His first act was to introduce a bill outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation, which Mayor George Moscone signed into law with a pen Milk had given him. Fearing assassination, he took to recording his thoughts, including a sadly prescient one: “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”įinally, in 1977, Milk was elected to the Board of Supervisors to represent his beloved Castro.
Every year since, San Franciscans have promenaded through the streets. The parade attracted more than 50,000 people who came to celebrate Pride for the very first time, laying the groundwork for LGBTQ parades to come. Still, Milk and the Castro’s rise to power coincided with the rise of anti-gay reactionaries like Anita Bryant, and Milk understood both the power and the danger of his position as de facto leader of the largest gay community in America. T he year was 1972, and San Francisco was hosting its first Gay Pride Parade on Polk Street the city’s oldest gay district.
He argued in favor of free public transportation, public oversight of the police, and other street-level political causes. Milk cleaned up his image, started wearing suits, and swore off marijuana as his political ambitions grew.