Harvey Milk was born on May 22, 1930, in Woodmere N.Y., a day that has become significant to LGBT members across the United States. As Harvey grew up there were indications he was likely going to be a succesful man, but nobody could have imagined the depth of the impact he would have on a nation nor that he would be so important to the LGBT community as nobody for a second ever imagined was gay. While the award winning performance of Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in the critically acclaimed MILK told part of the story, there was far more to the man than was told or meets the eye.
Harvey was an awkward child growing up being one of those kids whose body seemed to develop all out of whack. At one point it was his ears that took off on a growing spurt, and then his feet. Rather than accept being teased for it he decided to be proactive and make fun it before other kids could. He became so good with words and humor in fact that he was regarded as the class clown throughout school as well as a silver tongued ladies man. His parents William and Minerva weren't so thrilled about the class clown portion of his personality as he aged being of a strict Lithuanian Jewish background which focused on achievement, but they were happy he was a good student and well regarded by his peers.
In 1947 he graduated from Bay Shore High School in New York and attended the New York State College for Teachers. While he wasn't totally positive teaching was what he wanted for his long term future he was sure he didn't want to go into the family business begun by his grandfather Morris running a department store. He was also sure he was gay. He wasn't telling anybody that, in fact he wasn't even acting upon it. He had done such a good job of fooling everyone he was regarded as a true ladies man that never had a night without a date. Upon graduating he like so many others of his generation entered the military during the Korean War. Harvey enlisted in the Navy serving on the Kittiwake, a submarine rescue ship. His second billeting was to naval Station, San Diego, where he served as a diving instructor until his discharge in 1955 at the rank of Lt. Jg. The Military was not something he ever saw as a career option, but rather a service to his country that was both an honor and responsibility to undertake.
Upon discharge he took a string of jobs after moving back to new York beginning with a teaching post and moving on to a position as an actuarial statistician. The most important thing that happened during this time however was that he met a man named Joe Campbell in 1956 whom he dated for better than six years. As fate would have it this would not only be his first serious romantic relationship, but also his longest lasting. He didn't always make the best choices during this time. Finding it difficult to hide his homosexuality, they tried moving to Texas of all places, then back to New York, but nothing seemed to save the relationship. Upon breaking up with Joe he considered the most common option many closeted gay people at the time chose, marrying someone for the sake of appearances. He had a woman a mind, a lesbian friend of his living in Miami, but it never panned out. In the end he stayed in New York and took a job selling insurance until about 1962.
As fate would have it, 1962 served as a year that began Changing Harvey's life. The first big change was accepting a position with an established Wall St. firm Bach & Company as a researcher. it was also the year he left his second lover Craig Rodwell. Wile there was no denying Harvey and Craig had the potential for a solid relationship, Craig was a very out gay man involved with the Mattachine Society, New York's leading gay activist group at the time. Rodwell was not satisfied with Harvey being in the closet, and Harvey was unhappy that Craig refused to lead a quiet life. Craig became increasing militant in a sense about being gay and refused to hide it from anyone which meant that life with Harvey had to end.
This led to Harvey's third important relationship in his young life, one with Jack Galen McKinley whom he worked on Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign with. This was important because Milk got his first real taste of politics and it planted the seed in his head that maybe New York was not really the place for him to spend the rest of his life. His relationship with McKinley was instantly toxic as Jack was given to fits of jealousy and depression, often threatening suicide if Harvey were ever to leave him. Although they stayed together on and off for several years, mostly as friends, their lives went in two very different directions. Their move to San Francisco together ended when Jack returned to New York to work on the Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Harvey stayed and became a bit of an anti-war protester. He grew his hair, got fired from his job, and got involved in the community as an organizer.
It was about 1970 when Harvey began to really make his mark on the local political scene. After spending a couple of years drifting working as the associate producer for Inner City and Eve. During this time his political ideologies changed as did the feeling he needed to be more involved. He returned to California where he met his new lover Scott Smith whom was some twenty years younger and opened a camera store. He found even in the Castro which was notoriously gay friendly that business as a gay man wasn't easy. he escalated his role in the community. this was in large part prompted by a visit to his store by a state bureaucrat the informed him that he "owed" a $100 deposit against future sales tax. Milk was no dummy and saw a shakedown for what it is. After constant complaining to all the proper channels provided no satisfaction, Milk decided to run for City Supervisor.As he has famously been quoted time and again he said, "I finally reached the point where I knew I had to become involved or shut up."
