Voters responded enough to warrant his running for the California State Assembly as well. He campaigned again in the next two supervisor elections, dubbing himself the 'Mayor of Castro Street'. His campaign was compared to theater he was brash, outspoken, animated, and outrageous, earning media attention and votes, although not enough to be elected. He was compelled to run for city supervisor in 1973, though he encountered resistance from the existing gay political establishment. Although he had been restless, holding an assortment of jobs and moving house frequently, he settled in The Castro, a neighborhood that was experiencing a mass immigration of gay men and lesbians. Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and opened a camera store. His experience in the counterculture of the 1960s caused him to shed many of his conservative views about individual freedom and the expression of sexuality. Milk was born and raised in New York where he acknowledged his homosexuality as an adolescent, but chose to pursue sexual relationships with secrecy and discretion well into his adult years.

Harvey Bernard Milk (– November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.