The Briggs Initiative and Legacy

In 1978, Milk campaigned across California against Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative, which would have barred gay and lesbian people from working in public schools. He pressed President Jimmy Carter to oppose it and used his Gay Freedom Day speech to connect the campaign with a wider demand for human rights.

Voters defeated the initiative on November 7. Twenty days later, former supervisor Dan White assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone at City Hall. Milk’s death ended a very short public career, but his organizing model and insistence on visible representation continued to shape LGBTQ politics.