Right Wing 'Milks' Harvey Milk Day

Right wing pundits and politicos are piling on in the wake of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signing of a bill to establish a day in California that recalls and celebrates the contributions of slain civil rights leader Harvey Milk.

Some dispute that Milk, the first openly gay politician to be elected to a city-level position when hew won office in San Francisco as a Supervisor, even was a civil rights leader.

Anti-gay Christian Web site OneNewsNow posted an Oct. 14 article reporting that Orange County Board of Education chair Dr. Alexandria Coronado had denied that GLBT equality belongs in the civil rights arena.

"I think it just absolutely denigrates the entire civil rights movement," the article quoted Coronado.

"Homosexuality is not a civil right."

Coronado went on to list reasons for her stance. "I don't remember the last time that a homosexual person was forced to move out of their seat on a public bus, like Rosa Parks. And I don't remember the last time that a homosexual person or student...was forced to go to a segregated school, as in the case of Mendez v. Westminster, which took place right here in Orange County, California."

The article cited Dr., Coronado as claiming that other Californians were more deserving of such an accolade, among them former U.S, President Ronald Reagan and former California Governor Pat Brown.

Government offices will remain open as usual on the new state holiday. Even so, many of the complaints generated by the establishment of Harvey Milk Day focus on the fact that schools may observe the day. Although not required to do so, schools are encouraged to consider it a teaching oppotunity about civil rights and Milk's work in promoting GLBT equality.

The anti-gay group SaveCalifornia.com issued a press release describing itself as "appalled" at a day having been named in Milk's honor.

The release contained a harsh personal denunciation of Milk attributed to SaveCalifornia.com president Randy Thomasson, who declared, "Harvey Milk was a sexual predator of teens, an advocate of polygamous relationships, a public liar, and is in no way a good role model for impressionable schoolchildren."

The anti-gay group's leader went on to cite Harvey Milk Day as grounds for home schooling.

"Sadly, children in public schools will now have even more in-your-face, homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination," Thomasson asserted.

"This provides the strongest impetus yet for loving parents to remove their children from anti-family public schools."

Thomasson went on to claim that small children would be Iindocrinated" into gay values.

"'Harvey Milk Day' teaches children as young as five years old to admire the life and values of the notorious homosexual activist Harvey Milk," the anti-gay leader declared.

"The 'suitable commemorative exercises' that are part of 'Harvey Milk Day' can easily result in cross-dressing exercises, 'LGBT pride' parades and mock gay weddings on school campuses -- everything Harvey Milk supported," Thomasson went on.

The press release noted that Gov. Schwarzenegger had vetoed a bill to establish Harvey Milk Day in 2008. The governor, however, not only signed the bill to establish the day this year, he also approved legislation that will allow gay and lesbian California families that married out of state in 2008 to have their unions recognized in-state. Only marriages that were performed in other states or nations before the narrowly-approved ballot question Proposition 8 revoked marriage equality will be affected by the new law.

The release claimed that four out of five Californians oppose a day that honors Harvey Milk.

Anti-gay Web site Americans for Truth About Homosexuality posted an item that accused Schwarzenagger of "destroy[ing] the GOP's 'pro-family' brand."

The posting went on to decry the day as a "manipulative school exercise" that would "Corrupt... children's minds and souls," and assert that "'Harvey Milk Day' is anti-family and anti-child to the core."

Declared the posting, "You simply cannot be pro-sexual sin and pro-family at the same time."

The item invited readers to write letters to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and to Democratic National Committee Chiarman Tim Kaine, Governor of Virginia.

"Tell Steele that moral issues are an important plank of the Republican Party and that 'going gay' will sap the strength out of the conservative grassroots," the posting advised.

"If you are a Democrat, call or write Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and urge the party to STOP pandering to homosexual activists and undermining traditional marriage."

An Oct. 12 EDGE article noted that Gov. Schwarzenegger had vetoed several other GLBT-related items, including a measure that would have allowed transgendered people to get updated birth certificates reflecting their gender identity, and a bill that would have provided protections to GLBT inmates in the prison system.

The EDGE article quoted Equality California executive director Geoff Kors, who said, "The Harvey Milk Day bill marks the first time in the nation's history that a state will officially recognize and celebrate the contributions of an openly LGBT person with an annual day of special significance."

Kors said that Milk would serve as "a role model to millions," and noted, "Californians will now learn about Harvey's amazing contributions to the advancement of civil rights for decades to come.

The article also quoted the author of the "The Marriage Recognition and Family Protection Act," state Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco, who explained, "When California offered marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2008, spouses who were already married in another state or country were prohibited from re-marrying in California.

"Now those couples and their families are in limbo because their rights and protections under law are not clear. This new law will ensure that same-sex couples are protected by existing California law that recognizes all marriages equally, regardless of where they are performed."