Gay icon gay rights. Milk's image as a positive role model led to him becoming the namesake for the first high school designed primarily for gay teenagers, the Harvey Milk High School, in the East Village of New York City. The portrayal of those efforts in the critically acclaimed film "Milk" earned Sean Penn an Oscar and comparisons to the contemporary battle over the anti-gay ballot initiative Proposition 8 raging in California at the time of the film's release in 2008. An ironic icon is Anita Bryant, who worked to oppose homosexuality. During the 1970s, Bryant led a national campaign, "Save Our
Scott Smith (activist) Scott Smith (activist) Joseph Scott Smith (October 21, 1948 – February 4, 1995) was a gay rights activist best known for his romantic relationship with Harvey Milk, for whom he was a campaign manager. Smith was born in Key West, Florida, and grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. He then attended Memphis State University before moving to New York City in 1969, where he met Harvey Milk, moving with him to San Francisco three years later, where the couple founded Castro Camera. Smith was instrumental to Milk's career as an activist and politician. He organized and managed Milk's campaigns for public