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