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Harry Britt

San Francisco legislator (1938–2020)

Field	Value
name	Harry Britt
image	San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, 1985 Crop Edit.jpg
caption	Britt in 1985
office	President of the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
term_start	1989
term_end	1990
predecessor	Nancy G. Walker
successor	Doris M. Ward
office1	Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
term_start1	January 9, 1979
term_end1	January 8, 1993
predecessor1	Harvey Milk
successor1	Sue Bierman
constituency1	1st district (1979–1981)
At-large district (1981–1993)
birth_date
birth_place	Port Arthur, Texas, U.S.
death_date
death_place	San Francisco, California, U.S.
party	Democratic
otherparty	Democratic Socialists of America
alma_mater

San Francisco Board of Supervisors At-large district (1981–1993) Harry Britt (June 8, 1938 – June 24, 2020) was an American politician and gay rights activist. Born in Texas, he worked as a Methodist pastor in Chicago as a young man and later moved to San Francisco. There, he worked with Harvey Milk until Milk's assassination in 1978. He was appointed to Milk's former seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he remained until 1993, and served as the board's president from 1989 to 1990. Britt was a Democrat and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1987 and for the California State Assembly in 2002, but was unsuccessful both times.

Background

Britt was a native of Port Arthur, Texas, and was educated at Duke University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Chicago. He began his career as a Methodist minister in Chicago, and was married to a woman; though they had divorced by 1968, Britt said that he still did not realize that he was gay at the time. By the mid-1970s, he had moved to San Francisco and began working with Harvey Milk.

Career

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

Britt was first appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in January 1979 by Mayor Dianne Feinstein, succeeding Milk, who was assassinated in City Hall along with Mayor George Moscone by former Supervisor Dan White.{{Cite book |url-status = dead

Britt, who was openly gay, introduced domestic partner legislation in 1982, which was passed by the Board of Supervisors but vetoed by Mayor Feinstein. In 1989, under Britt's leadership, the board again passed domestic partner legislation, which was this time signed by Mayor Art Agnos.{{Citation | url-access = registration

Other campaigns

Britt chose not to run for reelection in 1992. He ran unsuccessfully for California's 5th congressional district in 1987, narrowly losing to Nancy Pelosi in a special election to fill the seat left vacant after the death of Sala Burton, winning 32 percent of the vote to Pelosi's 36 percent.{{Cite news | archive-date = May 26, 2021 | access-date = November 20, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210526071951/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB72A7C26CA931F&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM | url-status = dead He ran his campaign to Pelosi's left, expressing skepticism over her personal wealth and remarking, "I want to have the most progressive agenda in the Democratic Party – not one for socialites". He also was unsuccessful in his 2002 race against Mark Leno for a seat in the California State Assembly.{{Cite news

Later career

Britt gives a lecture at a meeting of the East Bay Atheists, March 16, 2014

Britt directed the Weekend BA Degree Completion Program at New College of California, which closed in January 2008 due to financial problems.{{Cite news

Death

Britt's health declined in his later years due to diabetes. He died at Laguna Honda Hospital on June 24, 2020, at the age of 82.{{Cite news

References

Wildermuth, John. (June 25, 2020). "Former Supervisor Harry Britt dies — helped solidify gay political power in SF". [[San Francisco Chronicle]].
Daly, Chris. "Pushing the debate". San Francisco Call.
Faderman, Lillian. (2015). "The Gay Revolution". Simon & Schuster.
''Democratic Left,'' vol. 8 no. 1 (January 1990), page 7.
(1982-12-10). "PARTNERSHIP LAW VETOED ON COAST (Published 1982)".
"BBC Radio 4 - Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, 1989 local elections and the defeat of propostions S and P - 1989 local elections and the defeat of Propositions S and P - 10 November 1989".
"California voters defeat gay rights causes - UPI Archives".
(November 13, 1992). "SF's Gays Crying out for a Leader". San Jose Mercury News.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1938-births 2020-deaths 20th-century-american-legislators 20th-century-california-politicians 20th-century-american-methodist-ministers lgbtq-rights-activists-from-california california-democrats candidates-in-the-2002-united-states-elections american-gay-politicians american-lgbtq-city-council-members lgbtq-people-from-the-san-francisco-bay-area members-of-the-democratic-socialists-of-america-from-california new-college-of-california-faculty people-from-port-arthur,-texas san-francisco-board-of-supervisors-members

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