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 (opera) Harvey Milk (opera) Harvey Milk is an opera in three acts composed by Stewart Wallace to a libretto by Michael Korie. A joint commission by Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and San Francisco Opera, it was premiered on January 21, 1995 by Houston Grand Opera. The opera is based on the life and death of the gay activist and politician Harvey Milk who was assassinated along with San Francisco's mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978. The controversial director John Dew originally suggested the idea for a stage work based on the life of Harvey Milk to David