First Harvey Milk Street Named

And it's not where you may expect

Courtesy of the City of San Diego

Harvey Milk’s legacy reaches well beyond his activist roots in San Francisco – the city where he worked and was tragically assassinated after serving less than a year in office as the first openly gay elected official in the U.S. in 1978.

His story was famously recreated in the Academy Award-winning film Milk a few years ago (written by out screenwriter Dustin Lance Black – who also penned the Prop 8 play – 8), but yesterday, Milk was honored in a new way.

The city of San Diego unanimously voted to rename a street after the LGBT rights hero. And in doing so, it becomes the first city in the country to have a street named after Milk.

“A year ago, a group of community leaders came together around the notion the time had come to honor an LGBT civil rights leader in San Diego the same way we have given honor to other civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr.,” says Dwayne Crenshaw, San Diego LGBT Pride’s executive director. “Today marks a symbolic and significant moment in the movement forward towards the American value of equality.”

A celebration is planned on May 22 – just in time for Milk’s birthday – at what was formerly the corner of Centre Street and Blaine Ave.