Openly gay San Francisco city supervisor David Campos is spearheading a campaign to rename the San Francisco International Airport after his predecessor, the murdered city supervisor and LGBT icon Harvey Milk.
The name change isn’t a shoe-in, though: first, Campos needs bring the proposal before the board of supervisors. If it passes their review, the proposal will be put on the ballot for voters in November. If all goes well, San Francisco International, a.k.a. SFO, will be rebranded with Milk’s name. It might be similar to John F. Kennedy International Airport’s change from Idlewild.
If the measure does pass, SFO would be the first airport to be named after an openly-gay person. A previous effort was made to name SFO after Tom Lantos, a former congressman and Holocaust survivor who was also dedicated to his post, but that proposal didn’t succeed.
We already have major airports named after presidents, Supreme Court Justices, members of Congress and mayors. Some even honor actors (John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif.) and musicians (Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans). It’s time for SFO—the Pacific gateway for more than 20 million passengers in 2011—to carry the name of its most important LGBT leader.
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