Charlotte Pride removes 2023 Harvey Milk Award recipient from website

CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Pride says there will be no recipients of this year’s Harvey Milk Award, Stonewall Award, or Legacy Award.

“We do not give every single award out every year. Charlotte Pride was originally going to do Harvey Milk, but upon further discussion, decided not to give out that award this year,” said a statement, in part, to Channel 9 on Friday.

Channel 9 learned that Charlotte Pride had selected a winner for the Harvey Milk Award before scrubbing his name from its website.

The recipient was set to be Chad Turner, the CEO of Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce. A screenshot of Charlotte Pride’s Champions of Pride page shows a biography of Turner, and the Internet Archive of the page from Aug. 5 shows Turner listed.

The current version of the Champions of Pride page omits Turner’s name for the Harvey Milk Award.

Screenshot of Chad Turner listed as the 2023 Harvey Milk Award recipient

Charlotte Pride’s statement to Channel 9 didn’t say what led to the decision to not give out the Harvey Milk Award or the other two awards. The Internet Archive capture doesn’t show any recipients for the Stonewall or Legacy awards.

This isn’t the first time Turner has made headlines in the LGBT community. Our partners at the Charlotte Observer reported in 2016 when Turner stepped down from the Charlotte LGBT Chamber of Commerce after a conservative group noticed he is a registered sex offender.

According to the North Carolina sex offender registry, Turner was convicted of “committing or attempting a lewd act upon a child under 16″ after being arrested in 1998. He was 20 years old at the time of his arrest.

Charlotte Pride said the organization is “honoring a Parade Grand Marshal, a Parade Grand Marshal - In Memoriam, an Outstanding Ally Award, and the Youth Catalyst Award.” Those award recipients can be found here.

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