A Utah lawmaker is pushing to rename a road that honors gay-rights activist Harvey Milk to instead pay tribute to assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk.
Republican state Rep. Trevor Lee introduced a bill to rename Harvey Milk Boulevard, a portion of 900 South running through Salt Lake City, as Charlie Kirk Boulevard.
He called it fitting because Kirk’s assassination was in the Beehive State, while New York-born activist Milk was gunned down in California.
“From the vast majority of Utahns, they would say that Harvey Milk does not have any connection to Utah whatsoever,” the lawmaker told ABC 4 said of the LGBT activist killed in 1978.
“But Charlie Kirk does now, especially after being assassinated in the state of Utah.”
Kirk, a Trump ally and a married father of two, was killed with a single shot at Utah Valley University in Orem, some 34 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
“It’s extremely sad that someone was assassinated because they wanted to have dialogue and someone didn’t agree with that,” Lee 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,” he said.
The road was named after Milk in 2016. However, because 900 South is not a state road, the state legislature would not have the authority to change the name, which would be the city council’s responsibility, according to the Utah municipal code.
Lee has represented the 16th district in the Utah House of Representatives since January 2023.
While insisting that the road name-change bill is about honoring Kirk, and not a slight on Milk, the outspoken Republican has previously been accused of making anti-LGBT comments, including on a since-deleted X account from before he was elected.
This year, he sponsored a bill that went into effect in May that bans Pride flags from schools and local government buildings.
He wrote in June that “Utahns overwhelmingly don’t support Pride month,” while saying: “Watch for some significant legislation this next session that pushes back onto these woke groups!”
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