Groundbreaking and martyred gay politician Harvey Milk would have turned 95 today. He was assassinated 47 years ago, but he continues to inspire activists in the present day — including his nephew Stuart Milk.
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“He was my touchstone to my own authenticity,” says Stuart, who was 17 when his uncle died and came out as gay shortly afterward. Stuart never discussed the possibility of being gay with Harvey, but his uncle gave him the message that differences are strength.
Today, Stuart is president of the Harvey Milk Foundation, which he and Anne Kronenberg, who managed Harvey’s 1977 campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, established in 2009. Kronenberg is on the foundation’s advisory board.
The 1977 election was Harvey Milk’s third try for a seat on the Board of Supervisors, which is San Francisco’s city council. He won, making him the first out gay person elected to public office in California, which observes his birthday as Harvey Milk Day, as do many municipalities. He was shot to death along with Mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978, by a disgruntled former supervisor, Dan White.
“It was his sad expectation that he would be assassinated,” Stuart Milk says of his uncle. Having received several death threats, Harvey Milk prerecorded a message to be played if he were killed: “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.”
Related: Who was Harvey Milk?
Harvey Milk outside his camera shop after his 1977 election to the Board of SupervisorsBettmann Contributor/Getty Images
If Harvey were alive, Stuart says, he’d most likely be teaching younger generations about LGBTQ+ history. Meanwhile, he inspired his nephew to make some of that history with the foundation, which works for LGBTQ+ rights globally. Stuart reflects on how much has changed since his uncle’s time — and how much hasn’t.
“We’re facing in many parts of the world a similar situation that my uncle had experienced,” Stuart says, noting Hungary’s ban on Pride parades and other crackdowns on the community. Additionally, there are oppressive efforts in Italy, Poland, some countries in Africa, and elsewhere. Transgender and nonbinary people are under constant attack in the U.S. and some European countries. “We see a retraction of rights and forcing people back into the closet,” he says.
But there has been important progress. “I think he’d be proud of the progress that we’ve made,” Stuart says of his uncle. “We now have marriage equality in Thailand,” he points out, and in the U.S. and many other countries. “Marriage equality was a game-changer because it’s a visibility thing,” Stuart says.
“Lies, myths, and innuendoes about transgender people can be sustained and can proliferate because of lack of visibility,” he adds. Visibility is “part of our battle and kind of the message that my uncle gave,” Stuart says.
Stuart Milk with Nancy Pelosi (at left) and Judy ShepardCourtesy Harvey Milk Foundation
The foundation holds educational events and works with activists around the world. Stuart Just came back from doing a history event in the U.K., speaking about LGBTQ+ history in schools — something some American states have banned — and that California, for instance, requires, and the foundation has helped schools in the state implement that mandate. Recently, he participated in a panel at the Munich Security Conference for the third year in a row.
His next trip is to Italy, where some “really draconian laws are being proposed,” he says, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is leading the nation’s first far-right government since World War II. Queer Italians are familiar with his uncle — the LGBTQ+ center in Verona is named for him, and there’s a bust of him in Rome’s LGBTQ+ center. Stuart and the foundation are also working with activists in Hungary to fight the Pride ban; organizers want to hold a parade despite the ban.
“We’ve had great accomplishments, and then we move on,” he says. “Now the Baltic nations have progressed tremendously, including having an openly gay president [Edgars Rinkēvičs] in Latvia.”
But the foundation won’t go where it isn’t wanted, Stuart Milk stresses. LGBTQ+ activists in repressive Russia aren’t eager to make waves right now. And “it’s a struggle in Africa because usually brave individuals speak out for the community instead of groups,” he says.
Still, it will partner with those who are open. It did some work with the State Department during the Obama and Biden administrations and even joined in the first Trump administration’s fight against criminalization of homosexuality in certain countries, Milk also hopes to continue that work with the current administration. “We’re having discussions, most at embassy level, but it feels a little frozen right now,” he notes.
The second Trump administration has shown great hostility to trans people but — perhaps — less to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, and there are at least seven out LGB officials in the administration, Milk says, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce. “We hope these individuals find their voices,” he says.
But, he adds, the foundation isn’t backing away from supporting trans people. Harvey was forced out of the military for being gay, he points out, and now service members are being forced out for being trans. “Even John McCain said he didn’t see why trans people couldn’t serve,” Stuart notes.
Stuart Milk speaking at an eventCourtesy Harvey Milk Foundation
The story of his uncle, he says, resonates with people who are the most marginalized and diminished. Harvey Milk also recognized the importance of intersectionality before it was in vogue and was committed to working in coalition. He reached out to organized labor, Asian Americans, the Latine community, and more.
“Our community members are members of every race, every religion, all genders,” Stuart Milk says. “When you attack immigrants, when you attack abortion rights, you are attacking our community.”
To honor his uncle, he says, the top priority is to be visible if you’re in a situation where it’s safe. Another way is to stand up to the bullies. “We have everyday heroes who stand up to the bullies,” Stuart says. “When we stand up to the bullies, the bullies lose.”
“If you hear someone who says something homophobic, xenophobic, racist, confront them—ask if they know how offensive that is,” he adds. LGBTQ+ equality is not just a liberal cause, he says: “We need everyone, including those in the center, to stand up.”
But Harvey Milk Day is also a day to celebrate, Stuart says: “It’s a day when people can celebrate what he dreamed of, what we’ve come to, and remind us that we still have more work to do.”
