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
Harvey Milk High School students. Harvey Milk High School Harvey Milk High School is a public high school in the East Village of New York City designed for, though not limited to, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender young people, as well as those questioning their sexuality. It is named after San Francisco, California supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States. The school was originally run by the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI), an organization that provides social support to at-risk youth, especially non-heterosexuals. After becoming a fully accredited public school in 2002, the high school