The U.S. Postal Service’s release of the Harvey Milk stamp has sparked such anticipation and excitement — especially among the gay crowd — that customers in one Castro neighborhood of San Francisco actually lined the streets in the early morning hours, waiting for the local post office to open so they could buy “forever” stamps.
Mr. Milk, a gay rights activist and local Castro politician, was assassinated in 1978.
“He stood for gay rights and equality,” said Jim Knight, 59, a Castro resident who bought a book of the “forever” stamps, featuring a black-and-white picture of Mr. Milk with a bit of the rainbow gay flag, SFGate.com reported. “He stood for, ’Just because you’re gay doesn’t make you any less of a person.’ “
Mr. Knight’s partner, Mike Pierce, 52, said it was Mr. Milk’s leadership and influence that actually drove him to announce his own homosexuality in the 1970s.
“I was in high school in Orange County,” Mr. Pierce said, in SFGate.com. “It wasn’t easy to come out.”
Time magazine reported that sales were brisk.
“It was just like when Elvis Presley went on sale,” one U.S. Postal Service employee said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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