Harvey Bernard Milk

Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first
openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board
of Supervisors.
On November 10, 1978, ten months after being sworn in, Supervisor White resigned his position on the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors, claiming that his annual salary of $9,600 was not enough to
support his family.Within days, White requested the position again and Mayor Moscone initially
agreed.However, further consideration—and intervention by other supervisors—convinced the mayor
to appoint someone more in line with the growing ethnic diversity of White's district and the
liberal leanings of the Board of Supervisors.
Moscone planned to announce White's replacement days later, on November 27, 1978.Half an hour before
the press conference, Dan White entered City Hall through a basement window to avoid metal detectors
and made his way to Mayor Moscone's office. Witnesses heard shouting between White and Moscone, then
gunshots. White shot the mayor in the shoulder and chest, then twice in the head after Moscone had
fallen on the floor.
White then quickly walked to his former office, reloading his police-issue revolver with
hollow-point bullets along the way, and intercepted Harvey Milk, asking him to step inside for a
moment. Dianne Feinstein heard gunshots and called the police. She found Milk face down on the
floor, shot five times, including twice in the head at close range. Feinstein was shaking so badly
she required support from the police chief after identifying both bodies.It was she who announced to
the press, "Today San Francisco has experienced a double tragedy of immense proportions. As
President of the Board of Supervisors, it is my duty to inform you that both Mayor Moscone and
Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed," then adding after being drowned out by shouts of
disbelief, "and the suspect is Supervisor Dan White."Milk was 48 years old. Moscone was 49.
White's defense attorney, Doug Schmidt, argued that he was not responsible for his actions, using
the legal defense known as diminished capacity: "Good people, fine people, with fine backgrounds,
simply don't kill people in cold blood". Schmidt tried to prove that White's anguished mental state
was a result of manipulation by the politicos in City Hall who had consistently disappointed and
confounded him, finally promising to give his job back only to refuse him again. Schmidt said that
White's mental deterioration was demonstrated and exacerbated by his junk food binge the night
before the murders, since he was usually known to have been health-food conscious. Area newspapers
quickly dubbed it the Twinkie defense. White was acquitted of the murders on May 21, 1979, but found
guilty of voluntary manslaughter of both victims, and he was sentenced to serve seven and two-thirds
years. With the sentence reduced for time served and good behavior, he would be released in five. He
cried when he heard the verdict.
Dan White served a little more than five years for the double murder of Moscone and Milk. On October
22, 1985, a year and a half after his release from prison, White was found dead in a running car in
his ex-wife's garage. He was 39 years oldhttp://www.gonetoosoon.org/create_memorial/details/.

President Barack Obama awarded Milk the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to the
gay civil rights movement in August 2009, stating "he fought discrimination with visionary courage
and conviction".On August 25, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced that
Milk would be one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in the California Museum's yearlong
exhibit.On October 12, Governor Schwarzeneggar approved the designation of May 22 as "Harvey Milk
Day".