Gay activist and civil rights leader Harvey Milk will be honored in San Diego later this month when a two-block street in the city's Hillcrest neighborhood is re-named in his memory.
As The Los Angeles Times reports, the San Diego City Council voted 8-0 Tuesday to rename the street, which is currently called Blaine Street. Appropriately enough, what will soon be known as Harvey Milk Street leads to the city's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Center in Hillcrest, which has a sizable gay population.
The new street signs are scheduled to be unveiled on May 22, which would have been Milk's 82nd birthday, according to San Diego 6.
Though historians may recall that Milk is predominately associated with his work in San Francisco, where he became first openly gay man elected to public office in a major American city as a county supervisor, San Diego authorities say that the activist was first stationed in the southern California city while he was in the U.S. Navy.
"I believe this is an appropriate way to honor Harvey Milk’s tremendous contributions," Councilman Todd Gloria, who represents Hillcrest and is one of the council's two openly gay members, told San Diego Gay & Lesbian News. "This is the culmination of years of work by many San Diegans and will ensure the civil rights leader is never forgotten in our city."
Over the objections of some fellow Republicans, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in 2009 establishing May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in honor of the slain politician, who was assassinated in 1978, according to NBC.