Great Columbus Day news from GayPolitics.com…

May 22nd will now be known as Harvey Milk Day in California. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last night apparently signed a second bill passed by the state legislature to recognize the slain San Francisco Supervisor.

The first attempt to establish the day of significance was vetoed by Schwarzenegger, who at the time said it was more appropriate to honor Milk locally where he had the most impact. Since then the Oscar-winning movie “Milk,” a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom and his induction into the California Hall of Fame has elevated Harvey Milk’s status as a civil rights icon.

The signing has been confirmed by the Sacramento Bee. The haters over at SaveCalifornia.com who have been lobbying hard against the law are none-to-pleased, releasing the following in a news release this morning:

“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,” said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com. “Sadly, children in public schools will now have even more in-your-face, homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination. This provides the strongest impetus yet for loving parents to remove their children from anti-family public schools.”

“’Harvey Milk Day’ teaches children as young as five years old to admire the life and values and the notorious homosexual activist Harvey Milk” said Thomasson. “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.”

Schwarzenegger also signed a bill that would recognize gay marriages performed in states where it is legal. Take that Prop 8 supporters!

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking for feedback via Twitter on various bills including including AB 2567, which would designate May 22 Harvey Milk Day.

The bill encourages schools and other educational institutions to recognize Harvey Milk on that date through appropriate commemorative exercises. The bill however does not pressure educators to indoctrinate children into the “homosexual lifestyle,” nor does it teach cross-dressing or same-sex attraction, despite what others would have you believe.

Last year Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar measure, saying that Milk’s commemoration should be restricted to San Francisco only and not state wide. Recently however President Barack Obama awarded Harvey Milk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a national honor, which certainly ups the stakes.

If you would like to encourage Gov. Schwarzenegger to pass the AB 2567, feel free to send the tweet below, courtesy of Change.org:

@Schwarzenegger: Sign the Harvey Milk Day bill! He gave his life, the least you can do is give him a day. #p2 #LGBT

On the same day Harvey Milk was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, SaveCalifornia.com president Randy Thomasson held a press conference outside San Francisco City Hall denouncing Harvey Milk and the honor he was bestowed.

Thomasson and SaveCalifornia.com has also been very vocal in opposing a bill that would proclaim May 22 as Harvey Milk Day. From the SaveCalifornia.com website:

Please veto SB 572, “Harvey Milk Day,” due to major problems with this bill:

NO PARENTAL PERMISSION: While schools and school districts get to choose whether to hold “Harvey Milk Day,” SB 572 does not let parents choose whether their children will participate. The bill has no opt-in or opt-out. Yet polls show most parents oppose their children participating in “Harvey Milk Day.” Fathers and mothers deserve your respect and your veto.

INDOCTRINATES CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 5 YEARS OLD: Harvey Milk Day would promote the “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender” agenda of Harvey Milk to up to six million children in public schools, including kindergarteners. These kids aren’t old enough to be taught about sex, but now they’ll be taught about same-sex “marriages,” cross-dressing and same-sex desires? This is highly inappropriate.

OVERLY BROAD: SB 572 is written so broadly, the pro-Harvey Milk “exercises” could include gay-pride parades on campus. The “exercises” are not defined, so the sky is the limit. Under SB 572, what will children in public schools be taught and how will children’s minds be “exercised?” The answer is whatever Milk believed or is said to have believed about religion, sexual experimentation, marriage, politics, etc.

OPPOSED BY A STRONG MAJORITY OF CALIFORNIANS: In March 2009, San Francisco TV station KPIX commissioned a poll, which found that a majority of Democrats, independents, Republicans, liberals, moderates and conservatives all opposed a statewide “day of significance” honoring Harvey Milk in schools or in any other state observance. Only 19 percent supported an official “Harvey Milk Day.”

Just a toybox full of hate… isn’t it?

A San Francisco Muni train dedicated to the late Harvey Milk has been taken out of service due to anti-gay graffiti discovered inside the trolly. Muni officials believe the defacing took place near the end of Pride Month in June. From the Bay Area Reporter:

Muni officials did not learn of the homophobic graffiti, however, until this week. The news came just days prior to President Barack Obama posthumously awarding Milk the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony Wednesday, August 12.

Following calls by the Bay Area Reporter inquiring about the graffiti, Muni officials removed trolley car #1051 from the F-line late in the afternoon of Monday, August 10. Transportation officials said they had ordered the car to return to a storage yard so it could be inspected.

“It is disturbing to see that the panels had the slurs for some time without us removing it. We will do what we can to see what happened to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Judson True, spokesman for the SFMTA. “Especially in this historic week we want to be sure to honor Milk’s legacy on this streetcar so we will do everything we can to remove any graffiti and get the dedication panels back in place as quickly as possible.”
…

Openly gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who chairs the countywide San Francisco Transportation Authority, also expressed disappointment this week at learning the placards had been left aboard the trolley car.

“I will certainly pursue it with Muni. It shouldn’t be that difficult to get something removed, repaired, and replaced. You don’t leave this stuff up or leave it unaddressed,” said Dufty, who joined a delegation of San Franciscans that traveled to Washington D.C. this week to see Stuart Milk, the former supervisor’s openly gay nephew, accept the presidential honor on behalf of his family.

Thanks to Jamison Wieser for drawing attention to the graffiti by posting photographs online. It’s really sad that no one in our community reported the defacing sooner.