West Hollywood’s annual celebration of Harvey Milk Day, marking the kickoff of WeHo Pride, will be held Thursday and feature the third annual José Sarria Drag Pageant, named for the first openly gay candidate for office in the United States.
The celebration is set to begin at 6 p.m. at West Hollywood Park’s South Lawn and run through 8 p.m. The pageant — hosted by West Hollywood Drag Laureate Pickle — is set to start at 6:30 p.m.
Admission is free. RSVPs are not required, but are requested via eventbrite.com/e/2025-west-hollywood-harvey-milk-day-featuring-the-jose-sarria-drag-pageant-tickets-966850033477?aff=ebdssbdestsearch.
Thursday’s event will also feature a voter registration table, milk and cookies and other activities.
Sarria was a well-known drag performer under the name the Window Norton and founded the Imperial Court System, one of the world’s oldest and largest LGBT organizations. He finished ninth in a field of 34 in a race for five seats on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1961, then elected on a citywide basis.
WeHo Pride runs through June 30, the end of Pride Month.
Milk was the third openly gay elected official in the nation and the first in California when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated in 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by Dan White, who had resigned from the board 17 days earlier, alleging corruption in San Francisco politics.
In 2009, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill requiring the governor to annually proclaim May 22 as Harvey Milk Day, coinciding with the anniversary of Milk’s birth in 1930.
Harvey Milk Day is among the days designated, and having special significance under, the Education Code, with “all public schools and educational institutions … encouraged to observe that day … and to conduct suitable commemorative exercises” recognizing Milk’s accomplishments “and familiarizing pupils with the contributions he made to this state.”