Harvey Milk Day - Hope

Video by Sean Chapin.

"What came to be called 'The Hope Speech' was initially conceived as a stump address, wherein Milk attempted to embolden a strong GLBTQ nationalism within the Castro, while also appealing for an alliance with other disenfranchised groups and straight folks," wrote Jason Edward Black and Charles E. Morris III in their anthology An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings (University of California Press, 2013). Milk would revise the speech and recite it several more times at various appearances, according to the introduction written by Black and Morris to the version they included in their book. It was a defiant speech about gay self-acceptance that included Milk's call for LGBT people to come out of the closet and inspire others to do so. For as Milk said, particularly of LGBT youth, "And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope for a place to go if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be alright."

CA Hate Group Calls On Parents To Keep Kids Home On Harvey Milk Day

Save California has launched a radio and web campaign urging parents to keep their kids out of school during Harvey Milk Day observations.  In 2009 then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill designating May 22nd as a "special day of recognition" in California.  Save California has called for keeping kids out of school every year since then, but this year's marks their first radio campaign on the issue. Listen to the spot here.  The group has also produced flyers for parents to hand out. Note how they've inserted the word "gay" into the title of the day in the excerpt below.

The Sacramento Bee reports on the ads:

An anti-gay rights group has purchased hourly radio spots to urge parents to keep their children home from school on Harvey Milk Day, which honors the gay rights pioneer.  Randy Thomasson, president of the SaveCalifornia.com, said the group bought more than 100 time slots for a radio ad in Los Angeles and Sacramento. It urges parents to "protect your children from Harvey Milk indoctrination," by keeping them home from school on Wednesday. "This is harmful to children," Thomasson said. "This is not academic, it's brainwashing."

RELATED: In 2011 Save California head Randy Thomasson claimed that Harvey Milk Day would  "unleash a tsunami of perversity" that would include "mock gay weddings" at public schools. In 2010 Thomasson claimed that Harvey Milk Day would include "cross-dressing contests" and that Milk endorsed pedophilia. In 2009 Thomasson claimed that Harvey Milk Day would mean that California had passed Massachusetts in the "sexual indoctrination of children." Below is the YouTube clip that Save California posted last year.

It's Harvey Milk Day

Image source.

CALIFORNIA: Hate Group Calls For Skipping School On Harvey Milk Day

PhoboQuotable - Randy Thomasson

"Wake up, parents. Public schools are no longer for the public. They're government institutions that think that you're children are their children -- and they are going to turn them into homosexual, bisexual, transsexual political activists. Just wait now until Harvey Milk is on a weekday next year, and it's going to be what? Anything goes. It could be gay pride parades on campus; it could be mock gay weddings on campus; it could be essays, mandatory homework saying why Harvey Milk, a bad guy, was a great guy. I mean, this is in-your-face stuff." - Christianist hate group spokesbigot Randy Thomasson of Save California, who says that Harvey Milk Day will unleash a "tsunami of perversity" in public schools.

Anti-Gay Christianist Hate Group Launches Ad Denouncing Harvey Milk Day

From the virulently anti-gay Save California.

AFA: Harvey Milk Day Could Include "Cross-Dressing Contests" At Schools

Check out what the American Family Association warns is in store for school kids on this year's Harvey Milk Day in California.

Children will be required to participate in exercises that honor Milk, which could include mock homosexual "weddings" and cross-dressing contests, as well as writing or reading activities. Pro-family leader [Jerry Cox] decides that public schools are failing to promote good role models for students. "What we ought to be doing is holding up the lives of people that were truly great, people like the Founding Fathers -- the ones who have exemplified all the good in mankind in their life," Cox contends.

FRESNO: San Francisco's Gay Men's Chorus Celebrates Harvey Milk Day

JMG reader Sean Chapin sends us his video of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus celebrating California's first Harvey Milk Day with a concert in Fresno, far away from the gay-friendlier Bay Area. The chorus has been touring California's heartland in a campaign to bring the LGBT rights message to the places that most opposed Proposition 8.

Happy Harvey Milk Day!

Today is the first annual Harvey Milk Day in California and observances are taking place from the Castro to West Hollywood and elsewhere in the state.

