Harvey Milk Forever Stamp Dedicated

US POSTAL SERVICE

US POSTAL SERVICE

At a White House ceremony on what would have been the 84th birthday of gay rights leader Harvey Milk, the US Postal Service held a First-Day-Issue dedication ceremony for a forever stamp in his honor.

“Let this stamp remind us of the fundamental truth behind Mr. Milk’s message — that we all have a stake in equality,” Ronald Stroman, the deputy postmaster general, said in remarks at the dedication. “Let this stamp inspire a new generation to continue Harvey Milk’s legacy — to keep working toward a world where prejudice gives way to acceptance, where division gives way to unity, and where fear gives way to hope.”

Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, the founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, was also on hand.

“The dreams Uncle Harvey shared with me — for a world based not simply on tolerance, but on inclusion, not simply on an allowance for differences, but on the celebration of humanity’s diversity, are dreams for which he made the ultimate sacrifice,” he said. “These dreams have a wonderful new emblem with the US Postal Service’s issuance of the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp.

Milk was a longtime gay leader in San Francisco before his election to the city’s Board of Supervisors in late 1977. A year later — just weeks after his victory in beating back a statewide voter referendum calling for the firing of all gay schoolteachers — Milk was shot dead, along with Mayor George Moscone, by Dan White, a fellow city supervisor who had recently resigned his post but was hoping to rescind that decision.

In 2009, Milk posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.