BY STEVE LEE
It has been publicly announced that a majority has been reached within the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to endorse a charter amendment to rename San Francisco International Airport as Harvey Milk San Francisco International Airport.
The amendment needs only six supervisors for it to become a charter amendment which will then go before the citizens of the City and County of San Francisco for a vote. It is reported that David Campos, the first openly LGBT Hispanic member of the board of supervisors, and the lead sponsor of the renaming project has nine supervisors on board as joint sponsors. Campos, whose idea the name change was, has been in close consultation with the Milk family throughout.
Following the announcement, San Diego LGBT Weekly was the first LGBT publication to talk to Stuart Milk, nephew of the late Harvey Milk and co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, and get his reaction to this momentous decision.
San Diego LGBT Weekly: Stuart, thank you very much for taking time out to talk to San Diego LGBT Weekly. This is an historic decision. What happens now? And how long will it take?
Stuart Milk: The number of sponsors on the board of supervisors is enough for it to pass as a Charter Amendment. Then a referendum will go before the citizens of the City and County of San Francisco and the result will be determined by a simple majority, and if 51 percent vote in favor it becomes Harvey Milk San Francisco International Airport with 36 million people passing through the airport and 9 million international passengers a year. The referendum will happen either in August or November. That is yet to be decided.
The research done by the board of supervisors indicated that physically changing all the names and signage of the airport would take up to two months with the cost being privately raised, so there would be no fiscal drain of monies from the City.
The electronic changes are done almost instantaneously, which means monitors around the world will reflect the new name. So for instance, a young man in Islamabad, where it is illegal to be LGBT, will be able to look up at a board that will show flights emanating from his country routing through to Harvey Milk San Francisco International Airport. That will have tremendous meaning.
What was the Harvey Milk Foundations’ role in this?
The Harvey Milk Foundation is very supportive of this effort. But let me say this, my larger role is with the Milk family and the Milk family has been involved with the board of supervisors, in particular with Supervisor Campos, in talking through the merits of this, the impact, the honoring of Harvey’s legacy and the global work being done by Harvey’s family members for world equality. The Milk Foundation itself has offered resources and partnerships in getting the funding for the name change and seeing what educational aspects can come of having the ninth busiest airport in North America being named the Harvey Milk San Francisco International Airport.
So the Milk Foundation is engaged in offering support for the future but, right now, the Milk family has played a significant role in working with Supervisor Campos on the renaming process.
What impact do you think this will have on the equality movement?
I feel this could have a larger impact than even the elements of legal equality. Take Eastern Europe. There are places like Hungary that have put equality into their law. They passed civil unions; they have since taken them away. They gave full rights to Roma people; they’ve since taken them away. Equality in the law does not mean societal equality. In Hungary they would have a hard time rousing people to attack the LGBT community, which the current rightwing party is doing, if Budapest Airport was named after a prominent LGBT hero.
There is a societal equality and educational element that is huge. And you combine that with the fact that you’ve got 77 countries in the world where it is illegal to be gay, yet their leaders, their citizens will be flying into an airport named after a prominent LGBT rights hero. This sends a powerful message not only to the citizens, who are struggling for hope but also to their world leaders.
I would love to see the image of a world leader who just said that gay marriage will be the downfall of humanity, which was the Pope; I would love to see his image riding in his Pope-mobile flying into Harvey Milk San Francisco International Airport. This sends an important message.
As important as streets and parks are this is a daily use, a general population global element that has huge implications for education and dialogue. This has huge implications for business, particularly those not embracing the non-discrimination of LGBT people. Suddenly they find themselves at an airport named after an LGBT rights icon and they can’t continue business as normal. They have to accept that the world has moved on, the world has changed.
It is much bigger than what happens in a community within a community.
San Diego became the first city to name a street after Harvey Milk; how do you feel this momentous decision of renaming the airport will impact other cities in recognition of Harvey Milk?
Well, I think it can. One of your city commissioners, who is on the board of the Milk Foundation, Nicole Murray Ramirez went with me and saw the type of meetings that the Milk Foundation does in Italy. And we had the LGBT Center there rename their public space after Harvey and we gave them a bust.
