This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was dismayed when a Salt Lake City street was renamed for Harvey Milk.
In 1978, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors killed Milk and Mayor George Moscone. The shooter had resigned from his board position, but changed his mind and asked for reinstatement. That was considered, but he was disappointed when his request was denied.
Armed with a pistol, he sneaked in a City Hall basement window, went upstairs, encountered Milk, who happened to be in the hallway, shot him and then Moscone!
If the reasoning behind changing that name is that Milk was a martyr for gay rights, that is simply not true! Milk was a duly elected, accepted board member who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! Anyone else in the way would have suffered the same fate.
Tragic though his death was, why does a street in a city unrelated to San Francisco bear the name of someone who had nothing whatsoever to do with Salt Lake City? Had I known this was being considered, I would have strongly objected.
Eunice Harmon Knecht
Salt Lake City