HARVEY MILKS GETS HIS STAMP

After years of campaigning, the US Postal Service has revealed its design for the first stamp of an openly gay politician, the iconic Harvey Milk.

According to Linns’ Stamp News, the commemorative stamp features a black-and-white photograph of Milk, with a small rainbow strip along the left side.

The stamp will be issued next month, on Harvey Milk Day, May 22, which was also his birthday.

Efforts to have Milk celebrated through a stamp were first launched through a letter writing campaign back in 2009 and have finally borne fruit,

It’s not the first American stamp to feature a gay person, (others have previously honoured, for example, Andy Warhol and Cole Porter) but it’s the first for a gay politician.

Through the rainbow strip, it’s also thought to be the first US stamp to specifically reference the person’s sexual orientation.

Milk was assassinated in 1978 at the age of 48 by a disgruntled city official.

In 2009 he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US. Harvey Milk Day is marked annually in California.

An Oscar winning film about Milk’s life, starring Sean Penn, was released in 2008.