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President Obama to honour famous gay rights activist along with Billie Jean King
Obama honours gays
Harvey Milk to get Presidential Medal of Freedom
Harvey Milk will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour, at a ceremony at the White House on August 12. The award was created to honour especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, or world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavours.
Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Although he only served 11 months in office, he passed a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city, becoming an icon there, and "a martyr for gay rights", according to University of San Francisco professor Peter Novak. Milk is generally accepted to be the most famous and significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States.
Also to receive the award will be the openly lesbian tennis great Billie Jean King and Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who has championed LGBT equality throughout his political career. Milk's nephew, Stuart Milk, who will receive the award from President Obama, made a statement when he received the news of the honour.
"The President's action today touches the core of our very human hearts and my uncle would be so proud of this high honor. His election was, for him, a beginning - a chance to make real change. That change is happening, but we still have so far to go. I hope this recognition inspires LGBT Americans everywhere to heed Harvey's call to run for office, to serve openly, to live proudly with authenticity and to demand the equality that we all deserve."
