BY CANDY PARKER

The official first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony for the Harvey Milk “Forever” stamp will take place at the White House on May 22. The date is also celebrated as Harvey Milk Day in California.

Milk was 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 LGBT community at a time when the community was encountering widespread hostility and discrimination. Milk believed that government should represent all citizens, ensuring equality and providing needed services.

Milk’s life and career were cut short on November 27, 1978, when he and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by fellow Board of Supervisors member Dan White.

The stamp image will be previewed at a later date and a public dedication ceremony will take place in San Francisco May 28. Milk is the first openly LGBT elected official to be featured on a U.S. stamp.

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In a statement on their Facebook page posted on October 10, the Harvey Milk Foundation announced that the United States Postal Service will be issuing a Harvey Milk U.S. postage stamp in 2014, and will confirm the issuance this week.

The stamp will feature Harvey Milk in an effort to commemorate Milk’s contribution to the fight for the rights of LGBTQ and other marginalized communities in San Francisco during his service as City Council member.

Read more at dot429.com

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Supporters rally to push for the renaming of San Francisco International Airport to Harvey Milk International Airport. (Photo: Luke Thomas/FogCityJournal.com)

BY DOT429

On Friday, a group rallied at City Hall in San Francisco in support of renaming San Francisco International Airport the Harvey Milk International Airpot in honor of the LGBT hero. The legislation was proposed by Supervisor David Campos, and already has the support of four other Supervisors on the Board. It requires just one more vote to be placed on the ballot for voters to decide. 

One man who attended the rally had lived in San Francisco, just up the street from City Hall for the past 35 years. He was nearby when Milk was assassinated in 1978. When 429Magazine asked him how he felt during that time, he said “It was very sad, very very sad. Because we were fighting so hard for gay rights. People were so against us. Not like now, it’s so easy. People don’t appreciate it, young gay people. I’m not putting them down, it’s just so easy for them. It wasn’t easy for us.”

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Leslie Kritzer in “Letter to Harvey Milk”

BY LAUREN LOGIUDICE
Curve

You may assume that with a title like “Letter to Harvey Milk,” the main arc of this play would center around a gay male character, most obviously Harvey Milk, but this musical thwarts convention and presents us with a story about an intergenerational friendship between a butcher and a teacher. That one of the characters in that equation is an out lesbian writing teacher named Barbara Katsef (played by Leslie Kritzer) is beside the point; there is more to this dame than her pink-triangle shirt. Barbara is a refreshingly fully-formed character who happens to be gay. Not surprisingly, with earnest, genuine characters, “Letter to Harvey Milk,” directed by David Schechter, has universal appeal. In fact, it came away from this year’s New York Musical Theater Festival with five honors, one being the Most Promising Musical award.

Laura I. Kramer, composer; Ellen M. Schwartz, lyricist; and Jerry James, book writer, demonstrated a formula for how get a lesbian character into a mainstream production: make the character choice an organic one (no pun intended). The musical began its journey at the prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, a program for new musicals from which has sprung many of the great Broadway smash hits, including “Ragtime,” “Avenue Q,” and “A Chorus Line.” During the second year of BMI Kramer picked up the lesbian-themed short story collection “Letter to Harvey Milk” by Leslea Newman and started writing songs based on a story idea inspired by the book. Schwartz was interested in collaborating from this early point.

Read more at Curve

Curve, the nation’s best-selling lesbian magazine, spotlights all that is fresh, funny, exciting, controversial and cutting-edge in our community.

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The years-long financial dispute between Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels has come to an end as the pair reached a settlement during court-ordered mediation. The couple, who parted ways in 2010, will share custody of their twins and Michaels will receive partner and child support in excess of $23,000 per month. In a display of unparalleled optimism, Etheridge is currently on her “Fearless Love” world tour and dating “Nurse Jackie” co-creator Linda Wallem.

Finally a reason to attend Comic-con
Just in time for pride events all around the country, DC Comics announced that one of its prominent characters will come out of the closet in a storyline to be introduced in June. According to Twitter buzz, Aquaman and Wonder Woman have emerged as the most likely candidates. Either way, those League of Justice meetings just got a lot more fabulous.

Forever the Mayor of Castro Street
In real-life superhero news, LGBT civil right proponents across the country celebrated Harvey Milk Day, commemorating the life and achievements of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors member who was assassinated in 1978 along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. As the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, Milk has long been hailed as one of the LGBT community’s civil rights trailblazers. Thank you, Mr. Milk.

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