Forty years ago, on Nov. 27, 1978, California's first openly gay elected official was assassated. Harvey Milk champned gay rights and challenged the LGBTQ muny to be out and proud.
Contents:
- HARVEY MILK BE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE CALIFORNIA
- TIMELE: KEY MOMENTS FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
- CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR F SCHOOL DISTRICT $1.5MILLN FOR REJECTG TEXTBOOK MATERIALS MENTNG LATE OPENLY GAY POLICIAN
- BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
- THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON TO W AN ELECTN AMERI WAS NOT HARVEY MILK
HARVEY MILK BE THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE CALIFORNIA
June celebrat LGBT Pri Month, a look at some key moments gay rights. * first openly gay man elected to public office *
Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official the history of California, tak his place on the San Francis Board of Supervisors on January 8, 1978. The first and, for years, most visible openly gay polician Ameri, Milk was a longtime activist and pneerg lear of San Francis’s LGBT servg the Navy durg the Korean War, Milk held several whe-llar jobs New York Cy. Inially nservative and reluctant to advote for gay rights, Milk’s views changed around the time he and his then-partner opened a mera shop on Castro Street, the heart of the San Francis’s LGBT muny, many bs owners and cizens of the largely-gay Castro District, Milk was harassed by police and lol officials.
Dpe alienatg many Democrats, cludg other gay activists, wh his bombastic language and flower-child persona, he won the Castro district handily and me 10 out of 32 ndidat.
Still, Milk and the Castro’s rise to power cid wh the rise of anti-gay reactnari like Ana Bryant, and Milk unrstood both the power and the danger of his posn as facto lear of the largt gay muny Ameri.
TIMELE: KEY MOMENTS FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
* first openly gay man elected to public office *
On the nth anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, shortly after his partner mted suici and the face of nservative backlash across the untry, Milk addrsed San Francis’s gay pri para, begng wh his tchphrase “My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to rec you” and endg wh a msage of “Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to e to if the prsur at home are too great. ”The followg November, 75 percent of California voters rejected a referendum that would have allowed schools to fire teachers for beg homosexual.
On the 50th anniversary of Stonewall 2019, Milk was an gural ductee onto the Natnal LGBTQ Wall of MORE: The Gay Rights MovementAlso on This Day History January | 8. Forty-six years ago, on April 2, 1974, out lbian Kathy Kozachenko was elected to the Ann Arbor Cy Council Michigan — beg the first openly gay person elected to polil office the Uned Stat. The acla of “first elected openly gay official” is often misattributed to Harvey Milk, the boistero gay in who was elected to the San Francis Board of Supervisors 1977.
“Harvey Milk was a very strong and vibrant gay activist, ” Kozachenko said, addg that Milk, who was assassated a year after his electn, was a hero and a martyr. “I am so proud of all the activists that me after me … The people that phed and phed and phed for gay marriage, the transgenr people that have phed for their rights... ”The Michigan-based, left-wg Human Rights Party, an early champn for racial jtice and gay rights, reced Kozachenko to n for cy uncil.
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR F SCHOOL DISTRICT $1.5MILLN FOR REJECTG TEXTBOOK MATERIALS MENTNG LATE OPENLY GAY POLICIAN
A school district southern California will be fed $1.5 ln after rejectg a curriculum that clud Harvey Milk, the pneerg gay rights lear whom the school board’s print has lled a “pedophile”. * first openly gay man elected to public office *
”Unlike most Amerin towns at the time, Ann Arbor was a liberal enclave, Kozachenko relled— not many people seemed to re if you were gay. By that time, the Human Rights Party had already been succsful electg two members to the cy uncil: Jerry DeGrieck, a gay man, and Nancy Wechsler, a lbian, who were both graduat of the Universy of Michigan.
BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
’”In fact, the party had so much succs champng for gay rights Ann Arbor that Kozachenko didn’t feel the need to make central to her agenda.
THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PERSON TO W AN ELECTN AMERI WAS NOT HARVEY MILK
That someone has n openly as a gay person and been elected to public office, ” Kozachenko said durg her 1974 victory speech, which was unearthed by Bloomberg.
“Gay liberatn was not a major issue the mpaign — both ndidat this ward said they supported gay rights, but 10 years ago, or even three years ago, lbianism would have meant tomatic feat. Many people’s attus about gayns are still far om healthy, but my mpaign forced some people at least to re-exame their prejudic and stereotyp.
”After graduatn, Kozachenko moved to New York Cy, where she joed a group of lbian and gay socialists, and also volunteered for a group lled Dyk and Tyk.