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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

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