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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

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