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08/04/2008

Wow, shocking -- anti-gays trivialize he who wouldn't put up with it

by Jeremy Hooper

 Good As You Images 200805201316Speaking about AB 2567, a proposed California state measure that would observe Harvey Milk's birthday (5/22) as an honor to the slain gay rights pioneer, the Traditional Values Coalition's Benjamin Lopez offers the following quotes to the Sacramento Bee:

"What significant contribution did Harvey Milk bring to the state of California – other than encouraging gay people to come out of the closet?"

"This is yet another example of them trying to normalize and force acceptance of the gay lifestyle upon people"
...
"They've definitely hijacked the Freedom Train of the late '60s to benefit their own sexuality and their own cause"

We respond to Benjamin:

1) He was instrumental in the Briggs initiative's defeat, he sponsored a San Francisco law barring "anti-gay discrimination" in the workplace, and continues to serve as a role model for scared young gay kids everywhere. He was honored by Time magazine as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

2) This is not anyone trying to "force" or "normalize" anything other than respectful remembrance of a true pioneer. Not a "force," because nobody is being commanded to honor the day anymore than they currently are with various other historical figures whose lives are given recognition on the state calendar. And not "normalized" because to normalize already-normal gay lives is just superfluous.

3) Why must every progressive step towards greater LGBT acceptance be a "hijacking" of an earlier civil rights movement? There is not an equal justice quota that has already been met! Society is big enough to accommodate the reasoned acceptance of ALL of her people!

This Milk-marking measure, which has passed in the House, is currently awaiting Senate approval. Bejamin Lopez is said to be currently awaiting a fresh shipment of tired rhetoric to replace that which he just expelled.

Bill would declare an annual Harvey Milk Day in California [Sac Bee]

**UPDATE, 8/5: The full legislature has now approved it: Legislature Approves Harvey Milk Day [EQCA]

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Your thoughts

I am glad I helped defeat Ben Lopez in his run for State Assembly this June. In the local paper he did not mention he worked for Lou Sheldon, I wonder if he would of lost his primary with a worse margin. He lost 59-41.


Posted by: matt from california | Aug 4, 2008 12:07:17 PM

"They've definitely hijacked the Freedom Train of the late '60s"

One thing that sticks in my brain about Chad Vegas (Kern County high school board trustee who threatened all of the county supervisors with ouster if they didn't oppose same-sex marriages) is that he is quoted as saying that he would have opposed (probably equally as rabidly) the civil rights movement of the sixties if he had been alive back then. And, that is probably a relatively ubiquitous sentiment held by those opposing our rights. It absolutely was one that Falwell championed until it became more of a political liability than benefit.

So, now these factions are tacitly feigning approval of the civil rights gains of the sixties, while duplicitously hiding their more likely and truer feelings about those very same civil rights gains.

Posted by: Dick Mills | Aug 4, 2008 4:41:19 PM

A public domain folk song about Harvey Milk that was written in the 1980s was recently posted on the following link (to mark the 30th anniversary of his assassination)which ties-in to the Sean Penn film about Harvey Milk that the global media conglomerates will apparently be marketing and distributing on a for-profit basis in December 2008. Perhaps the surplus profits from Hollywood's apparent commodification of Harvey Milk's life would be redistributed to community and Movement groups in the Bay Area if Sean Penn were approached by Bay Area readers before December 2008?

http://www.mp3.com/artist/bobafeldman/summary/

Posted by: bobf. | Aug 5, 2008 11:02:55 AM

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