This morning, hundreds of community members, advocates, and allies gathered at the Town and Country Resort for the 17th Annual San Diego County Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast, one of the region’s most cherished celebrations of LGBTQ+ leadership and civil rights progress.
The event kicked off early, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. and the program beginning promptly at 7:45 a.m. Guests experienced a powerful lineup of speakers, honoree presentations, and moments of reflection on the life and legacy of Harvey Milk, and the many leaders who continue to carry it forward today.
A Tradition of Honoring and Inspiring
The event is organized each year by an all-volunteer team, co-chaired by Rickie Brown, Laurie Black, Bruce Abrams, and Ryan Bedrosian. Longtime activist and founder Nicole Murray Ramirez, a champion for LGBTQ+ rights both locally and nationally, continues to serve as one of the event’s guiding voices. The committee also includes community leaders; Nancy Chase, Danell Scarborough, Susan Jester, Michael Zarbo, Bob Lehman, Bob Leyh, Big Mike Phillips, Mickie Lochner, William Lopez, Ben Cartwright, and Rick Cervantes.
Over the years, the San Diego Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast has grown into one of the largest events of its kind in the nation. Past honorees include beloved activist Dolores Huerta, Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black, former CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center Lorri L. Jean, former Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, and organizations like the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club.
While the honorees change each year, the event’s message remains the same: hope is never silent.
“Harvey Milk gave his life believing that visibility, truth, and love could change the world,” said Ryan Bedrosian. “Every year, we gather to remember that his dream lives on — not only in the people we honor, but in every person who shows up to keep hope alive.”
Honoring This Year’s Trailblazers
This year’s honorees include three individuals and groups whose work exemplifies courage, advocacy, and visionary leadership:
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Governor Tina Kotek of Oregon received the Harvey Milk Lifetime Achievement Award, a tribute to her groundbreaking election as the first openly lesbian governor in the United States and her decades-long dedication to public service and progressive policy.
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The California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus was presented with the Harvey Milk Leadership Award in recognition of its powerful, collective voice in shaping pro-LGBTQ+ legislation, not just in California but as a model nationwide.
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Officer Lisa Hartman of the San Diego Police Department received the Assistant Chief Phil Collum Activist Award for her ongoing work building meaningful bridges between law enforcement and the LGBTQ+ community — a role rooted in dialogue, trust, and transformation.
“Harvey Milk was not only concerned about the civil rights and liberties of gays and lesbians. He also joined the movement in the fight for farm workers; the struggles of seniors; the rights of women; and the challenges that small business owners face,” said Nicole Murray Ramirez. “Our honorees reflect that same spirit of leadership — fighting not just for our community, but for the dignity, equity, and freedom of all people.”
In a time when LGBTQ+ communities are facing renewed threats across the country — from the rollback of transgender rights and targeted anti-drag legislation, to classroom censorship, book bans, and a surge in hate crimes — the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast stands as more than just a morning of celebration. It is an act of resistance, a reaffirmation of resilience, and a space for remembrance. It reminds us that progress must be protected, and that visibility, solidarity, and public courage are political acts. As Donald Trump and his allies toy with our economy, they are simultaneously escalating attacks not only on queer and trans people, but also immigrants, communities of color, and reproductive rights, the urgency to stand united has never been greater.
Milk’s call to action continues to echo: “You’ve got to give them hope.” And in today’s climate, hope is not passive — it’s defiant.
Harvey Milk’s Legacy in San Diego
Though Harvey Milk’s most visible activism was centered in San Francisco, his impact has long reverberated through San Diego. A native of New York, Milk served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and was stationed in San Diego as a diving instructor aboard the USS Kittiwake. Milk received an “other than honorable” discharge as a lieutenant junior grade — like many LGBTQ+ service members of his time, his military career was cut short because of his sexuality.
It is in part this San Diego chapter of Milk’s life that makes the city’s annual breakfast especially meaningful and a pointed reminder of how institutions that once excluded us can — and must — be held accountable and transformed. Milk’s time here, before becoming one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S., laid a foundation of service that informed his later political activism.
