At forty-eight years old, Harvey Milk’s life came to a sudden end by assassination. Many may say that as an openly gay politician in 1978, he was asking for his life to end the way it did. Milk knew that his life could end that way, leaving a tape recording to be listened to if he ever was assassinated. The tape begins with him acknowledging how vulnerable he had made himself in the public eye, and that he wanted to make his thoughts known (NBCnews.com, Forty years after his death, Harvey Milk’s legacy still lives on). Forty plus years after his bitter death, those thoughts haven’t been forgotten. Harvey Milk was a city supervisor who worked towards gay rights, and his impact continues today.

Milk’s early life doesn’t seem to line up with the way his life ended up being. He was born in Woodmere, New York and worked as a financial analyst on Wall Street after a stint in the Navy. During this time, he was closeted and as fine with it as one can manage to be. Milk had been known for being conservative politically, which also contradicts how he was in his later life. It’s hard to predict one’s impact on the world early on, but it would’ve been especially difficult to expect Harvey Milk’s influence.

Unpredictably moving to San Francisco in late 1972, he became important to the gay community very quickly. With his partner Scott Smith, he opened up a store called “Castro Camera” with the last of their savings. The shop became the center for the growing gay community on Castro Street. Many people including photographer Dan Nicoletta, screenwriter Frank Robinson, and campaign manager Anne Kronenberg worked in the budding photography store (MyCastro.com, Castro Camera: Harvey MIlk’s Famous Camera Shop and Campaign Headquarters). The area originally tried to keep the two gay men from opening the store, making Milk respond by organizing the Castro Village Association. With Harvey Milk as president, the Castro Village Association was the first in the nation to represent LGBT businesses. Milk became affectionately known as the “Mayor of Castro Street” (Biography.com, Harvey Milk).

Being known as this led to the first of Milk’s many campaigns for government office. Milk believed that the gay people in San Francisco were being too conservative in their efforts, and decided to take the movement into his own hands. Harvey Milk ran for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1973 and placed 10th out of 32 candidates. Despite the loss, Milk recognized that placing that high as a new, gay candidate was impressive and continued his political career.

In 1975, he ran for the same city supervisor spot and barely lost the race. By then, Milk was an established citizen of San Francisco and unofficial representative for the Castro’s gay community (MilkFoundation.org, The Official Harvey Milk Biography). It was that next year that friend and Mayor George Moscone appointed him to the Board of Permit Appeals, making Harvey Milk the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States. This was a recognizable accomplishment that wasn’t forgotten.

Not long after this, Milk ran and lost the election of State Assembly to represent the Sixteenth Assembly District. After this is when Anne Kronenberg came into the picture and changed the game. A bisexual woman and activist in her own right, Kronenberg ran Milk’s third city supervisor campaign and led him to victory in 1977. Harvey Milk was inaugurated on a rainy January day in 1978. As referenced in his “Give Them Hope” speech, despite what the homophobic Anita Bryant may have said about gays causing the drought in California, it rained the day after Milk was elected and the minute he said “I do” it rained again (Milk Harvey, “Give Them Hope”).

During Milk’s time as a city supervisor, he spoke up for all marginalized groups alike. He worked for the rights of women, the disabled, and others. His agenda to reform included protecting gay rights, opening daycares for working mothers, and converting military facilities into low-cost housing. He advocated improving neighborhoods such as the Castro by providing library services and better policing (MilkFoundation.org, The Official Harvey Milk Biography). He was a city supervisor for all of the people.

One of the biggest things Milk had to fight against during his time as city supervisor was Senator John Briggs’ Proposition 6. The California initiative allowed and encouraged the firing of gay teachers and their supporters from public schools around the state. Proposition 6 was heavily advertised and used fear tactics to convince voters to be on the side of ignorance and hate. Harvey Milk and others such as Cleve Jones didn’t stand for that and fought back, bringing the Briggs Initiative down by more than a million votes. This was the first time voters had said no to an anti-gay initiative (The Advocate, The Briggs Initiative: Remembering a Crucial Moment in Gay History). What Milk accomplished during his time as a city supervisor was impressive, especially for the political climate at the time.