Kids Say Happy Birthday To Harvey Milk

Ruh roh, here's some of that there homosexual indoctrination of children. From the below clip's description: "Students, teachers, faculty, and parents at the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, in San Francisco, wish Harvey Milk a happy birthday for the very first official Harvey Milk Day (May 22, 2010)." Cute video. Expect it to be featured widely on anti-gay sites this week.

Dustin Lance Black For Harvey Milk Day

Harvey Milk Day Will Turn Your Children Into Cross-Dressing Pedophiles!

Randy Thomasson of Save California is calling for parents to keep their children home from school during any Harvey Milk Day observations. Because kids will be instructed on cross-dressing! And Harvey Milk endorsed pedophilia!

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com reports that May 17-28 may include exercises in celebration of Milk, as students will participate in commemorative activities honoring him without parental notification or consent. The exercises could consist of anything teachers or school board members deem appropriate, including in-class reading and writing activities about the politician, or watching the film Milk. Assemblies teaching homosexuality and alternate lifestyles, cross-dressing contests, or mock "gay" parades and weddings could also take place.

Thomasson is alerting parents to contact their child's school and ascertain the specific days and activities that will honor the late homosexual politician. If any celebration is scheduled to commemorate Milk, the pro-family activist urges parents to keep their children home. “It is a moral crime for virtually all the Democrats in the California legislature to force this upon the six-million children in California schools,” Thomason argues. He adds that Milk was one of the worst examples as a role model for children. “Milk believed in adult-child sex; he believed in lying to get ahead. He is one of the worst role models that children could have,” the SaveCalifornia.com president contends. “Teachers, principals, and schools that push Harvey Milk's values are responsible for the degradation of children as human beings.”

Harvey Milk Day is May 22nd.

Saturday May 22nd: Harvey Milk Day Of Action In New York City

Equality Across America is organizing a national Harvey Milk Day Of Action on Milk's birthday, May 22nd. Via press release, here are the details for New York City.

The newly formed Harvey Milk Day Coalition of New York City announced today that Harvey Milk’s birthday will be celebrated with a Harvey Milk Day of Action, Saturday, May 22, 2010 beginning 12:00 noon at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center in Manhattan. Supporters will gather outside 208 W 13th St. and after a brief rally the group will proceed to march to City Hall, pausing to rally at several key locations along the way. The marchers will briefly pause at Union Square, St. Vincent’s Hospital, an Army recruiting station and the Marriage Bureau, ending at City Hall. Speakers will express the significance of the locations and their relationship to the struggle for LGBT equality. Issues highlighted will include "don't ask, don't tell", same-sex marriage, health care and AIDS, youth homelessness, trans violence, discrimination and hate crimes. Wearing red t-shirts and carrying signs and fliers, the march aims to rally in additional supporters, onlookers and tourists for a large and vibrant final action of the day, a demonstration at City Hall. Named in honor of the slain San Francisco Supervisor and queer activist, The Harvey Milk Day Coalition has a simple and non-negotiable mission: FULL FEDERAL EQUALITY.

Visit Equality Across America for information on rallies planned across the nation.

Christianists Call For California School Boycott Over Harvey Milk Day

Christianist outfit Save California has issued a call for parents to "boycott" California's public schools over last week's approval of Harvey Milk Day by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Via the American Family Association's "news site" OneNewsNow:

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, tells OneNewsNow he is calling for a boycott over a law designed to force students to honor a deceased homosexual activist. "With Harvey Milk Gay Day now the law for California government schools, and a handful of sexual indoctrination laws already existing that are in effect throughout the entire school year, parents have to at least boycott Harvey Milk Day or days or week," Thomasson urges. The boycott, he says, needs to be established by parents to protect their children, but also to drive home a point that they do not want their children indoctrinated with a pro-homosexual philosophy. Thomasson feels that taking students out of the government school system is the only way to accomplish this protection. He adds that parents also need to be aware of the quality of education their children are receiving in California. Thomasson reports that "on the academic chart, California is among the lowest academically in the country. On the sexual indoctrination chart, California leads the pack with Massachusetts following."

Thomasson believes that Harvey Milk Day will strike so much terror into parents that they will begin home schooling or send their kids to private religious schools.

