Utah lawmaker moves to rename street honoring Harvey Milk, pay tribute to Charlie Kirk

A Republican lawmaker in Utah wants to rename a street memorializing a slain LGBTQ+ legend to honor a more recently assassinated right-wing figure.

Utah Rep. Trevor Lee told a local Nexstar station that he intends to file a bill that would rename Harvey Milk Boulevard in Salt Lake City and instead recognize Charlie Kirk.

“From the vast majority of Utahns, they would say that Harvey Milk does not have any connection to Utah whatsoever,” Lee said. “But Charlie Kirk does now, especially after being assassinated in the state of Utah.”

Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed speaking at Utah Valley University. The conservative activist had a history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, and text messages sent by the alleged shooter suggest he was a critic of Kirk’s anti-transgender rhetoric.

Milk, an early leader of the LGBTQ+ rights movement and one of America’s first out elected officials, also died in a politically motivated shooting. He was shot and killed in 1978, a year after his election as a San Francisco supervisor, alongside Mayor George Moscone.

For Milk, the risk of political assassination had been pondered before his death. A recording of Milk played at his funeral said, “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.”

Axios reports that Lee was considering filing legislation to strip Milk’s name from the Utah street even before Kirk’s assassination, and that he considered drafting a bill after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth changed the name of the USNS Harvey Milk.

But Lee said he wants to send a message against political violence and attacks on individuals over differing opinions.

“It’s extremely sad that someone was assassinated because they wanted to have dialogue and someone didn’t agree with that,” he said. “So they chose to murder him, and there’s no need for that in this environment. And so I think it’s a good way to honor someone who always wanted to try to have discourse, and try to reach out to the other side of the aisle on different opinions.”

Lee previously filed a bill to criminalize the display of Pride flags on government property, including at public schools. That passed the legislature and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox allowed it to go into effect without his signature.