Today, more than 1,000 San Diegans turned out to the San Diego Bayfront Hilton Hotel to celebrate San Diego’s eighth annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.
Milk became one of the nation’s first openly gay elected officials when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated just 11 months after taking office. The San Diego event again featured a focus on the importance of coalition work in honor of Milk, who championed efforts to work across issues and communities.
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City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, founder and co-chair of the event, as well as co-chair of the Harvey Milk Foundation International Advisory Board spoke about San Diego’s history of celebrating Milk, along with two other key civil rights leaders who successfully utilized the power of coalitions in their work.
“San Diegans every year rightfully come together for the Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez civil rights breakfasts, and now, once again, for the eighth year, San Diegans from all walks of life have come together for the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast,” Murray Ramirez said. “Dr. King, Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk were about human rights and equality for all.
“I know, and everyone in this room knows, that if King, Chavez and Milk were alive today, they would be speaking out against those who want to build a wall on our border and deport our working and contributing undocumented workers. They would speak out against those trying to defund Planned Parenthood and opposed equal pay for women. They would be speaking out loudly about the Flint, Michigan water disaster. They would be speaking out against … the states which have proposed new restrictions on voting rights that limit access to the polls for people of color and young voters,” Murray Ramirez continued. “They would be speaking out against those who are trying to demonize our transgender Americans.”
Joining Murray Ramirez in welcoming the attendees was Dr. Delores A. Jacobs, chief executive officer of The San Diego LGBT Community Center and co-chair of the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.
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“It has been said many times by many people that the LGBTQ movement in urban communities is one of the most diverse and intersectional movements in the nation,” she said. “In San Diego, we are African American, Latino, Pan-Asian, Native American and white. We are immigrants from many homelands, some, where it’s not safe to exist as an LGBTQ person. We are gay, lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual. We are men, women, gender-queer, non-binary, gender non-confirming and trans. We are children, youth, young adults, middle-aged adults (as much as we don’t want to admit that), and we are seniors. We are aunts, uncles, siblings, godparents, parents and grandparents. We are Democrats, Republicans, Decline to Staters.
“We, and our allies, our friends, our families of birth and choice are all those things and more. We are the movement. We are San Diego,” Jacobs continued. “And this morning, the coalition of those who love and support justice — and the coalition of all those who will be voting June 7 – gather together to look at the past year of achievements and future achievements that have yet to come.”
The event opened with the singing of the National Anthem by the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus. The invocation was offered by Rabbi Laurie Coskey, executive director of the Interfaith Center for Worker Justice, and the Very Rev. Penny Bridges, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. There was a brief moment of silence to acknowledge some of San Diego’s LGBT trailblazers that were lost over the last year, including Dr. Al Best, Kurt Cunningham, Dr. Bill Beck and Christopher Allen.
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San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer spoke about his work in the LGBT community, including serving as co-chair of Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, and efforts to build a permanent AIDS memorial in the city. San Diego’s LGBT elected officials were recognized, as well as a host of allied elected officials and labor and educational leaders.
Openly gay San Diego City Councilmember Todd Gloria presented the Harvey Milk Lifetime Achievement Award to former Houston Mayor Annise Parker. Parker was elected as an out lesbian on the Houston City Council, from 1998-2003, as City Controller from 2004-2010 and ultimately as mayor of the nation’s fourth largest city from 2010-2016.
Parker accepted the award, not just for her work as an elected official, but as an activist who has worked in the LGBT community since the 1970s.
“I have lived the arc of the modern gay movement. I’ve seen the changes,”she said. “When I first started as an activist, I used to deny that there was a gay agenda. Y’all remember that? Some of you older folks remember. Everywhere I went as a baby activist in the ’70s and ’80s they would say, ‘You’re just here to promote the gay agenda.’ And I used to say there is no such thing as a gay agenda. Gradually over time, I realized that I lied about that. Because there really is a gay agenda.
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“We want to be able to go to school without being bullied. We want be able to serve openly and honorably in the military. We want to be able to work in jobs we love, to pay taxes to the country that doesn’t sometimes quite love us back. We want to be able to honor and respect our relationships; to protect our children; to be able to walk down any street in America in safety. Sometimes these days, we just want to be able to pee in private,” Parker said to enthusiastic audience response.
Among the most inspiring moments of the morning were the remarks of two San Diego trans activists, high school students who are the newest members of the Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Board, Lily Rubenstein and Trinity Anne Martinez, who received a standing ovation.
The Nicole Murray Ramirez/Harvey Milk GLBT Student Scholarship Award was also presented by the Imperial Court de San Diego to the San Diego Trans/GNC Youth Project, an organization created by and for trans youth.
Gloria returned to the stage to present the Harvey Milk Achievement Award to Michael Connolly, who was elected to the Alberta, Canada Legislative Assembly last year at the age of 21 and became one of the first three openly LGBT people to serve in that body.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you all this morning before Prime Minister Trudeau decides to build a wall that you’re all going to pay for,” Connolly joked.
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“As LGBTQ+ politicians, it is not only our job to represent our constituents, it’s also our job to lead our community. It’s our job to show LGBTQ+ youth around the world that we are not limited by our sexual orientation or gender identity, but we are empowered by it,” Connolly said. “It is my duty to build upon what those who have come before me have been able to accomplish. Because of their work, I’m able to walk the streets without fear of being beaten to death. Because of their work, I am free to marry the man I love. Because of their work, I stand before you this morning and am free to continue to fight.
“Until everyone in our LGBTQ+ community is able to walk the streets without fear of oppression, or use a public washroom without fear of persecution, we must continue to fight,” he continued. “For we do not fight for ourselves, we fight for the future generations so they need not to.”
Next year’s Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast is scheduled for Friday, May 19, 2017.
