The U.S Postal Service confirms that they will be issuing a commemorative U.S. Postage stamp in honor of Harvey Milk in 2014.
Breaking the story, City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, national chair of the Harvey Milk National Stamp Campaign and Queen Mother I of the Americas, International Court Council said, ” The International Court Council and 68 chapters across the U.S.A., Canada and Mexico are very excited to learn that our national campaign to get a commemorative stamp issued in honor of Harvey Milk has been successful. This will be the first U.S. stamp issued in honor of an openly gay U.S. citizen. This was a national campaign led by the International Imperial Court Council together with our co-sponsor the Harvey Milk Foundation.”
“This is another feather in the cap of the Obama administration in advancing and acknowledging the contributions of LGBT citizens to the fabric of our great nation,” said Stampp Corbin, the national co-chair of the Obama LGBT Leadership Council during the president’s first campaign.
You said: “This will be the first U.S. stamp issued in honor of an openly gay U.S. citizen.”
It’s not. These openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people have been depicted on US stamps before:
James Baldwin (gay, author, 2004)
Leonard Bernstein (gay, conductor/composer, 2001)
Bessie Smith (bisexual, blues singer, 1994)
Andy Warhol (gay, artist, 2002)
Walt Whitman (gay, poet, 1940)
Tennessee Williams (gay, playwright, 1995)
The issue is openly LGBT, not LGBT in retrospect.
Sooo not the first. Andy Warhol? James Baldwin?