Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk (1930 to 1978) was an American politician and gay rights leader who became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. Born in New York, he moved to San Francisco in 1972, opened a camera store in the Castro neighborhood and became a prominent voice for the city's growing gay community, styling himself the Mayor of Castro Street. After losing several campaigns for city supervisor and the state assembly, he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, when the city moved to electing supervisors by district. In under eleven months in office he sponsored an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment and public accommodations, which passed the board 11 to 1 and was signed by Mayor George Moscone. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White. Milk became a martyr and icon of the LGBTQ movement and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.