Harvey Milk
Politician
1930 – 1978
Who was Harvey Milk?
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Politics and gay activism were not his early interests; he was not open about his homosexuality and did not participate in civic matters until around the age of 40, after his experiences in the counterculture of the 1960s.
Milk moved from New York City to settle in San Francisco in 1972 amid a migration of gay men to the Castro District. He took advantage of the growing political and economic power of the neighborhood to promote his interests, and ran unsuccessfully for political office three times. His theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and Milk won a seat as a city supervisor in 1977, part of the broader social changes the city was experiencing.
Milk served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back.
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- Born
- May 22, 1930
Woodmere - Also known as
- Harvey Bernard Milk
- Mayor of Castro Street
- Parents
- Siblings
- Religion
- Judaism
- Ethnicity
- Jewish people
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Education
- University at Albany, SUNY
Mathematics
(1947 - 1951) - Bay Shore High School
( - 1947)
- University at Albany, SUNY
- Employment
- George W. Hewlett High School
- Great American Insurance Company
- Bache & Co.
- Lived in
- San Francisco
- New York
- Texas
- San Diego
- Died
- Nov 27, 1978
San Francisco
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Harvey Milk." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/harvey_milk>.
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