Harvey Milk

He served less than a year in office, but Harvey Milk changed America forever. As one of the first openly gay elected officials in the country, he proved that visibility itself is a kind of power — and that hope, spoken out loud, can move a movement.

After settling in San Francisco and opening a camera shop on Castro Street, Milk became a fixture of the city's growing gay community and a natural organizer. In 1977, after several campaigns, he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — becoming one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the United States.

A Brief, Blazing Tenure

In office, Milk was a force. He sponsored a landmark gay rights ordinance banning discrimination in housing and employment, and he led the successful fight against Proposition 6, a statewide measure that would have banned gay people from working in California's public schools. He understood that the closet was the enemy — and he urged gay people everywhere to come out, believing that visibility would change hearts that argument never could.

On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk was assassinated in City Hall alongside Mayor George Moscone. He was 48. His death galvanized a movement, and the candlelight march of tens of thousands that followed remains one of the most moving moments in LGBTQ+ history.

A Lasting Legacy

• One of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States
• Architect of San Francisco's landmark gay rights ordinance
• Leader of the campaign that defeated the anti-gay Proposition 6
• Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009

Harvey Milk asked for so little and gave so much: the simple, radical insistence that gay people deserved to live openly and lead publicly. His message — that you gotta give 'em hope — outlived him, and it still lights the way.