The Utah legislature has proposed to rename Salt Lake City's Harvey Milk Boulevard to Charlie Kirk Boulevard.
Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Utah, has proposed House Bill 196, titled "Highway Designation Amendments." The proposed bill would give the state legislature authority to name municipal streets.
The bill seeks to remove a Salt Lake City street named after Harvey Milk, the first openly gay individual elected to a public office in California, and rename it after Charlie Kirk.
Milk was killed in 1978 by Dan White, a former colleague and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, after being elected.
The death of Charlie Kirk last September prompted many people to pay tribute to the political commentator, with HB 196 looking to add another to the list.
Lawmakers have until March 6 to decide the fate of the legislation, but opposition has already sprung up in the weeks since the bill was introduced.
Jenni Olson, an award-winning filmmaker and LGBTQ+ activist, voiced her concerns over the bill in an interview with the Daily Universe at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Olson wrote and directed a film called “575 Castro Street,” which features a tape recording Milk made in case of his death. She showed it at Sundance in 2009 and again in 2026.
“It's incredible that nearly 50 years after Harvey died, he is being attacked ... (and) used for … political fear-mongering … It's obviously provocative,” Olson said. “It's just unbelievable. I'm proud that I made this film and it's getting out here again, and that those messages are still so relevant.”
Olson hopes that her film can have an impact on those who watch it. She also shared values she hopes her work might inspire.
“Honesty (and) courage — the basic, fundamental courage to stand up for what's right, for people's rights and to denounce people who are expressing hate,” Olson said.
Lee said the bill to remove Harvey Milk’s name from 900 South in Salt Lake City and replace it with Charlie Kirk’s name is motivated by his desire to preserve Utah’s culture.
Lee said he does not believe Milk, who did not have direct ties to Utah, should be honored with a street name.
Some have proposed that the solution is simply to name a different street after Charlie Kirk. Lee said he thinks replacing Harvey Milk Boulevard is the right move.
While Lee had strong feelings about HB 196, he said the bill was relatively small and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
“I mean, it's such a small bill … of all the things that we're doing up here on the list of priorities, it's definitely not at the top,” he said.
Lee said he believes Democrats have made the street name into a bigger issue than necessary. Lee also described what his big-picture goals for this session are.
“We're dealing with housing. We're dealing with illegal immigration. We're dealing with education. We're dealing with all of the pertinent issues that are important to Utahns,” Lee said. “We're spending most of our time on that stuff to help everyday people with their way of life and making sure that their cost of living can go down. I mean, these are all big priorities to the House that we're working on this year … that's what we're focused on.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah (ACLU) also commented on the bill. In their official press release, Director Ellie Menlove of Policy condemned HB 196.
“We’ve said from the start that their goal is to push LGBTQ+ people out of public life. This is one of many bills Rep. Lee has already introduced this legislative session that are vindictive and cruel and do nothing to solve the real, bread-and-butter issues facing Utahns,” Menlove said.
So far, HB 196 has been introduced but not yet voted on. If passed, the law would take effect on May 6.
Contributing: Daegan Beus.