The Significance of Harvey Milk

As we learned in history class today, in 1977, San Francisco resident Harvey Milk became the first openly gay individual to be elected to political office in the US after becoming a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors due to widespread support for his campaign. Although Milk never intended to hold a political position as he spent a lot of his life being a production associate for Broadway and a Wall Street investment banker in New York, he ended up moving to California in the early 1970s in order to open and own a camera shop on Castro Street, San Francisco. Because this region of the city contained a major gay community that contained a lot of gay radicals, Milk was able to voice his political opinion about homosexuality and learn from the people around him, allowing him to eventually develop into a leader and activist for the Gay Rights Movement. With this support, Milk eventually decided to run in the city's elections in 1973 for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he crushingly lost due to his lack of experience and money in addition to the lack of social acceptance for his sexuality. Then, four years later after running again for a spot on the Board, developing political connections with many major politicians and city official, and strengthening his ties to the Gay Rights Movement even further, Milk was able to win in the Board's city election and become one of its prime members. This is significant, because as we all know, this is the first time in American history that this feat has ever been accomplished, which is even more surprising considering that Milk had no serious political ambitions prior to his interactions with Castro Street's gay community. Also, the impacts of this victory could be seen to a great extent throughout San Francisco and its policies, as he actively fought for the acceptance and social support towards the gay community and helped the city address many different local issues like child care and housing. Even though Milk and the city's mayor, George Moscone, ended up being murdered by the anti-gay, former police officer and conservative, Dan White who didn't support new liberal changes to the city's political structure (especially with Milk being a member of the city's Board) or his denial from political re-appointment, the significant precedents that Milk was able to set during his time in office through his social and political actions had major impacts on the Gay Rights Movement and the LGBT Movement as a whole. His legacy pushed gay rights activists to fight together against White's 6-year manslaughter charge and influenced them to continue working together in small communities such as that of Castro Street in order to politically and socially defend themselves and develop social equality for them. Overall, even though Milk himself never directly influenced national politics or society with his actions throughout his time of being a gay rights activist and a member of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, he did help local gay rights activists work together and fight for their rights in addition to symbolizing a national change towards the progression of social equality for homosexuals.