His bid for office only landed him tenth of thirty two candidates, but Milk established himself as a force to be reckoned with that was not going to go away. he swept the Castro district, and had the votes actually been calculated on the basis of each district electing their own officials he would have won hands down. His message of smaller smarter government that stayed out of peoples bedrooms and the legalization of marijuana were popular among the gay crowd, hippies, and many business owners that were simply fed up with business as usual. After helping the Teamsters avoid a strike by brokering a deal in which they agreed to hire more gay drivers in exchange for more gay clubs buying the beer they delivered, Harvey became known as the unofficial Mayor of of Castro Street. he organized the street fairs, mediated disputes between any number and variety of factions, and became the indispensable player in all activities in the district, without holding public office. In fact he was considered to be more politically important than any elected official in the district.
In 1973 he founded the Castro Village Association to end discrimination against LGBT persons trying to open businesses. It had become common practice for some of the larger businesses in the district to use their clout to block gays from obtaining business licenses so they could keep competition down, especially gay owned competition which thrived due to the community supporting their own. 1975 marked his second campaign for Distract Supervisor, this time he had the support of the teamsters, construction unions, and firefighters, He cleaned up his look and appealed to small business owners like himself with great success. He missed gaining a seat again coming in seventh, but that simply opened another door for him.
Mayor George Moscone owed Milk big time for his support in getting elected and paid him back with a a job on the Board of Permit Appeals in 1976. This was incredibly significant as it made him the first openly gay City Commissioner in the United States. The job was short lived, five weeks in fact, before he was fired for announcing his intention to run for State Assembly where this time gerrymandering broke in his favor. Off course there were back room deals being made, and hindsight shows that the rules used to remove Milk from his position were little more than a knife in the back that had been planned long before his appointment. In some minds Harvey had become too outspoken, too popular, and too powerful to not be a threat, therefore necessitating being taken down a notch to try to smear his name. Despite tireless campaigning and what seemed to be huge support he lost the race by less than 4,000 votes.
That night when his loss was announced chants throughout the Castro of "out of the bars, into the streets" were deafening. Milk led thousands on a three mile march all while avoiding a riot or any violence of note even. This prompted huge national exposure which paved the way for LGBT organizations to begin openly demonstrating on a large scale everywhere, not just major cities. He sponsored and got anti-discrimination legislation passed based on sexual orientation. In 1978 he gave his "hope" speech which is repeated in part a gay Pride events even to this day. He became the voice of the gay community not just in the Castro District or even California, but across the nation. He fought every piece of legislation as well as every politician that took a stand which would discriminate against the gay community, even if it was a sitting President. With a growing resume behind him, on January 8, 1978, Milk was sworn in as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, District 5. It seemed finally that Milk could not be held down.
It was November 10, 1978 that for many is a day that will never be forgotten, as etched into the memory og LGBT persons alive at the time as the senseless murder of Dr. King was, Harvey Milk was murdered. Former colleague Dan White entered the offices of City hall by crawling through a basement window that allowed him to avoid metal detectors, the very day he resigned his office under pressure. He first shot Mayor Moscone four times, three landing in the head. He ran into Milk in the hallway and told him to step aside. Milk refused. He was shot five times including two at close range to the head with hollow point rounds. Death was instant. The Mayor was 49, Harvey was 48. White escaped and then turned himself in an hour later at the urging of his wife. White showed no remorse for his murder of Milk, and his former cronies on the police force began wearing "Free Dan" tee shirts.
In 1979 White was acquitted of the murders on what is now known as the "Twinkie defense." Many believed had he not killed Milk, he would have been convicted, but as Milk was involved and so hated by many in power behind the scenes it was believed his murder was in fact viewed as a good thing. While that allegation was never proved, to this day there are many people that still believe it. While Acting mayor Feinstein and others that knew and or served with Milk denounced the jury decision as a sham, it did little to quell an angry city. A mob sprang up, a mob of not just gays, but people that were angry and disenchanted sprang up and marched on City Hall chanting "Avenge Milk!" The Mob could not be stopped and the over 3,000 people hurled rocks and overturned police cars before torching them. Unable to stop them, they were simply left to vent for several hours in what became known as the "White Night Riots." Those who were detained took the defense the ate too many Twinkies as White had and therefore did nothing wrong. Few were prosecuted.
Milk's real legacy will always lay within the hope and strength he provided a nation of queer people at a time when they had no true leader willing to take a stand for what was right. Milk may not have been loved, or even liked by all, but he was respected. We will never see another Harvey Milk because there cannot be another. He blazed the trail for all others follow. Consider his own words in closing from Gay Pride, 1978:
"On this anniversary of Stonewall, I ask my gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight. For themselves, for their freedom, for their country ... We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets ... We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out. Come out to your parents, your relatives."