A proposal to honor Harvey Milk with a state-wide day of remembrance has landed on the desk of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The bill, SB 572, would designate May 22 as "Harvey Milk Day" and calls for public schools to observe the "special day of remembrance" annually.
The bill was proposed by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and passed by the state assembly on September 3 by a 45-27 vote. The bill was passed in the state senate by a 22-14 vote.
"(Milk) is an inspiration to people worldwide who believe in fairness and equality and he fought for many of the issues we value today, including access to education, public transportation, affordable housing and protecting the environment," Leno said in a press release after the bill cleared the legislature.
If passed into law, the bill would not require an additional day of school closure.
The Sacramento Bee reported that more than 100,000 people have contacted the governor's office protesting the bill.
A similar bill was vetoed by the governor last September and, since then, several family-rights groups have expressed opposition to the controversial piece of "Gay Day" legislation.
"This is one of the most blatant attempts yet to bypass parents and push homosexual indoctrination on young students," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, a Sacramento-base non-profit, in a statement released Friday. "In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, our youth cannot afford to have classroom instruction time wasted on politically correct propaganda."
In a statement posted on the Web, Randy Thomasson urged residents to contact the Governor to protest the bill.
"For the sake of impressionable children, the Governor now has abundant reason to veto 'Harvey Milk Day' like he did last year," said Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, an advocacy group.
Harvey Milk was California's first openly-gay elected official and served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk and then-mayor George Moscone were assassinated on November 27, 1978 and his life was the subject of the Hollywood bio-pic "Milk." He was born on May 22, 1930.
Throughout his life, Milk advocated heavily for gay rights and once said:
"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."
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