Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk was born on Long Island in 1930, served in the Navy, and spent his twenties and thirties as a teacher, an insurance actuary and a Wall Street researcher, keeping his private life hidden and supporting Barry Goldwater. He did not come out publicly until his forties. In 1972 he moved to San Francisco with his partner and opened a camera shop on Castro Street, which was becoming a gay neighbourhood.

He ran for the Board of Supervisors in 1973 and lost, ran again in 1975 and lost, and ran for the state assembly in 1976 and lost. He built alliances that surprised people, backing the Teamsters' boycott of Coors beer in return for the union hiring gay drivers. In 1977, after the city switched to district elections, he won, one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the United States.

In eleven months he passed a gay rights ordinance and a law requiring dog owners to clean up after their pets, and campaigned across California against Proposition 6, which would have barred gay teachers from schools. It was defeated in November 1978. He received death threats constantly and recorded a will to be played if he were killed.

On 27 November 1978 Dan White, a former supervisor who had resigned and wanted his seat back, climbed through a City Hall window and shot Mayor George Moscone and then Milk. White served about five years for manslaughter. Tens of thousands of people marched with candles to City Hall that night.