The Story Behind's video: The Brave Life And Tragic Death Of Harvey Milk

It was common for LGBT to hide and go through discrimination. But changes happened in the 20th century. One of the people who changed everything was Harvey Milk. He was an openly gay man who died because of his views. Harvey Milk was born in 1930 in New York. By his early teens, he knew that he was homosexual. But he kept it in secret. He searched for his career path for quite a long time. He served in the Navy Army during the Korean War. After it, he was a teacher, Wall Street investor, and theatre worker. In 1972, he moved to San Francisco. Quite soon he decided to become a politician. Harvey Milk was angry because of the Watergate scandal. He wanted to make a change through politics. Milk decided to run for a spot on the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco's city council. His major supporters were gays, but he lost the election. Because of the election campaign, he became popular. The district, where he lived, was mostly filled with gays. And Milk got the title of «the Mayor of Castro Street». He lost the next election too. But that didn’t stop him from changing his city. He revitalized civic organization the Castro Village Association. From the third try, he was elected to the Board of Supervisors. He was the first openly gay person ever elected in the organization. During the first year, he pressed for a couple of important laws. One of them was to prohibit unequal treatment in housing or employment of homosexuals. The city also hired more gay and lesbian police officers. His biggest battle was against the law which would have prohibited gays and lesbians to teach in the schools. But his career was shut too soon. In 1978, Milk and the mayor of the San Francisco were shot dead. The killer was former city supervisor Dan White. He lost the job of supervisor one month before the attack. White clashed with Milk over LGBT issues. In the court, the defense used what is now known as the Twinkie defense. The attorney claimed that White ate too much junk food and couldn’t control himself. Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. So he would only receive a 5-year sentence. In spite of White’s suicide, the supporters of Milk were angry. Riots erupted, during which hundreds of people were injured. Milk became a symbol of activism. Subscribe to The Story Behind https://is.gd/hixAAr Music by Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/