Milk's Early Life

Harvey Milk was a gay activist. He was a visionary leader of civil and human rights. He was the firstly and openly gay selected official who serve as a San Francisco Board Supervisor. Harvey Milk has serve Americans in a few different ways through his life.

Harvey Milk was born in Woodmere, New York, on May 22nd, 1930. He worked in his family’s department store that was started by his grandfather in New York. In his early teen years during high school, Harvey started to realize his homosexuality but chose to keep that to himself understandably. Being homosexual during his teen years was widely not accepted as it is present day. Like other homosexuals during that time, they feared being out casted by the public and judged wrongly by others just because of their sexual orientation. This made it very difficult for Milk growing up in New York. When Harvey turned 17, he had a passion for education and teaching, so in Albany, New York, he attended the, New York State College for Teachers. After attending there for about 4 years, Harvey earned his degree there and soon joined the US navy.

Since Harvey Milk parents both served in United States’ navy, as a first career, Harvey Milk proudly served in the United States’ Navy as a diving officer. During Korean War, he served abroad in a submarine rescue ship. After the Korean War, he stationed in San Diego and became the instructor for new diving officer. Harvey joining the Navy really showed his character and passion about helping his county. When Harvey returned from the Navy, he lived with his boyfriend, Joe Campbell and found a teaching job for a high school. Several years later, Harvey found another career path in a Wall Street investment firm.

When Harvey met his new lover, Jack galen McKinly, he soon became more comfortable with his sexuality and eventually moved to San Francisco and started to have a new passion for supporting his political views by joining protests. Shortly after, Harvey found a new lover that became his main/last significant other, Scott Smith. Milk and Smith opened a camera shop in San Francisco, which became very popular for the gay community that generating good business surrounding that shop. Their camera shop gained the attention of tourist and the gay community.