Contributing Institution: Sacramento Public Library

Title: Gary Miller Collection

Identifier/Call Number: MC 105

Physical Description: 3.0 Linear Feet 3 archival boxes; 1 archival folder

Date (inclusive): 1940-2022

Abstract: Contained is a collection of color and black and white photographic prints, newsletters, legal documents, ephemera, and published items, spanning years 1940 to 2022. They reflect the political and personal life of Gary K. Miller, civil rights activist and the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate elected to political office in both Sacramento and Placer counties.

Language of Material: English .

Gary Kenneth Miller was born on March 8, 1949, in San Diego, California. Spending his formative years in Kansas City, Missouri, Miller developed an interest in civil rights, adopting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a hero, and advocating for the election of Lyndon Johnson (who would go on to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1968) during a mock election at Westport High School. After graduation, he then went on to attend Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri, from 1967 to 1969. In 1968, and while at Kansas City's Phoenix Society for Individual Rights, Miller met his husband for the next 26 years, Ronald E. Bentley. They moved to San Francisco in 1970 and then Sacramento in 1976, when Miller took a position as a lobbyist with the Friends Committee on Legislation, a Quaker lobbying organization. While acting as chairman of the Sacramento Human Rights Commission, Miller, in 1981, ran for the District Seven seat on the Sacramento City Council. He did so with the endorsements of the Fruitridge Democratic Club, the Town and Country Democratic Club, and the National Organization of Women. Although losing the election to Terry Kastanis, the campaign had a salutatory effect in launching Miller into Capital Region politics. In 1987, Miller ran against two incumbents for a position on North Sacramento's Robla School Board and won, effectively making him the first openly gay man to be elected to office in Sacramento County. He held that position for nearly two decades. Bentley passed away in 1994. In 2002, Miller met special education teacher Michael Gollbach; they married in 2008. After moving to Roseville in 2002, Miller ran for the Roseville City School Board and won, becoming the first openly gay man to be elected in Placer County. He held that position until losing reelection in 2020.

The collection is maintained in as much of the creator's original order as possible. Most series correspond to a cluster of years which are arranged in reverse chronological order. Note that several items were removed from magnetic photographic albums and transferred to legal-size archival folders.

Box 1:

Series I is comprised of content from the 1960s and years prior. Notable items include childhood photographs, various postcards, a January 24, 1967, newspaper, The Westport Crier, that includes a story covering Miller's support of a levy key to funding Westport High School and a newsletter, published by Miller, called the Gay Liberator, from December 1969. A letter written on May 1, 1969, from Miller to the Selective Service declares his stance against the Vietnam War and his intent to enter the ministry.

Series II addresses Miller's life during the 1970s. Photographs and ephemera cover his marriage to Bentley and their move to San Francisco. Also notable are items that speak to Miller's move into San Francisco and Sacramento politics, including a letter written by San Francisco mayor George Moscone to Sacramento mayor Phil Issenberg, recommending Miller to a spot on the Sacramento Human Rights Commission.

Series III includes content addressing the 1980s. Most items – advertisements, photographs, correspondence, government documents – speak to Miller's 1981 run for Sacramento City Council and his successful 1987 run for the Robla School Board. Correspondence with Sacramento mayor Anne Rudin, Lloyd Connelly, Burnett Miller, and LeRoy Greene are notable, as are photographs with Alan Cranston, Barbara Boxer, and Rudin.

Series IV covers the 1990s. Miller's role as a delegate for Bill Clinton at the 1992 National Democratic Party convention in New York City is addressed with photographs and event ephemera. Photographs, legal documents, and correspondence document the marriage of Miller and Bentley. Also included is a personal letter from Kansas Senator Bob Dole to Miller.

Series V covers years 2000 through 2009. Documents address Miller's transition from the Robla School Board to the Roseville School Board. Miller's relationship with, and eventual marriage to, Gollbach, is also covered through several photographs and marriage documents.

Box 2:

Series VI covers years 2010 through 2019. Several items – photographs, certificates, campaign material – document Miller's position on the Roseville School Board.

Series VII contains items that cover the year 2020 and an 18-page autobiography of Miller's life.

Series XIII is a binder of ground-level, color photographs of Pride parades in San Francisco. Several of the images contain nudity.

Box 3:

Series IX includes several plaques and mounted news stories that speak to Miller's accomplishments both as a politician and a civil rights activist. Notable are a September 1988 California Senate Resolution thanking Miller for his time as Chair of the Sacramento County Central Committee; a mounted 2020 news story from the Roseville Press Tribune celebrating Miller's school board run from 2008 to 2020; a September 2021 Senate Resolution recognizing Miller's contributions to the advancement of education and civil rights in the State of California; and, a 2006 Assembly Resolution recognizing Miller's work as a member of the Robla School Board. Prominent is an original political cartoon signed by McClatchy Newspapers cartoonist Dennis Renault on December 1, 1978, with comments made out to Miller regarding his work fighting California Proposition 6.

Box 4:

Included in Series X are two campaign yard signs, one covering Miller's 1981 Sacramento City Council run, the other for his run for Roseville School Board in 2000.

All requests to publish or quote from private collections held by the Sacramento Public Library must be submitted in writing to sacroom@saclibrary.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Sacramento Public Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.