But he had paid a high price for his notoriety. Daily death threats were common, and Milk had taken to tape-recording versions of his will. Nonetheless, Milk came out of the gate running. He sponsored a civil rights bill that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. The only supervisor to vote against it was Dan White. Milk also got a "pooper scooper" law passed, mandating that pet owners pick up dog droppings on city streets.
Milk's vehement opposition to Proposition 6, a ballot initiative that would have mandated the firing of gay teachers in the state's public schools, helped defeat the measure in the November election.
And I want you to talk about it. You must come out. Financial problems had left White depressed and anxious, his relatives would later say. Days later, White asked Mayor Moscone to throw out his resignation and reinstate him to the board. After consulting with other supervisors, Moscone declined, sensing an opportunity to replace White with a more liberal voice that would shift the board's balance of power.
On Nov. He strode to Moscone's office, where shouting was heard by witnesses, followed by gunshots. The mayor, at age 49, died where he fell, after being shot twice in the head, and once in the chest and shoulder. White then walked down a hallway, where he ran into Milk and asked him to step inside White's former office.
Supervisor Dianne Feinstein, who would go on to become a powerful U. White would later turn himself in as the city mourned and thousands turned out to honor the slain politicians.
While in college at New York State College for Teachers now State University of New York in Albany, where he studied math and history, Milk penned a popular weekly student newspaper column where he began questioning issues of diversity with a reflection on the lessons learned from the recently ended World War.
He graduated in and enlisted in the Navy. In , he resigned at the rank of lieutenant junior grade after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation. Following his time in the Navy, Milk entered the civilian working world in New York, as a public school teacher on Long Island, as a stock analyst in New York City, and as a production associate for Broadway musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair.
During the s and early 70s, he became more actively involved in politics and advocacy and he demonstrated against the Vietnam War. It quickly became a neighborhood center. Little more than a year after his arrival in the city, he declared his candidacy for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He lost that race, but emerged from the campaign as a force to be reckoned with in local politics.
After some area merchants tried to prevent two gay men from opening a store, Milk and a few other business owners founded the Castro Village Association, a first in the nation organizing of predominantly LGBT businesses, with Milk as president.
He organized the Castro Street Fair in to attract more customers to area businesses. Milk soon filed candidacy papers for the state assembly, but lost his race to represent the Sixteenth Assembly District.
I figured the students might — like me — not be that knowledgeable about Milk, but I was shocked when several of Bahar Hansen's students had never even heard of him.
Many of them are already doing work in the communities and are just coming here because they wanted a space to talk about LGBT issues in academia. And so the fact that so few knew [about Milk], and the ones that knew [about him] really only knew him from the lens of the film, that really surprised me. Some students were more familiar with Milk's story. Our parents were walking around during that time.
So instead of the quick refresher and in-depth discussion Bahar Hansen was planning, the approach pivoted to introducing the students to Milk and his story: Born and raised in New York, Milk served in the U. Navy before moving to San Francisco in the s and becoming an outspoken gay activist. He ran a camera store on Castro Street before he became the first openly gay elected official in California, when he won a spot on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in For the double murder, White served only five years in prison, a fact that shocked and disgusted the students in Bahar Hansen's class.
But during his short time in office, Milk made his mark. Milk, however, did not win his first campaigns for local office. Faderman said "Harvey spent the next few years putting up the chairs.
Milk gained national attention when he sponsored an ordinance — still in effect today — that fined people who did not clean up after their dogs. While Milk is today best known for his role as a gay-rights pioneer and one of the first openly LGBTQ people ever elected to public office in the U.
The neighborhoods represented by Milk and his killer, Dan White, represented both sides of this divide.
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