Harvey is huge in places where there is no equality. So when you have public spaces named after someone it does help create that expanding information and recognition of those that came before us. Harvey is unique in that not only did he give his life he knew that he would be giving his life. That is a very powerful story.
The reason that Harvey is huge in Italy, or Turkey or Pakistan is because people are repressed there. His legacy is not quite as big in places where people have some high level of comfort in their LGBT acceptance. How much the other marginalized communities in Italy love Harvey is huge even when they haven’t done a lot of work with the LGBT community but they heard how this LGBT activist was also for women, Latinos, Africans and for religious and economic minorities. And they were inspired by his story and saw he didn’t just stand up for one community he stood up for everyone.
As you know the San Diego GLBT Historic Task Force has initiated a letter writing campaign to name a U.S. Navy ship after Harvey Milk. Do you feel this airport naming decision will influence these types of projects?
I can’t say. I can tell you that there have been discussions between the family and the Pentagon. The great thing about Harvey is that people feel connected to him and everyone feels a part of him in some way – just like a lot of African Americans feel connected to the King legacy.
One thing that I have learned, though, is that the families are very engaged with this process.
San Francisco has a tremendous icon, but Harvey is a California icon; Harvey is a San Diego icon; Harvey is an American icon; Harvey is a global heroic citizen. San Diego, led by Nicole Murray Ramirez have, I think, very much done their part, to move this ball forward.
And how is the U.S. postage stamp campaign going?
Well, with that campaign we still need people to write letters.
What message do you feel this sends the country in general?
I think the most important message for me, from being in places where equality has moved forward then backward is that we’re moving forward and we are not allowing ourselves to move backward. By naming a place where 40 million people go through; where thousands of people a day fly through; a very important hub to commerce, communication, population movement and to transport it sends the message that we are not going to go back and that’s the key.
Harvey talked about that 35 years ago; he talked about Germany, who at the time were moving ahead on transgender rights and then the Third Reich came along and said we’re repealing all that. There’s a famous quote, and believe it or not Republicans like this better than Democrats, that is, “The price of liberty is vigilance, the price of equality is vigilance.” You can’t stop. When you’re a minority group you can’t simply say we’ve accomplished it. We have to always remain vigilant and having a Harvey Milk San Francisco Airport is different from having a Harvey Milk promenade park. Not everyone has to go to the promenade park. But with the airport what are they going to do – fly into San Jose instead of San Francisco.
How does this make you feel, personally?
My personal emphasis has been, and what I have been doing for the past decade, is talking about global equality. I can see the image of young people in India, in Nepal, in Pakistan, even in Dubai looking up at a monitor named after someone that they know is who they authentically are and, especially when they know that being open right now is criminal and could get them killed, that gives them hope and it’s not a hope that diminishes. Their people, their parents, will be travelling to that airport named after an openly LGBT advocate. That is very powerful hope. It connects the world to equality.
Where do we go from here?
Harvey’s legacy continues. It hopefully will continue to grow. But it’s not just about my uncle now. It is about those who have come after him as well … It’s about the Todd Gloria’s, the Nicole Murray Ramirez’, it’s about even our allies, the Jerry Sanders’, Bob Filner’s who have been great supporters of inclusion. But it is very important for us to realize, especially young people who sometimes forget, that there is a history that must not be forgotten and a price for equality. If you are a member of a minority group it’s work and it continues. And Harvey would like nothing better than for his name, his image, his likeness and his legacy to be righting the world for not just LGBT people but Latinos, Asians, women, ethnic and religious minorities – anyone who has been marginalized and diminished, like he was when he first ran for office. When he first ran for office it was illegal to be gay and it was deemed a mental illness by the American Psychological Association and the Psychiatric Association. Now there will be people coming through into that airport from places that still diminish, not just LGBT people but many different types of people and hopefully it will be a huge indicational moment that it is not going to work; the world is not going to go back; it’s going to move forward.
Stuart, thank you for your time.
It’s about time we get acnowledged as part of the human race. Let’s hope this gets done.