Thank you, Mayor Faulconer: USNS Harvey Milk

Conversations with Nicole

Nicole Murray Ramirez

While I do appreciate being recognized as the person who came up with the ideas for a Harvey Milk U.S. postage stamp, the first Harvey Milk Street (proudly in San Diego) and the USNS Harvey Milk, I have never ever accomplished these three historic happenings all by myself. Countless people have gotten behind my visions and made it happen. Yes, “it takes a village.” When it comes to the Harvey Milk U.S. postage stamp and the USNS Harvey Milk, these two became a reality because of the International Imperial Court System of the U.S., Canada and Mexico (founded in 1965) which now has chapters in 70 cities. I may have been the chair of both of these national letter-writing campaigns, but they wrote the countless letters to the postmaster general and the secretary of the Navy. When I came up with the idea for San Diego to dedicate a street after Harvey Milk, which now leads to the doors of our San Diego LGBT Community Center, I first approached then-City Councilman Todd Gloria, who then carried the ball within City Hall. When I came up with the idea for an annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast, it was Dr. Delores Jacobs and now-State Commissioner Robert Gleason who gave me their full support and were my co-chairs of the breakfast.

Now about the recent ceremony “the laying of the steel.” Yes, it was the first ceremony of three when it comes to any Naval vessel (including the USNS Harvey Milk). The first ceremony is rightfully focused on the workers (shipbuilders) — in this case, at NASSCO in San Diego. The first ceremony is usually in-house and low key. Well, as some said, I kinda highjacked the ceremony into a bigger one because of the historic vessel it will be and the campaign that it took to get it.

If it wasn’t for the 100% backing of our Mayor Kevin Faulconer and his staff (especially Eric Young) and the understanding and permission of NASSCO, especially Dennis DuBard of the Government Relations Department, there would not have been this proper ceremony and I couldn’t have invited the 15 LGBT veterans and five active LGBT Navy personnel to this event. Because trust me, without the support of Mayor Faulconer, NASSCO would have thought I was just an old crazy queen.

A special thank you to Stuart Milk who went out of his way and his speech was one of the highlights of this event. So, thank you Mayor Faulconer, NASSCO and the International Imperial Court System!

The GMSR’s Spaghetti Dinner

Every year, there is a three-day annual retreat for gay men called the Gay Men’s Spiritual Retreat (GMSR) held in the beautiful Julian mountains. This retreat not only changes lives but in many ways saves lives. This annual retreat will be held in June of 2020 with the theme “Breaking Through.” Many of the attendees are recovering from drug and alcohol abuse, which seems to be a subject that so many in the LGBTQ community like to ignore or sweep under the rug. I again this year attended their annual holiday fabulous Spaghetti Dinner at our LGBT Community Center with two of my recovering friends. They played a very moving picture about gay men coming out of their closets to their families and about some rejections and acceptance. The Imperial Court de San Diego sponsored a table and well over 200 people were in attendance.

I have been around for now over a half a century in San Diego and it’s sad how many don’t support our sober LGBTQ community or ignore their main organizations: Stepping Stone and the Alano Club. As a person that went through a heavy drug-using time in the 1960s and 1970s, overdosed three times, yes, I am a recovering drug addict. I want to thank Stepping Stone, Alano Club and the LGBT Community Center for all you do for my fellow brothers and sisters, God bless you all.

‘Richard Jewell’ movie gets *****

Almost everyone remembers the bombing at the 1996 Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia. One hundred people were injured and two died. This movie should get an Oscar nomination as well as the actors who played Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) and his mother (Kathy Bates). This true story is about how Jewell, a security guard hired by the Olympics, discovered a bomb in Atlanta’s Centennial Park. He was first hailed as a hero but then quickly became the investigation’s main suspect. His life and reputation were almost completed ruined by the FBI and the media. Jewell was just a simple-minded security guard, a down-to-earth Southern “good ole boy,” a card-carrying proud NRA member and a loving mama’s boy who was almost framed by the FBI and then maligned by a susceptible American media. A FBI agent who was having sex with a woman reporter leaked it to her that the FBI was looking at a security guard as a possible suspect. She then wrote a front-page story that the world media retold. Then, Jewell and his mother’s life became a living hell. Jewell, who was a heterosexual woman-loving man, had a very good friend who was gay and named Dave Dutchess. The FBI tried to make him an accomplice of the bombing and kept asking Jewell and Dutchess if they were lovers. Jewell passed the lie detector test with flying colors and that didn’t help with the media.

Finally, after months, the FBI had no choice but to officially say Jewell was not a suspect. He later became an Atlanta policeman and died in the 1980s of a heart attack. What this story tells you is that yes, at times the FBI lies and tries to frame people and if they tried it on this white, NRA, Republican Southerner, you know that some of the stories of such framing of African Americans, etc. are absolutely true. I thank award-winning actor and producer Clint Eastwood for making this picture!