Harvey Milk was assassinated eleven months into his time as a city supervisor. A frustrated and heavily troubled former coworker of Milk, Dan White murdered both Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk within minutes of each other. White had recently resigned from his position of city supervisor for his Irish Catholic district, and after being told he could not reverse his resignation he committed the murders. Dan White, a privileged man, hired lawyers to defend him that were exceptionally good at their job. Creating the “twinkie defense”, a claim that White had a chemical imbalance due to junk food that made him not accountable for his actions, his lawyers reduced his accusation from murder to voluntary manslaughter. This shortened his sentence immensely, making him serve only five years.

Being sentenced on May 21, 1979, the day before what would’ve been Harvey Milk’s 49th birthday, an outrage followed the trial. The White Night Riots ensued, causing several police cars to be set on fire and leading to police officers vandalizing gay businesses and beat people on the street in response. Although Harvey Milk never encouraged riots, he would have agreed with this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “A riot is the language of the unheard.” (Rothman Lily, Time, What Martin Luther King Jr Really Thought About Riots). The White Night Riots was a herd of people who needed to be recognized in the face of tragedy. The face of violence on that night in 1979 was the face of people who weren’t sure if hope could still stand without their leader. Harvey Milk has given the people of San Francisco hope, and like Milk said in his famous speech: “You’ve got to give them hope.” (Milk Harvey, “Give Them Hope”).

The night of the murders themselves, a large crowd gathered on Castro Street in a silent candlelight march. Cleve Jones, at seeing his friend and mentor dead in his office, had believed that everything was over. But after seeing tens of thousands of people march to city hall with candles in their hands, he said “I was wrong. It wasn’t over. It’s just the beginning.” (Jones Cleve, The Guardian, ‘He was our leader and he is gone’ - Harvey Milk’s legacy after 40 years). On one of his tapes, he left in the situation that he was assassinated is a quote, “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”(MilkFoundation.org, The Official Harvey Milk Biography). One of the main things Milk encouraged throughout his political career was for everyone to come out, to put a face to the gay community, and many came out after his death.

Milk’s impact began before his death, but many can agree that it continued. His nephew, Stuart Milk who was a teenager at the time of his death, came out the day of his assassination. Stuart Milk along with the aforementioned Anne Kronenberg went on to establish the Harvey Milk Foundation. The Foundation’s goals are to do what Harvey would’ve done if he had lived long enough to do so, to educate and spread his message. Kronenberg and the young Milk have traveled around the world trying to accomplish what the deceased Milk didn’t get the chance to do.

On August 12, 2009, Stuart Milk accepted the Medal of Freedom from President Obama on his uncle’s behalf. The end of President Obama’s citation says, “Harvey Milk’s voice will forever echo in the hearts of all those who carry forward his timeless message.” Stuart Milk also accept his uncle’s induction into the California Hall of Fame in 2009. Proposed by Senator Mark Leno and campaigned by Stuart Milk, a bill marking May 22nd as “Harvey Milk Day” was signed into law also in 2009. Although it is technically only a holiday in California, it is celebrated around the nation and the world. In 2014, the White House issued the USPS Harvey Milk Forever Stamp. This made Harvey Milk the first openly gay official to be on a stamp.

Like many influential people, Harvey Milk’s life and story inspired many other works. One of the most noted works inspired by Milk’s life is Gus Van Sant’s film Milk from 2008. Sean Penn played the leading man, James Franco as his long-term partner Scott Smith, and even Josh Brolin as Dan White. Eight Academy Award nominations followed the release of the film, and won two of the nominations. Sean Penn won best actor performance in a title role, and Dustin :ance Black won the Oscar for best screenplay.

Harvey Milk’s most well known speech was his “Give Them Hope” speech. He refers to the beginning of the discussion for gay rights. “Once you have the dialogue starting, you know you can break down prejudice,” he says. This is still relevant today in the fight for gay rights. He speaks of how gay people have to represent themselves, it can no longer be the friends of gay people, it must be people who understand the feeling of coming out. It must be people who understand the experience of being a gay person. This is also still incredibly relevant in today’s politics.

Harvey Milk was a man ahead of his time. It’s incredible to think of how his life changed what it means to be gay in this world. With his belief that everyone should come out, that one should put a face to the gay community, he changed the way coming out was approached. He gave people hope. And as Milk said, “Hope will never be silent.”