Today marks what would have been Harvey Milk’s 80th birthday. As we recognize Milk, and reflect on his legacy, we’re reminded of how far we’ve come, but also how far we still have to go. Milk was, according to his last campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg, “What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us.” Would we be farther along if Milk had survived?

Milk was the first openly gay elected official into public office in California. After running three times and failing, he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk served 11 months in office before being assassinated, along with Mayor George Mascone, by ex-city supervisor Dan White. Milk became a martyr for gay rights, and his killer was acquitted of first degree murder on what was called the “Twinkie defense,” blaming White’s binge on junk food the night before the murders. He was sentenced to seven and two-thirds years for voluntary manslaughter.

The night of the verdict, a frustrated and angry mob of people began to march to City Hall, chanting “Avenge Harvey Milk.” This night soon spiraled out of control, with the crowd setting fore to and vandalizing City Hall and it’s surroundings. By morning 61 police officers and 100 rioters were hospitalized.

Last year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger designated May 22 as “Harvey Milk Day.” To commemorate, we’ve chosen these Milk quotes to remember his legacy and victories he did for us, the LGBT community at large.

“I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”

“The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, that my friends, is true perversion..”

“All men are created equal. No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words.”

And the most important, closing statement from a speech near the end of is life:

“And the young gay people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias and the Richmond, Minnesotas who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant in television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us’es, the us’es will give up. And if you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.”

Harvey Milk, thank you…you are truly missed.