SAN DIEGOSAN DIEGO — Civil rights and labor activist Dolores Huerta was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast on Friday, where San Diego’s LGBTQ+ leaders also spoke about the continued importance of defending the rights of marginalized groups.
To succeed, the 94-year-old said, young people would be crucial — “all of us have to participate.”
The annual event aims to recognize the contributions of LGBTQ+ leaders and to celebrate the life and work of Milk, who was the first openly gay man to hold public office in California and an advocate for gay rights.
Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black, who wrote the film “Milk” about the event’s namesake, and local San Diego rabbi Devorah Marcus were also honored, and eight local LGBTQ+ students each received an $1,000 academic scholarship.
“We’re gonna continue the fight against racism, against sexism, and support the Equal Rights Amendment for women,” Huerta said in her acceptance speech to an audience of 500 at the Marriott hotel in Mission Valley. “We continue (Harvey Milk’s) legacy to bring social and economic and racial justice to our country.”
Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez and helped organize strikes that led to key policy changes, including the 1975 state law that let farm workers unionize. In 2002 she launched her Foundation to advocate for the rights of women, labor, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants and others.
“For Dolores, justice is indivisible, as she has long recognized that the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights is inseparable from the broader fight for human dignity and liberation,” said Russell Roybal, the chair of the California Commission on the State of Hate at the Civil Rights Department, in introducing her.
During her speech, Huerta led the audience in call-and-response chants, shouting “Viva Harvey Milk” to which the audience responded “Viva!”
Black, a screenwriter and director, was later awarded the Harvey Milk Legacy Award and Marcus the Harvey Milk Equality Award.
Both spoke about the impact of Huerta and Milk’s activism on their own lives and work.
“Harvey believed in calling people in, rather than calling people out,” said Marcus, who leads Temple Emanuel of San Diego, adding that she plans to keep using her leadership to educate people on the messages of acceptance in religious texts.
Four LGBTQ+ officers from the San Diego Police Department, San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and FBI were also honored, and a posthumous award was given to Phillip Collum, a former Chula Vista assistant police chief who died of cancer last month and was the first openly gay male officer in his department.
Local advocate Nicole Murray Ramirez, the diversity breakfast’s founder, said this year’s event aimed to honor the LGTBQ+ community and its allies, and the combined strength of marginalized people when they work together.
“If Harvey Milk were alive today,” he said, “he would stand up for the … rights of women to control their own bodies. He would stand up for the undocumented and asylum seekers, and he would stand up for the rise in hate crimes against the Asian Pacific Islander and the Muslim community.”
“Make a hate crime against any a hate crime against all of us,” he said later.
Earlier this week, a string of pellet-gun drive-by shootings outside gay bars in Hillcrest hit multiple people, including a security guard who was shot in the eye, requiring surgery. Police are investigating the shootings as possible hate crimes.
Many of the speakers acknowledged the young people in the audience — including the 50 middle and high school LGBTQ+ students and the eight students awarded scholarships.
They urged young people to stay engaged with politics and civil rights issues and register to vote, especially in this election year.
“This is a really good opportunity right now during campaign season to get involved and to learn about democracy,” Huerta said after the breakfast. If everyone wants democracy to work, she added, “all of us have to participate.”
