973, but the existing gay political establishment resisted him; his campaign was compared to theater due to his personality, earning media attention and votes, though not enough to be elected. He campaigned again in the next two supervisor elections, dubbing himself the 'Mayor of Castro Street,' and also ran for the California State Assembly. Milk was elected city supervisor in 1977 after San Francisco began to choose neighborhood representatives rather than city-wide ones. During his almost eleven months in office, he sponsored a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing, and employment. The supervisors passed the bill by a vote of 11–1, and Mayor George Moscone signed it into law. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who cast the sole vote against Milk's bill.

Reader's Guide

Harvey Milk's significance lies in his role as a pioneering openly gay elected official and a leader of the gay rights movement in San Francisco during the 1970s. Despite a short political career of less than a year, he successfully sponsored a landmark anti-discrimination ordinance that protected LGBTQ individuals in housing, employment, and public accommodations. His assassination, along with Mayor George Moscone, by a former colleague turned him into a martyr for the LGBTQ community. In 2002, Milk was called 'the most famous and most significant openly LGBTQ official ever elected in the United States.' His legacy was further cemented when he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. His final campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg, 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.' Milk's life and death continue to symbolize the struggle for LGBTQ rights and representation.

Did You Know?

• Milk served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War as a diving officer aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake, and later as a diving instructor in San Diego.
• In 1973, Milk and his partner Scott Smith opened a camera store on Castro Street with their last $1,000.
• Milk's anti-discrimination bill passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by a vote of 11–1, with the sole dissenting vote cast by Dan White, who later assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone.
• Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
• A contemporary New York Times story described Milk as 'a sad eyed man—another aging hippie with long, long hair, wearing faded jeans and pretty beads.'