Palm Springs Hosts 14th Annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast This Morning

The 14th Annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast is underway this morning at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with a coffee hour beginning at 8:30 a.m. and the program starting at 9:30 a.m.

The breakfast honors Harvey Milk, who in 1977 became one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the United States. Now in its 14th year, the event brings together community leaders, business owners, and equality advocates from across the Coachella Valley, with funds raised going toward LGBTQ+ youth programs in the region.

This year, Brandon Wolf is receiving the Harvey Milk Leadership Award. Wolf is a survivor of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando and has become a nationally recognized advocate for LGBTQ+ civil rights and gun safety. In 2019, he became the first Pulse survivor to testify before Congress. He also co-founded the Dru Project, which has awarded more than $250,000 in college funding to LGBTQ+ youth.

Judy and Dennis Shepard of the Matthew Shepard Foundation will be honored with the Legacy Award. The couple founded the organization after their son Matthew was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in 1998. Judy Shepard was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024, the nation's highest civilian honor.

More information is available at harveymilk.us.