Harvey Milk Day

Harvey Milk was the very first openly-gay person to be elected to office in the state of California, when he was elected as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. A year later, Harvey & the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, were both assassinated by former city supervisor, Dan White, who served five years of a seven year sentence & was then paroled (yes, White was sentenced to seven years for killing 2 high-ranking city officials). About a year and a half after being released from prison, White subsequently committed suicide.

I mention this because the LGBTQI rights group, Equality California (EQCA) is asking not just Californians, but anyone interested in fairness & equality for all Californians (and all Americans), to sign a petition asking California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill (SB 572) that has passed the state's legislature creating a statewide Harvey Milk Day, in commemoration of Harvey's early, critical work to help advance the rights of LBGTQI people.

Apparently Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill once before & has signaled that he will veto this bill also, which is why EQCA needs help in getting the word out to the governor that he should sign this bill honoring a true pioneer in the on-going struggle for equality (see the link to the petition above).

You may remember that President Obama honored Harvey Milk last month with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Harvey's nephew Stuart Milk accepted the medal on Harvey's behalf.

So, if you are of a mind, I hope you will take 2 minutes & sign the petition. I live in Florida, but I signed it. You can even put in your own comments when you sign the petition, but--of course, if you do--I hope you will write from your heart & speak as eloquently as you can as to why Harvey Milk deserves this honor.

Dustin Lance Black, who won a Best Screenwriter Oscar for the movie, Milk, testified in May of this year at a state senate committee, explaining why Harvey Milk deserves this honor & how Harvey Milk--as an open, proud gay man--helped bring hope to so many people not just while he was alive, but years after Harvey had died.

It is obvious in this video that Dustin speaks from the heart, and explains how a man he never met and never knew personally helped to save his life...and the lives of countless other LGBTQI people who found inspiration & strength in Harvey Milk's story.

Presidential Medal of Honor Recipients for 2009

The White House announced today the names of the 16 individuals being awarded the highest honor that can be bestowed by a U.S. President upon a civilian, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the first time President Obama has bestowed the award.

Some of the names included in the list of 2009 recipients are the Lion of the U.S. Senate, Edward Kennedy (who was elected the year I was born!); tennis star & equality icon, Billie Jean King; SCLC President & civil rights legend, Rev. Joseph Lowery; international human rights (including GLBTQI rights) activist, Bishop Desmond Tutu; and openly-gay former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk!

I know that there will be plenty of people who see this as simply “throwing the gays a bone” (no pun intended whatsoever), but, in my humble opinion, I think it says a lot that, in his first chance to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he has chosen so many gay (or gay-friendly) public figures. I also think that these folks are long, long overdue for such a prestigious honor!

The awards will be distributed at the White House on August 12.

I, Barack Obama, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month

I know that it may not seem like a big deal to most people, and I also know that there’s much more to supporting the LGBTQI community than making a Presidential Proclamation but I am so thankful that we finally have a President who acknowledges that LGBTQI people actually exist, without using us as a way to whip up fear, encourage ignorance & rally the politically faithful. I still believe that offering committed same-gender couples "civil unions" instead of full & equal civil marriage rights as opposite-gender couples is not good enough (by a long shot) & that the "separate-but-equal" idea is heavy on the "separate", but light years away from "equal" & that it is as wrong today as it was in the last century. President Obama is right when he states that "there is more work to be done," but this proclamation reminds me that I no longer have to feel like an enemy of the state simply because I love someone of the same gender.

What a change from the previous occupant of the White House, of course, who only ever spoke about us in terms of the threat we posed to “family values” and “traditional marriage”.

Like Senator Barbara Boxer once said, “Elections have consequences…”.

I personally LOVE this particular consequence!