10 Martyrs That Furthered The Civil Rights Cause

"If I'm killed, let that bullet destroy every closet door," - Harvey Milk, shortly before he was killed.

America has never been the most socially progressive country and part of this comes down to what conservatives describe as the ‘3 Gs': gays, guns and God. Two of these (guns and God), are an integral part of the Constitution, but discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is not. This realisation gave rise to a wave of liberalism in the 1960s that swept cities like San Francisco where Milk was elected as a city supervisor in 1977.

Being the ‘first’ anything is always a milestone, but nothing is as honourable as being the ‘first’ of something that you have chosen yourself, despite a mountain of obstacles advising you against it. In this case, Milk had gone into office as the first US public official to make his homosexuality public.

Once in office, after spending 11 months lobbying for an unprecedented bill that would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it became law, but as fate would have it, the price Milk would pay for materialising such legislation would be his life. Not long after, he and his mayor were assassinated by another city supervisor, disgusted by these social reforms.

Milk became a martyr for the LGBT community, making history and revolutionising the livelihoods for millions to come, while inspiring many across the world to follow in the city’s footsteps. His murderer would only get a slap-on-the-wrist five-year sentence. He committed suicide in 1985.