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Stuart Milk to Speak at Democratic State Conference 10/10
9/14/2009 - Orlando, Florida - Stuart Milk has confirmed he will speak at the Democratic State Conference and serve as Guest Speaker for the GLBT State Caucus meeting on October 10th. RDC will be hosting a hospitality suite both Friday and Saturday nights at the conference, courtesy of the GLBT Caucus. We have invited Milk to the suite for a meet and greet, either Friday or Saturday- time TBA.
For more information contact RDC President David Futrelle @ 407 963-2398.
Milk is also serving as this year's Grand Marshall at the Central Florida Pride Parade (see earlier press release).
Stuart Milk Bio
L. Stuart Milk, civil rights activist and nephew of slain SF Supervisor and LGBT rights pioneer Harvey Milk
STUART MILK has been a human rights advocate. a youth advocate, and a leader in workforce development for nearly two decades and spends as much as 40 weeks a year in all 50 states and several foreign countries addressing critical workforce needs as he consistently strives to bring both equality, recognition, increased funding and dedicated assistance services to a broad range of disenfranchised communities. Most recently Stuart has much greater success in achieving these goals for LGBTQ youth organizations in the United States and abroad.
Stuart recently joined San Francisco elected officials along with San Francisco business and community stakeholders to design and implement a targeted Transgender employment and training program that now serves as a model in the U.S. and globally. This LGBTQ targeted outreach program has quickly spread across the Pacific where Stuart worked on the replication, implementation and funding with Sydney Australia Lord Mayor Clover Moore and openly gay Australia Councilor Philip Black and established similar replication Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Mr. Milk serves on the Board of two U.S. National Workforce Associations and lectures on diversity and culture issues in the workplace to national and international audiences. Stuart also sits on numerous advisory and honorary boards of global LGBT organizations where he takes an active role in promoting and communicating important “life affirming messages” for the LGBTQ community. Stuart has engaged with U.S. policy makers on the LGBT community’s collective push for full equality and he a is frequent public speaker along side local, community and state leaders from Sacramento California to Manchester New Hampshire as well addresses with U.S. Federal lawmakers from New York Congressmen Steve Israel and Congressman Timothy Bishop to the Chair of the US Congressional Black Caucus Congresswoman Barbara Lee to any number of events with the US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Stuart was 17 when his uncle, Harvey Milk was assassinated in San Francisco and he credits his frequent conversations with Harvey with both his passion for public service and his ongoing work for equality and justice for all Americans. In the past year alone, Stuart will have traveled to 19 states and 11 foreign countries to speak at public rallies, policy forums, at universities and at funding events for civil rights or community organizations, always as an unpaid volunteer and around or in conjunction with his full time job on workforce and youth advocacy. The diversity of his civil rights audiences are as broad as Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (where he spoke this year at the schools first ever civil rights panel on LGBT issues) to the large civil rights rallies in ever held in any number of state capitals.
For several years, Stuart has served in an official capacity in national and international LGBT events and panels including this year in Madrid- Spain, Hong Kong and Istanbul- Turkey to Grand Marshal Stints at San Francisco Pride to the LGBT Mardi Gras in Sydney Australia. Although a US resident, he is particularly moved by the struggle of the global LGBT community –all of the LGBT activists, leaders, organizations, volunteers and business associations – and he stands proudly with each and every one of them in our yearning for inclusion and work toward equality. His address in 2003 at the University of San Francisco can be seen on the extras DVD of the Times of Harvey Milk and Stuart’s relationship with his Uncle and his own activism is currently being portrayed in the new award winning play “Dear Harvey” by Patricia Loughrey commissioned by the Diversionary Theater in San Diego and now showing on Community Stages and at Universities and Colleges throughout North America.
Mr. Milk has recently addressed major Human Rights events in Central and Latin America, Australia, and throughout Europe. In June, Stuart and German MP Mechthild Rawert worked together in Turkey to bring for the first time ever three Turkish MPs’ to Istanbul’s Pride Event and then successfully negotiated the removal of heavily armored police barricades to peacefully allow the LGBT parade to proceed.
Stuart is the recipient of over a dozen awards and proclamations for his own work, activism and example in continuing the leadership and pioneering spirit of his uncle. Last month in Madrid, Stuart was the recipient of the annual National Spanish award for Cultural Authenticity (Muestra la cultural Authenticdad Especiale) from the President of Spain “for his inspiring volunteer work throughout the world on behalf of the LGBT community”. Stuart frequently accepts posthumous awards on behalf of his Uncle, including both this years Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama at the White House and Harvey Milk’s induction into the California Hall of Fame from Maria Shriver.
Having been the Milk family spokesman for the last two decades, Stuart considers it both an honor and a responsibility to further his Uncle’s example of full authenticity by proudly and openly talking about his “less then equal” legal status in the US and around the world as a out and proud member of the LGBTQ community while at the same time providing a message of hope and inclusion for all who still struggle for unqualified freedom.
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