“My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you.”
It was a line which Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the state of California (and one of the first in the nation) often used when speaking in front of a crowd.
Milk ran for political office in the state of California four times before finally being elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, by a fellow supervisor before getting a full year into his term.
Yet Milk’s win as one of the country’s only openly gay individuals serving in public office was overshadowed by actions happening states away. It was in Dade County, Florida where Anita Bryant, singer, orange juice spokeswoman and unlikely political activist, began campaigning for the repeal of a gay rights ordinance in Dade County.
Andrew Henderson 