White House to hold event unveiling postage stamp commemorating child sexual predator Harvey Milk
WASHINGTON, D.C., – President Obama’s White House will host a dedication ceremony for a new U.S. postage stamp commemorating Harvey Milk, the infamous homosexual activist who became the first openly gay elected official in California in 1977. However, friends and foes alike say Milk was more than an elected official – he was also a child sexual predator whose partners had a habit of killing themselves.
The predatory nature of Milk's personal relationships led at least two of his young sexual partners to commit suicide – one of them Jack Galen McKinley, a 16-year-old runaway from Maryland.
A biography about Milk written by his close friend and fellow homosexual Randy Shilts states that, in addition to the 16-year-old runaway, Milk had other relationships with underage boys, as well, indicating that Milk was a statutory rapist.
Jack Lira, a 25-year-old alcoholic, also killed himself after his relationship with Milk went sour.
Milk was attracted to “boyish-looking men in their late teens and early 20s,” Shilts wrote, adding that “Harvey always had a penchant for young waifs with substance-abuse problems.”
Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel Action, who is himself the father of a teenage boy, objected strongly to the stamp honoring Milk.
“While most sexual predators get time in prison and a dishonorable mention on the registry of sex offenders, Harvey Milk got his own California state holiday ('Harvey Milk Day') and, more recently, his own commemorative postage stamp, awarded by the Obama administration’s USPS,” Barber said. “To me, even the mere notion of elevating, to hero status, a man who statutorily raped teenage boys, is…uncivil.”
In an announcement heralding the event, postal officials called him “a visionary leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S. when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.”
“Milk’s achievements gave hope and confidence to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the United States and elsewhere at a time when the community was encountering widespread hostility and discrimination,” the announcement continued. “Milk believed that government should represent all citizens, ensuring equality and providing needed services.”
Previously, Obama honored Milk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
The White House ceremony will take place on May 22. A second ceremony celebrating the launch of the stamp will be held in San Francisco May 28.
During Milk’s short-lived tenure on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (he was murdered by a political rival in 1978, along with the city’s mayor), he was known for his flamboyance, calling himself the “number one queen” at city meetings and parading around with a string of younger boyfriends – some of legal age, some not.
Upon Milk’s election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors at age 47, he arrived for his inauguration arm-in-arm with his 25-year-old alcoholic lover Jack Lira, and taunted the crowd, “You can stand around and throw bricks at Silly Hall or you can take it over. Well, here we are."
