LGBTQ San Diego County News
During the 1950s, a Navy lieutenant named Harvey Milk served aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) as a diving officer during the Korean War. He later transferred to Naval Station San Diego to serve as a diving instructor. Milk hailed from New York and while being stationed in San Diego, he fell in love with California.
Harvey Milk was caught in Balboa Park in an area that was popular with homosexual men. This park sighting resulted in many questions about his sexual orientation in the McCarthy witch hunt era when homosexuals were banned from serving in the military and resulted in Harvey Milk being forced to resign from the U.S. Navy. Milk remained a proud veteran and when he was assassinated in 1978, he was wearing his cherished Navy officer’s belt.
San Diego County is home to the largest military establishment in the Western Hemisphere and has always been proud of its military personnel and veterans.
In the 1970s, Jose Julio Sarria (Empress I Jose) — the late gay icon, World War II veteran, first openly gay candidate to run for public office (in 1961) and founder of The Imperial Court System (in 1965, which now has chapters in 70 cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico) — introduced gay San Diego activist Nicole Murray Ramirez to Harvey Milk during an Imperial Court event at a gay bar in San Francisco. Milk and Ramirez immediately hit it off, sharing their love of San Diego, passion for the gay rights movement and politics in general. In fact, they had both been Republicans and staunch supporters of Senator Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. The two stayed in touch. Ramirez visited San Francisco often and they were both involved in the fight in 1977-78 against Anita Bryant’s national homophobic “Save Our Children” campaign. They also crusaded against the statewide “Briggs Initiative,” sponsored by retired Senator John Briggs, who was attempting to remove and fire homosexual teachers, employees and their supporters from their jobs.
On Nov. 27, 1978, after just 10 months as an elected member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk and then-Mayor George Moscone were both assassinated in their offices at San Francisco City Hall.
The assassination of Harvey Milk left a prolonged effect on Ramirez and he vowed to himself that he would not let the LGBT community (especially in San Diego) forget about The Honorable Lt. Harvey Milk.
In 1979, Ramirez established the first award named after Milk — The Harvey Milk Civil Rights Award at the Nicky Awards. A few years later, Ramirez founded the Harvey Milk Democratic Club of San Diego County, which was officially chartered by the San Diego Democratic Central Committee. One of the committee’s presidents, Al Best, would later be the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in San Diego. On Nov. 11, 1988, the Harvey Milk Democratic Club of San Diego County dedicated the first memorial bench named after an openly gay man in Balboa Park. But Ramirez wasn’t done yet and wanted a street named after the former San Diego resident and approached then-City Councilman Todd Gloria with his idea. When Harvey Milk Street was initially dedicated in Hillcrest, it became the first city in the world to name a street in honor of the beloved gay icon.
When Ramirez was elected state president of Equality California, he got involved with then-San Francisco state Assembly member Mark Leno’s campaign to make Harvey Milk’s birthday (May 22) a state holiday. It was during this statewide effort that Ramirez met Harvey’s nephew, Stuart Milk, of Florida. They became fast friends and allies and soon Ramirez was elected to and continues to serve on the national board for the Harvey Milk Foundation.
When Jose Julio Sarria passed away, Ramirez became titular head and executive director of the International Imperial Court System and soon launched a national campaign to get the U.S. Postal Service to name a stamp after Harvey Milk. After eight years and thousands of letters from all over the country, including the Imperial Courts chapters, the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp was unveiled at the White House in May of 2014 with members of the Milk family, the International Imperial Court Council and a very proud Ramirez all present.
When former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly member Leno’s bill making Harvey Milk Day a reality, Ramirez approached Dr. Delores Jacobs and fellow City Commissioner Robert Gleason about establishing the annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast in San Diego, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019.
In 2011, when the anti-gay military ban “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was repealed, Ramirez launched another letter-writing campaign with the International Imperial Court System requesting that then-U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus name a Navy vessel after Harvey Milk. About six years later, the USNS Harvey Milk was officially announced at a ceremony in San Francisco attended by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, ambassadors and elected officials, Stuart Milk, and other LGBTQ civil rights leaders. A San Diego delegation including Mayor Kevin Faulconer, then-state Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Councilman Todd Gloria, the late Ben F. Dillingham, onetime president of Veterans for Equality Bob Lehman, and city commissioners Robert Gleason and Nicole Murray Ramirez. The Navy secretary announced that the USNS Harvey Milk would be built and dedicated in San Diego.
There are three official ceremonies for the building of a navy vessel. Friday, Dec. 13 was the first – “the laying of the steel” held at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO). Commissioner Ramirez, with Mayor Faulconer’s office and NASSCO officials, worked together on the “invitation only” historic ceremony. Speakers included: Mayor Faulconer, California Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, Stuart Milk, the president of NASSCO and naval officers. LGBT leaders in attendance included State Commissioner Robert Gleason, city commissioners Bruce Abrams and Susan Davis, Morgan Hurley, Bob Lehman, Chris Shaw, Nick Moede, Sherman Mendoza, Mike Zarbo, “Big Mike” Phillips, Imperial Court Emperor 47 Darnell Williams, Imperial Court Council leaders Rob Surrell and Charles Rozanski, Toni Duran, Will Rodriguez Kennedy, Equality Business Alliance Director Eddie Reynoso, and many others. There were more than a dozen LGBT veterans and four active military service members present as well as San Francisco LGBT leaders John Carrillo and Jerry Coletti.
For Nicole Murray Ramirez, it was a personal commitment fulfilled to the legacy of fellow activist Harvey Milk. In his remarks, Stuart Milk called Ramirez “the visionary for both the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp and the USNS Harvey Milk.”
“He [Harvey Milk] dreamed of a day like today, when not only would we have the military honoring LGBT, but we have a mayor from the Republican party and we have everyone that represents the San Diego community coming out,” Stuart Milk told the Union Tribune. “This would have been un-dreamable for people back in 1978.”
“It absolutely took a village to accomplish all of these tributes to the legacy of Harvey Milk throughout the past few decades and I will always be grateful for the support of countless people who share my love and respect for Harvey,” said City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez.
