SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — One Utah lawmaker has said that he will introduce a bill to change the name of road in Salt Lake City to honor conservative activist Charlie Kirk rather than San Francisco gay rights icon Harvey Milk.
Utah Rep. Trevor Lee is proposing to change the name of Harvey Milk Boulevard, a portion of 900 South, to Charlie Kirk Boulevard. The road has been known as Harvey Milk Blvd since 2016 when the Salt Lake City council unanimously voted to rename a stretch of 900 South in his name.
Milk was a prominent figure in the LGBTQ+ community, becoming one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S., winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated the following year.
In an interview with KRON4’s sister station ABC4, Rep. Lee talked about why he is proposing the change, saying there is a desire to remember him since he was assassinated in Utah, and that the current name of the road has no connection to the state.
“From the vast majority of Utahns, they would say that Harvey Milk does not have any connection to Utah whatsoever,” Lee says. “But Charlie Kirk does now, especially after being assassinated in the state of Utah.”
Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Orem at Utah Valley University, but he does not have any direct connection to Salt Lake City.
“It’s extremely sad that someone was assassinated because they wanted to have dialogue and someone didn’t agree with that,” he adds. “So they chose to murder him, and there’s no need for that in this environment. And so I think it’s a good way to honor someone who always wanted to try to have discourse, and try to reach out to the other side of the aisle on different opinions.”
According to Utah municipal code 10-8-32, municipalities and cities can name streets, courts, parks, and other public places and change their names. 900 S is not a state road, so it would appear that the state legislature does not have the authority to change the name.
ABC4 has reached out to Utah House Democrats, the Utah Pride Center, and Equality Utah for comment and is waiting for a response.
Lee previously sponsored legislation that was criticized as being anti LGBTQIA+, H.B. 77 Flag Display Amendments. The bill banned the display of any unofficial flags on government property, including pride flags. When the bill was introduced, Lee posted on social media specifying that the bill would ban pride flags.
Who was Harvey Milk?
Harvey Milk was born in New York in 1930, and he worked with his brother Robert in their family’s department store while growing up. After graduating high school in 1951, Milk enlisted in the U.S. Navy and attended Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island before being based in San Diego. He resigned from the Navy in 1955 after being questioned about his sexual orientation.
Milk worked in New York City, holding jobs as a school teacher, stock analyst and production associate for Broadway musicals. He became heavily involved in politics during the 60s and 70s, and moved to San Francisco in 1972, opening a camera shop in the heart of the city’s growing gay community.
Just over a year after moving, Milk declared his candidacy for the city’s Board of Supervisors, but lost that race. He went on to found the Castro Village Association along with other business owners after area merchants tried to prevent two gay ment from opening a store.
He ran again for the combined City/County Supervisor seat in 1975, but narrowly lost that race. Then-mayor George Moscone appointed him to the city’s Board of Permit Appeals shortly after, which made Milk the first openly gay commissioner in the United States. He won his third bid for the supervisor seat in 1977, and was inaugurated on January 9, 1978.
Just over ten months later, on November 27, 1978, both Milk and Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed at City Hall after a disgruntled former city Supervisor, Dan White, snuck in through a basement window, avoiding metal detectors at the official entrances.
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