After a knockdown, drag out fight between 32 of the biggest, most well-known LGBT icons in America, you – the reader – have finally selected a winner.
After voting through the best in four categories – DIVAS, MOVIES, TELEVISION and SPORTS & POLITICS – you brought the Recruiter from Castro Street, Harvey Milk, against the Bathhouse Beach Betty, Bette Midler, and brought it so close at the end that the winner pulled out a victory by one vote!
Your 2016 Ultimate LGBT Icon is Harvey Milk.
Harvey Bernard Milk is without a doubt a trailblazer, hero and most definitely an icon in LGBT history. Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to American public office when he was voted to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Milk served for less than 11 months when he and SF Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by another city supervisor.
Milk’s legacy lives on today in each and every piece of anti-discrimination legislation that comes through all halls of government.
Here in the Central Florida and Tampa Bay area, Milk is honored and remembered in annual events which carry his name including the Harvey Milk Music Festival and the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.
In 2014, Harvey Milk was honored by the U.S. Postal Service as the first openly LGBT political official to appear on a postage stamp.
Several films have been released depicting the life and fight of Harvey Milk. The documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk, won the 1984 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the 2008 film Milk won two Academy Awards; one for Best Original Screenplay from Dustin Lance Black and one for Best Actor for Sean Penn who played Milk in the film.
