Why Did Harvey Milk Promote Gay Rights?

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In the 1970s, if you were someone who was interested in the same sex as yourself, you could understand the day by day difficulties of being accepted by society because this was not considered proper. The general views of Americans were very different from the views of Harvey Milk at this time. The actions that Harvey Milk took towards gay rights stood out. In the Mid-1970s, Harvey Milk worked to promote gay rights and for everyone to be equal. Milk was successful in making a change by being the first openly gay man elected into public office and influenced many gays and gay supporters. Americans at this time were extremely opposed to homosexuals.These people grew up in a generation where being attracted to the same sex as themselves was …show more content…
He made countless successes in moving sociocultural and equality forward. He ran three unsuccessful elections for public office, but was later officially elected in 1977. He was the first openly gay man elected and he used it to his advantage. In 1973, homosexualality was removed from being known as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. Businesses that discriminated against gays would be boycotted by Milk and his supporters. This made it so businesses were losing customers and merchandise. For example, Harvey Milk became allies with the Teamsters Union to strike against the Coors Beer in 1977. This boycott made it so Coors Beer was losing business because they were not able to sell beer to gay people or the Union. Milk and his allies were successful in this boycott and it helped gay people get hired by the Teamsters Union. Harvey Milk was able to help pass a “gay-rights ordinance... which banned discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation”(5) by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 20, 1978, just 10 days after Milk gave his “Hope” speech. Harvey Milk helped sponsor a civil rights bill which banned sexual orientation discrimination. Harvey helped gay people keep their jobs by persuading the city council into passing the Gay Rights Ordinance in 1978. Milk took into account his city and neighborhoods. He wanted to improve the neighborhood as best as possible and he did this by securing and repairing “issues such as public transportation, police transportation, police protection, [and] public parks…”(25) for the public. By improving these basic issues in the public, he is able to find new and greater ways to help improve the way homophobic people view gay people. He also persuaded those into not passing the Proposition 6. The Proposition 6 forbid gay people to become teachers. Because Harvey Milk helps influence others ideas, gay people in the

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