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11 Reasons to Celebrate Harvey Milk Day

Today would have been the slain LGBT rights leader's 88th birthday.

Today is Harvey Milk Day, launched in 2009 in California to honor the late civil rights leader, born on this day in 1930.

Below, check out 11 reasons to wish Harvey Milk a very happy birthday.

He fought for LGBT visibility

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San Francisco, California, United States, North America

Milk is often cited as America’s first openly gay politician, but this honor actually belongs to Ann Arbor city councilwoman Kathy Kozachenko. Still, it was Milk who first stressed the importance of LGBT representation in the world of politics.

In a moving speech, he explained:

"Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that she or he is gay; knows that if the parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, the classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryant’s and John Briggs’ are doing their bit on TV.

And that child has several options: staying in the closet, suicide. And then one day that child might open the paper that says 'Homosexual elected in San Francisco' and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight."

He promoted LGBT participation in the political process

Milk urged the LGBT community to actively participate in their government, using much of his own campaign to register voters in the Castro. Milk felt that it is the responsibility of those who feel the least represented to make their voice heard.

Sadly, a 2012 Gallup study found that LGBT Americans are less likely to register or vote than straight Americans.

He promoted solidarity

Although Harvey Milk is remembered as a symbol of gay civil rights, he wanted to build a “coalition of us’s” among all of San Francisco minorities.

He reached out to working class, senior, disabled, black and Asian citizens in the diverse city, hoping each could sympathize with each others experiences and form a political majority together.

He saved the schools

One of Milk’s greatest legislative achievements was his role in the defeat of California's Briggs Initiative, which attempted to ban gay and lesbian teachers in public schools.

The bill's backers preyed on the vicious stereotype of homosexuals as child predators, and ignored the fact that they had been teaching all along.

Working closely with feminist Sally Gearhart, Milk garnered overwhelming opposition to the initiative and cast suspicion on any similar legislation that followed.

He called for representation in the police

NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

UNITED STATES - JUNE 28: Stonewall Inn nightclub raid. Crowd attempts to impede police arrests outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. (Photo by NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

The  unfair treatment of the LGBT community by police did not end with Stonewall: In the early 1970s, cops in San Francisco arrested thousands of gay men in bar and cruising-ground raids.

Presaging the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Milk and Mayor George Moscone urged the SFPD to hire more gay and lesbian officers to better reflect the community.

He envisioned unity without compromise

Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images

Castro Street in San Francisco, USA, with the Castro Theatre on the left and the Bank of America on the right, July 1984. (Photo by Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images)

Milk felt it was the city's role to help preserve neighborhoods, and felt that both LGBT and straight people could benefit from living together as a single community.

The diversity of Milk’s supporters helped shape the Castro into a neighborhood that offered public schools for families, and medical services for the disabled and elderly, without compromising the area’s established identity as a thriving haven for queer culture and nightlife.

He is still protecting LGBT youth

Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Religious protestors opposite St Patrick's Cathedral during a Gay Pride march in Manhattan, New York City, June 1985. One placard reads 'Close The Harvey Milk Gay School' in reference to the recently founded Harvey Milk High School in the East Village, which is designed to support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. (Photo by Barbara Alper/Getty Images)

Two schools carry the torch of Milk’s legacy in two very different ways: The Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in San Francisco is devoted to “teaching awareness, acceptance, and nonviolence.”

The Harvey Milk High School, meanwhile, is a public high school at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York—offering LGBT and questioning students a safe space to “learn without the threat of physical violence and emotional harm.”

Both schools' missions are groundbreaking, and offer hope for a new generation of successful LGBT adults and allies.

He is still addressing human rights around the globe

The Harvey Milk Foundation was founded in 2009 by Harvey’s nephew, Stuart, and combats homophobia and hate crimes in the United Kingdom, Italy, the Czech Republic, Mexico and the U.S.

He helped create the rainbow flag

MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images

Thousands of people march and dance during the 9th Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) parade held at Paulista Avenue, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 29 May 2005, demanding the legalization of marriage between homosexuals. According to organizers, near 2 million supporters are attending the event, in which case it would be the biggest gay parade in the world. AFP PHOTO/Mauricio LIMA (Photo credit should read MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images)

Harvey Milk challenged artist Gilbert Baker to create a more positive symbol of pride for the LGBT community than the pink triangle, which had originally been used by Nazis as a mark of persecution.

Baker created the rainbow flag, assigning a meaning to each color: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit.

At the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade, the first after the assassination of Harvey Milk and George Moscone in 1978, the flag flew above Market Street for the first time. It soon became the most widely recognized symbol of LGBT activism and pride.

Harvey is still making history

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman (3rd R) and Co-founder and President of the Harvey Milk Foundation Stuart Milk (3rd L) unveil the Harvey Milk Forever stamp during a ceremony in Old Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, May 22, 2014. They were joined by Congressman John Lewis (L), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (2nd L), US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Susan Power (2nd R), and Senator Tammy Baldwin (R). Harvey Milk was the first openly-gay man elected to public office in California. He was assasinated in 1978. AFP PHOTO / Jim WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Among his many posthumous honors, Harvey Milk was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.

Milk became the first openly gay elected official to be issued a stamp by the United States Postal Service, and the Navy has named a Military Sealift Command fleet oiler, currently being built USNS Harvey Milk.

Harvey is still teaching the children

Steven Salerno

A new children's book, Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag introduces kids to LGBT advocates Harvey Milk and Gilbert Baker, and teach the history behind the beloved pride symbol. Written by Florida-based author Rob Sanders and illustrated by New York-based artist Steven Salerno, the book was released in April 2018.

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