Rights Group Draws Ire for Moving Into Gay Icon’s S.F. Store

Activists in San Francisco are protesting plans by the country’s largest gay-rights advocacy group to take over the former site of the late City Council member Harvey Milk’s camera store, the Associated Press writes.

Human Rights Campaign wants to open an information center and gift shop in the storefront from which Mr. Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, waged his historic campaign to become the nation’s first openly gay elected official.

“Bringing an LGBT civil rights presence to the space that has previously been several for-profit retail outlets is a worthwhile goal,” said Michael Cole-Schwartz, a spokesman for the nonprofit group.

But grass-roots campaigners and former associates of Mr. Milk said they would prefer another commercial tenant to the Human Rights Campaign, which many in the gay-rights movement criticize as too moderate and tied to mainstream politics. The Washington advocacy group was co-founded by activists with whom Mr. Milk clashed during his life.