Mayor of Castro Street

Harvey Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay person to be elected to office in California. Although Milk is known for his gay activism, he actually only started participating in civic matters in the 60s after he was exposed to the counterculture. Milk and his groundbreaking election in 1977 symbolized the change in American culture and “freedom to live life with authenticity to millions of LGBT women and men around the world.”

Although Milk’s term lasted shorter than a year before he was brutally assassinated by Dan White , his life changed the lives of a nation. “His courage, passion and sense of justice rocked a country and stirred the very core of a put-down and pushed-out community, bringing forward new hope and a new vision of freedom. Milk’s dream of a better life, filled with equality and tolerance continues to motivate advocacy and action in this generation and others to come. Harvey's legacy is hope, hope in the personal progress, more than the political. Harvey had recorded a will in the event of his assassination. It said, “If a bullet should enter my brain, let it destroy every closet door.”

Sources:

http://www.adl.org/imagine/Milk.html

http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/lgbt/schoolsandyouth/ramona_milk_presentation.pdf

Going Deep

Deep Throat was a pornographic film that was released in 1972 in theaters worldwide. The plot was simple enough: Linda Lovelace can't have an orgasm and after talks to her friend ,Helen, who suggests she visit a doctor. Upon examination, it is revealed that Linda wasn't having orgasms because her clitoris was located in her throat. In order to achieve an orgasm, Linda would have to perform oral sex or "deep throat" on various men. The film ends with the line "The End. And Deep Throat to you all."

The film and its popularity pointed to a coming revolution: a sexual revolution.  Before the advent of Deep Throat, pornographic films represented a small market in the film industry and catered to a small audience. However, Deep Throat showed that “Americans of all walks of life would pay to participate--- at least vicariously--- in the much talked about sexual revolution.”[1] Deep Throat was the first feature film to focus, put express the importance of a woman’s sexual gratification.
This film coupled with Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique encouraged women to embrace their sexuality and the joys of sex and with that notice many women also embraced a revolution.

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[1] David Allyn, Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution : An Unfettered History
Robert Griffith and Paula Baker, Major Problems in American History Since 1945