American politician and activist Harvey Milk was BOTD in 1930. Born in Woodmere in Long Island, New York, he trained as a teacher before serving in the US Navy during the Korean War. In 1955, he received an “other than honourable” discharge for having sex with male officers, and returned to New York, working as a financial analyst, living discreetly as a gay man. He and his lover Scott Smith moved to San Francisco in 1973, where he opened a camera store in the Castro District. Furious at police violence towards the gay community, Milk became involved in local politics, leading campaigns against anti-gay initiatives. In 1977 he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to hold public office in California. While in office, he sponsored a bill preventing discrimination against gay people in public accommodation, housing, and employment. In 1978, Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by fellow Supervisor Dan White, who had cast the sole vote against Milk’s anti-discrimination bill. White was charged with first-degree murder, but his trial lawyers successful argued a diminished capacity defence, based on his history of clinical depression. His conviction on the lesser offence of voluntary manslaughter sparked a mass demonstration in San Francisco that became known as the “White Night Riot”. Now considered a martyr and icon of the LGBTQ community, Milk’s life and legacy was explored in Randy Shilts‘ biography The Mayor of Castro Street, Rob Epstein‘s Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk and Gus Van Sant‘s 2008 biopic Milk, which won Oscars for Sean Penn’s performance as Milk and Dustin Lance Black‘s screenplay. In 2009, Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour. In 2021, the US Navy launched the USNS Harvey Milk, the first military vessel to be named for an openly gay person, accompanied by a formal apology for the Navy’s discrimination against Milk and other gay soldiers.

He has become an LGBTQ icon, inspiring Randy Shilts’ biography The Mayor of Castro Street and the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. He was portrayed by Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant’s 2008 film Milk, who won an Oscar for his performance.