Today we are still fighting for the rights of gays and lesbians in this country.  The origin of the fight is an interesting story.  One man can be said to have truly sparked the gay rights movement and that man was Harvey Milk.  Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the state of California when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors[1].

                Harvey did not run on a platform of only gay rights but also pushed for increased child care and education.  He even had an ordinance passed that would fine people who did not clean up after their dogs in public areas.   But Milk’s greatest victory was the defeat of proposition 6.  Proposition 6 was set forth by John Briggs and it would have forced any openly gay teacher to be removed from their position.  At the early stages of the voting it was a landslide to go through but after several debates in which Harvey participated in the numbers started to even out.  Eventually when the votes were tallied, proposition 6 did not pass.  This was a great victory for all gays and lesbians because they could now “come out” and would not have to fear losing their jobs. 

                Harvey Milk did great things in his short time in office.  He served 10 months before being brutally assassinated along with Mayor Mascone by former Supervisor Dan White.  His murder was tragic loss not only to the gays and lesbians but to the city of San Francisco.  After the infamous “Twinkie defense” Dan White served a total of 5 ½ years in prison for committing both murders.

 

 

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[1] Milk Foundation, "The Harvey Milk Foundation." Last modified 2013. Accessed April 18, 2013. http://milkfoundation.org/.