Since his assassination in 1978, Harvey Milk’s story has become a symbol of resilience and transformation. His legacy has been commemorated in countless ways, from the 2009 Oscar-winning film Milk to the 2014 dedication of the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp, a project spearheaded by the International Court System and unveiled by the U.S. Postal Service — at the White House as the first U.S. stamp to feature an openly LGBTQ+ elected official.
San Diego itself also made history in 2012 when formerly Blaine Avenue in Hillcrest, was renamed Harvey Milk Street. And again when the International Court System helped lead a campaign to name a naval ship after Milk. In 2016, the U.S. Navy christened the USNS Harvey Milk, a fleet oiler named in his honor — and fittingly constructed at General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard right on San Diego Bay. The ship’s naming served as a moment of reflection and reparation for a military that once discharged Milk for who he was, now recognizing him as an American hero.
A Powerful Symbol of Remembrance
This year’s Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast also included a deeply moving and historic presentation that underscored the event’s mission of honoring the past to inspire action in the present.
The RUTH “Remember Us The Holocaust” Exhibit, was presented with an original German concentration camp badge—No. 20266—
a Pink Triangle, worn by Christian Prager, a teenager arrested and imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp for being homosexual. Prager, who later endured imprisonment in Buchenwald, survived the Holocaust but tragically died at age 26 in 1945. The artifact, part of his original concentration camp uniform, was formally presented during the breakfast by members of the International Imperial Court Council — the oldest LGBTQA+ organization in North America.
The historic symbol is a solemn reminder that LGBTQA+ individuals were also persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust. Many endured inhumane treatment, including castration, and joined the 6 million Jews and millions of others lost to Nazi terror. It was presented in memory of Harvey Milk, a proud Jewish American.
The badge will be part of the RUTH Exhibit, funded by the County of San Diego and on public display at the La Jolla/Riford Library through June 2026.
“The Holocaust was not only about Jews. It also targeted Jehovah’s Witnesses, people with disabilities, Roma, LGBTQA+ individuals, political dissidents, and children,” said exhibit spokesperson Sandy Scheller. “The pink triangle is a powerful symbol of truth in history and a stark reminder that this must never happen again.”
Though unable to attend this morning’s breakfast, Eddie Reynoso, publisher of LGBTQ San Diego County News, first approached The RUTH Exhibit earlier this year, with the idea to bring a pink triangle to San Diego’s Holocaust remembrance efforts. Reynoso had been searching for an artifact like this since 2012, driven by a deep desire to preserve and uplift the often-erased histories of LGBTQ+ people. In 2017, he came heartbreakingly close — narrowly losing a bid for a pink triangle he hoped to donate to the Hillcrest LGBTQ Pop-Up History Exhibit that went on to draw nearly 6,000 visitors in just 30 days, in November of 2018.
“For over a decade, I’ve held hope bring one of these symbols home to San Diego — not just for display, but for truth, healing, education, and to keep the memory of LGBTQ individuals who survived or died in the Holocaust-alive” Reynoso shared. “Harvey Milk believed that history belongs to the people, and that our stories — no matter how painful — must be told. In a time when even presidents try to bury the truth, it’s up to us to make sure it rises.”
The presentation of Christian Prager’s pink triangle at this year’s breakfast stands as a powerful reminder that remembrance is never passive — it is an act of courage, and often, quiet defiance. “I am thankful to the International Imperial Court Council, for helping to keep his memory alive,” added Reynoso. “This artifact doesn’t just preserve history — it tells the story of a young man who was punished for love, and of a community that refuses to be forgotten.”
By including this presentation, the 2025 Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast not only honored modern trailblazers but also reclaimed painful chapters of LGBTQ+ history that are too often forgotten. In doing so, it reminded attendees that remembrance itself is an act of resistance — and that Milk’s legacy lives on not only through policy, but through the persistent telling of truth.
