California State Senator Ricardo Lara has been honored today by the White House as a Harvey Milk Champion of Change, a recognition given to open LGBTQ appointed officials.
The celebration, falling on Milk’s 83rd birthday, follows President Obama’s honoring posthumously the slain civil rights leader with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. To honor Milk’s legacy, the administration has incorporated Milk into their Champions of Change program, a series that “spotlights ordinary citizens who are doing extraordinary things for their community, their country, and their fellow citizens.”
Today, Lara was recognized as the first openly gay person of color to be elected to the California Senate.
“I am humbled to be included among such an amazing array array of LGBT leaders,” Lara said. “The fact that three Californians are being honored is telling of the essential role that California plays in advancing equality.”
The other two Californians–Redondo Beach Mayor Michael A. Gin and State Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird–as well as Lara are three of ten people being nationally recognized.
“Though much has changed since Harvey Milk’s time,” Lara said, “we still have an incredible sense of responsibility to live up to the promises of change that he lived and died for.”