Miami to name street after Ruth Shack, LGBTQ advocate and county commissioner

The city of Miami plans to name a portion of the street near downtown’s Bayfront Park after Ruth Shack, a champion of LGBTQ rights and former Dade County commissioner who died in May at the age of 94.

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On Thursday, the Miami City Commission is voting on a resolution that would designate a portion of Southeast Third Street that runs from Biscayne Boulevard to Southeast Second Avenue as “Ruth Shack Way.”

In 1977, Shack sponsored an amendment to Miami-Dade’s Human Rights Ordinance that protected people from workplace, housing and other types of discrimination based on their sexual orientation. Those efforts were overturned after anti-gay activist Anita Bryant petitioned to put the ordinance on the ballot, but the protections were restored in a 1998 vote.

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The proposal to name a city street after Shack is being sponsored by Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo, who in 2023 became the city’s first openly gay commissioner.

“Ruth dedicated more than seven decades of her life to making Miami-Dade a better, more inclusive, and more culturally vibrant community,” Pardo said in a statement Monday. “Her legacy can be found in our commitment to human rights, historic preservation, the arts, philanthropy, and civic engagement.”

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Miami Herald staff writer Michael Butler contributed reporting.