Harvey Milk’s Legacy and San Diego

Conversations with Nicole

By Nicole Murray Ramirez

In the early 1970s, in a bar in San Francisco, World War II veteran and the first openly LGBTQ candidate to run for public office (1961), Jose Julio Sarria, introduced me to a long-haired hippie wanting to run for Board of Supervisors [San Francisco’s “city council”], named Harvey Milk.

Harvey and I hit it off immediately with our love for politics, history and our LGBTQ civil rights movement. I stopped by his photo shop in the Castro neighborhood anytime I was in town and we worked together against the Briggs State Initiative that would have fired all homosexual teachers had it been approved.

Harvey told me that he had been stationed in San Diego while he was in the Navy in the 1950s. I’ll never forget how I had the nerve to tell him that he wouldn’t ever win an election until he cut his hair and put on a suit – all the while I was in full drag with go-go boots giving him this advice!

When Harvey was assassinated after only about a year in office and the outrageous verdict handed down to his assassin, which rightfully caused riots in San Francisco, I vowed to myself that I would never let our community – and our nation z- forget Harvey Milk. And San Diego, you have played an important and major role in preserving the legacy of Harvey Milk, including:

1. The establishment of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club of San Diego. The club’s past presidents included the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in San Diego, Dr. Al Best, along with Asian-Pacific Islander activist Jim Cua, and yes, me.
2. The dedication of the first bench in Balboa Park that honored an openly gay man: Harvey Milk. 
3. The establishment of the Harvey Milk Civil Rights and Mayor George Moscone Equality awards. 
4. The establishment of the San Diego Harvey Milk Student Scholarship Fund.
5. The dedication of the first Harvey Milk Street in the nation, located in Hillcrest.
6. The San Diego Human Relations Commission became the first government body in the state to endorse State Senator Mark Leno’s bill to make Harvey Milk’s birthday, May 22, a California State Recognition Day.
7. The establishment of the first Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast in the nation.
8. A national letter writing campaign, which resulted in a US Postal Service stamp featuring Harvey Milk, was started locally with the Imperial Court de San Diego and the San Diego GLBTQ Historic Task Force.
9. Another national letter writing campaign, which resulted in the now christened US Navy Ship – the USNS Harvey Milk (TAO-206) – was also started locally with the Imperial Court de San Diego and the San Diego GLBTQ Historic Task Force.
10. The International Harvey Milk Medal of Honor was established in San Diego with Robert Gleason, with San Diego’s 35th mayor being the first honorees.

While all 10 of these Harvey Milk recognitions were my ideas, it absolutely took a village and none of it would have ever happened without your support, San Diego!

I will always remain grateful to so many of you who believed in me and supported my ideas. People like Dr. Al Best, Jim Cua, Daryl Edwards, Robert Gleason, Empress LaLa Too, Empress Julia Legaspi, then Councilmembers Toni Atkins and Todd Gloria, Mayors Jerry Sanders, Bob Filner and Kevin Faulconer, Ben Dillingham III, Frank Stirriti, the Imperial Court de San Diego, Emperor Mikie, Big Mike Phillips, Michael Portantino, UPDATE Newspaper, the Gay & Lesbian Times, Terry Sidie, the San Diego LGBT Community Center, Lambda Archives, former council member John Hartley, Kurt Cunningham, the GLBTQ Historic Task Force, Assemblymember Chris Ward, Eddie Rey, Carolina Ramos, Bob Lehman and Tom Felkner, and so many, many more.

My heart is full as I just returned from the welcoming ceremony for the USNS Harvey Milk, held in San Francisco, and I thought how my city, San Diego, has played such a major role in preserving the legacy of a true American civil rights icon, Harvey Milk. 

Now we prepare for the upcoming 16th annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast on Friday, May 24, honoring Harvey’s birthday on May 22, 1930. For more information, visit bit.lySDHarveyMilkDiversityBreakfast2024. 

–Nicole Murray Ramirez is a lifelong Latino and LGBT activist and advocate, a longtime city commissioner, and is the Queen Mother of the International Imperial Court of the Americas. He can be reached at [email protected]. 

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