May 22, 2009 will not be Harvey Milk Day in California.
May 22, 1930 is, however, the day Milk was born. November 27, 1978 is the day he was assassinated, 11 months after becoming the first openly gay elected official in history.
The bill to honor Milk with a statewide "day of significance" was sponsored by Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco.
"This bill would put California on record as recognizing the social contributions that Harvey Milk made to our nation as a civil rights leader," Leno said. "It would also allow schools to conduct activities that would foster respect for all, and educate students about an important figure who is often omitted from history lessons."
The bill passed. However, on Sept. 30, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.
"I respect the author's intent to designate May 22nd as 'Harvey Milk Day' and a day of special significance for California public schools and educational institutions to honor Harvey Milk as an important community leader and public official in the city and county of San Francisco. However, I believe his contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level by those who were most impacted by his contributions. For this reason, I am unable to sign this bill," Schwarzenegger said.
In other words, "Why should anyone besides the fruits and nuts in San Francisco care?"
"The governor's veto message," Leno said in a statement, "only underscores the need for an ever broader audience to learn of the hope and inspiration that Harvey Milk's life represented. Discrimination, inequality and injustice are global issues, which Harvey valiantly fought while sacrificing his own life to an assassin's bullet."
The anti-gay right fought hard against this bill and completely distorted its aims. Many suspect that this right-wing pressure is what cooled Schwarzenegger to the bill.
"If signed into law, AB 2567 will mean an official day commemorating homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality in California government schools," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families. "This will harm children as young as kindergarten. Every May 22, AB 2567 will positively portray to children homosexual experimentation, homosexual 'marriages,' sex-change operations, and anything else that's 'in the closet.' Gov. Schwarzenegger should say no to this very inappropriate bill, which has nothing to do with academic excellence."
Thomasson, wanting to save the children from the ghost of Harvey Milk, also advocates pulling children out of public schools altogether, neatly dovetailing the right-wing anti-gay and anti-pubic school issues.
"What significant contribution did Harvey Milk bring to the state of California – other than encouraging gay people to come out of the closet?" asked Benjamin Lopez of the Traditional Values Coalition. "This is yet another example of them trying to normalize and force acceptance of the gay lifestyle upon people."
Lopez has a point. One of Milk's greatest achievements was being out and proud and encouraging gays and lesbians to come out.
"If a bullet should enter my brain," he famously said, "let that bullet destroy every closet door."
To Milk, visibility was essential in the fight for gay rights. After all, the invisible have no voice.
