The legacy left by the late SF Supervisor Harvey Milk has inspired a rare and emotional exhibit in downtown San Francisco. “Saint Harvey: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Gay Martyr” runs through April 2004 at the International Museum of GLBT History.

Just one step inside the exhibit stirs an almost overpowering presence.

Supervisor Milk is remembered for being the first openly gay officials elected to public office in San Francisco. Milk, along with then Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated in 1978 by former Supervisor Dan White.

“What is most interesting is the reactions people have,” said Lea Salem, director of the GLBT Historical Society. “We’ve had high school students, tourists, gay, not gay, people who knew him, twenty-somethings who have heard of Harvey Milk. None of these people fail to be moved."

The exhibit is like taking a walk through a significant slice of Milk’s life. It starts with pictures of young Harvey and displays memorabilia of his years spent in New York working on Wall Street, his time spent as a naval officer, then leads to the most exciting and tragic time of Milk’s life, which started and ended in San Francisco.

According to biographical information provided at the exhibit, Milk originally moved to San Francisco in 1972. Curators of the exhibit have labeled this time of his life “Hippie Harvey” where viewers see pictures of a long haired, wide-eyed Harvey Milk and some of the clothes he wore during his involvement in the early stages of the gay liberation movement in the Castro.

There is a mask of Richard Nixon attached to a mannequin dressed in a pullover adorned with buttons reading, “Gay liberation now"; “Jesus wore long hair"; “Hitler is alive in the White House"; and “Ain’t nobody’s business if I do,” all symbolic of the hippie counterculture movement.

“It was good times if you wanted to play,” exhibit visitor Peter Gudd, 64, said of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the Castro neighborhood. “Milk is important for the gay movement. He was a trailblazer. He made people think about gayness. You live in the city now and its just part of the fabric but at that time I think there was only one or two gay bars in the Castro."

As the exhibit unfolds, viewers find they are shocked when encountering what Executive Director Susan Stryker has called the most controversial part of the exhibit. Half way through the presentation and displayed in the contour of a crucifix is the very outfit Milk was wearing the day of his murder in 1978. It has not been cleaned of blood or repaired since the day of Milk’s death.

Looking for too long at the “Altar of Saint Harvey” brings tears to many eyes, according to curators. It is similar to the compulsion of staring at a roadside accident, all the while knowing you are looking at something you don’t really want to see. The sight is fascinating and disturbing.

Milk spent 11 months on the Board of Supervisors with then Mayor Moscone.

Disgruntled with growing liberal factions in city government, former conservative Supervisor and ex-police officer Dan White entered City Hall on November 27, 1978 and shot and killed both Moscone and Milk.

When tried for the murders, a jury reached the decision that at the time of the crime White was severely depressed because of a recent binge on Twinkies and other junk food.

White was sentenced to eight years in prison on two counts of voluntary manslaughter. What became known as “the Twinkie defense” enraged citizens and led to the now legendary street riots known as the White Night Riots of May 21, 1979, all according to information available at the exhibition.

White committed suicide shortly after his release from prison, according to the same source.

Accompanying Harvey’s last worn outfit is a display case. Inside it is a lock of his hair, an arm band worn at the ceremony honoring the slain Milk and Mayor Moscone, a stack of letters from Milk’s pocket punctured by bullets the day of the shooting, and the pen Milk used to sign historic legislation against discrimination of lesbians, gays, and other sexual minorities.

Daniel Bau, 37, is currently acting executive director of the GLBT Historical Society.

“Milk was an important historical figure, even though this was only 25 years ago,” Bau said. “The group of people he represented are still under threat and we have to know about our past to understand our future.”

Toward the end of the exhibit, a display case holds memorabilia collected after Milk’s death. Inside, there is the Academy Award-winning documentary film, “The Life and Times of Harvey Milk,” by Ron Epstein and Richard Schmeichen; a journalistic biography, “The Mayor of Castro Street,” by former San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Randy Shilts; and records and soundtracks from the original opera, “Harvey Milk,” from the combined efforts of the Houston, San Francisco and New York Metropolitan Operas.

Since its opening day in June 2003, the emotion and intensity surrounding the exhibit remain strong, according to those at the GLBT Historical Society.

“I still get goose-pimples when I go in there,” Bau said. “It’s quite powerful.”

The exhibit is located at 657 Mission St. on the 3rd Floor. Admission is $4 to the public and $2 for students and seniors.