PhoboQuotable - Alexandria Coronado

"I think it just absolutely denigrates the entire civil rights movement. Homosexuality is not a civil right. 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." - Alexandria Coronado, chairperson of the Orange County, California Board of Education, who is "absolutely furious" about the approval of Harvey Milk Day. Last month the Orange County Board of Education voted unanimously to oppose the holiday.

Governator Signs Harvey Milk Day Bill

Yesterday California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill creating a Harvey Milk Day holiday.

Slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk will get a special day of recognition in California, making him only the second person in state history — in addition to conservationist John Muir — to gain such a designation. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signing of the bill establishing "Harvey Milk Day" each May 22, Milk's birthday, was announced Monday. The Republican governor vetoed similar legislation a year ago. In the interim, Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August and was the subject of a movie for which Sean Penn won the Academy Award for best actor. Penn spoke out in favor of the bill last spring, saying he didn't want to insult Schwarzenegger's intelligence by assuming the governor would again oppose creating Harvey Milk Day. "He has become much more of a symbol of the gay community than he was a year ago because of those things," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said. "That made the difference from last year: he's really come to symbolize the gay community in California." In his veto message a year ago, the Republican governor said Milk should be honored locally by those who were most impacted by his contributions. He did not write a signing message this year saying why he flip-flopped.

Governator Poised To Veto Milk Day Bill

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is prepared to again veto the bill creating a Harvey Milk holiday, saying he will issue a mass veto of hundreds of bills at once unless lawmakers come to an agreement on reorganizing the state's water system.

Seven hundred bills on issues including education, hospital funding, ammunition restrictions, and a day dedicated to Harvey Milk currently sit on the governor’s desk. The deadline for Schwarzenegger to sign or veto the myriad measures is Sunday at midnight. Members of the California legislature are concerned that the governor will issue a mass veto on the bills unless the lawmakers reach an agreement on reorganizing the state’s water system, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, a Democrat from Fremont, called on Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown on Tuesday to investigate the governor, saying his veto threat amounted to extortion. "These threats are akin to extortion or vote trading, which is illegal," said Torrico, reportsthe Los Angeles Times. "The governor should be very, very careful."

Schwarzenegger first vetoed the Milk holiday bill last year, saying Harvey Milk was not well known enough outside of San Francisco. The Oscar-winning film about Milk's life has surely changed that, but it remains unknown how the governor will vote, should the bill get a stand-alone opportunity.

PhoboQuotable - Randy Thomasson

"The [Harvey Milk Day] bill -- which will honor a sexual predator, a polygamous relationship advocate, and a public liar -- and extend a homosexual, bisexual, transsexual agenda as a role model to children to aspire to is going to the governor after a short stop on the [California] Senate floor. It could mean gay-pride parades on campus, mock gay weddings, and cross-dressing exercises because these are all things that Harvey Milk believed in." - Save California founder Randy Thomasson, talking to the American Family Association's One News Now.

CA Assembly Approves Harvey Milk Day

By a vote of 45-27, the California Assembly has approved a bill creating a statewide holiday to honor gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. The bill passed in the state Senate earlier this year. The question now is whether the Governator will veto the bill as he did last year.

"Although he vetoed a similar bill last year with the message that Harvey Milk should be recognized only at the local level, I am confident Governor Schwarzenegger now understands the historic and international nature of Harvey's legacy," said Senator Mark Leno [the bill's sponsor]. "Last week the Governor contradicted his 2008 veto message when he and the First Lady announced that Harvey will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, acknowledging that Harvey and the other inductees touched the 'lives of millions of people -- not just in this state, but around the world.'"

The bill must now return to the state Senate for a routine concurrence vote before reaching Schwarzenegger's desk.

Sean Penn Campaigns For Milk Holiday

Fresh off his Oscar win, Sean Penn has joined the reinvigorated campaign to have Harvey Milk Day declared a state holiday in California. Today Penn will appear at a press conference to lobby for Senate Bill 572.

The bill would designate May 22 as "a day of special significance in California," in which public schools would be encouraged "to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on Harvey Milk's life and his contributions to the state," according to the press release. But with the huge hole in the state budget and increased calls to cut back current paid state holidays, supporters also note the legislation doesn't call for either state workers or school employees to get a day off from work.

Last year the Governator vetoed a similar bill.