We noted last month that right-wing activists were getting pretty worked up about legislation in California that would declare May 22 of each year to be Harvey Milk Day:
“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,” he said.
The California Legislature approved the legislation last week and, as one would expect, the Right continues to freak out:
“This bad bill will teach impressionable schoolchildren the anti-religious, homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda of Harvey Milk,” warned Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families. “If signed into law, AB 2567 will mean an official day commemorating homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality in California government schools….This will harm children as young as kindergarten.”
“The Democrats are so cocky, they have no qualms about pushing sexual indoctrination upon children in an election year. For the love of God, parents and their children, we implore Governor Schwarzenegger to veto AB 2567,” Thomasson said.
In predictably accurate fashion, AFA’s OneNewsNow reports that the bill will “require all public schools to ‘conduct suitable commemorative exercises’ in commemoration of the anti-religious, homosexualist agenda of the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.” That is true, if by “require” you mean “not require at all”:
This bill requires the Governor to proclaim May 22 as Harvey Milk Day, however, the bill primarily proposes to designate May 22 as a day having special significance; as such this bill does not result in additional average daily attendance or funding for a school district nor does it result in an additional holiday or day of school closure. The designation of a day of significance triggers statutory encouragement for public schools to observe and conduct commemorative exercises suitable to the day, as specified in law, but leaves the decision as to whether to observe any day of significance or to conduct suitable commemorative exercises to the local district.
