A new Harvey Milk bill has been signed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The new Harvey Milk bill will serve as a way to honor the gay community in California, as well as the former San Francisco city supervisor. This new Harvey Milk bill is very similar to one that Schwarzenegger has vetoed before, but with the recent popularity of the film Milk, and people becoming more aware of the man himself, it appears that Schwarzenegger has had a change of heart. That change of heart isn’t going to come without a price though, as apparently there were still many people against the passing of this bill. That could make this a dividing topic as the bill goes forward, but I see no reason why it shouldn’t be supported by Gov. Schwarzenegger.
The writing of the new Harvey Milk bill will allow Milk’s birthday to be proclaimed as a day of significance across the state each year. Harvey Milk’s birthday is on May 22nd, and though he has passed, it will be a day that people can choose to celebrate around the state now. The new Harvey Milk bill was part of legislation passed at the state Senate in May and which passed through the state Assembly last month. Now with Gov. Schwarzenegger signing the bill, it will give more credence to what Harvey Milk stood for, and keep his memory as a lasting one within the state of California. That should please a lot of the people who supported Harvey Milk when he was in office, and should serve as a good stepping stone in the gay community.
For those who are unfamiliar with the story of Harvey Milk, he because the San Francisco city Supervisor before he and then Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by a disgruntled former city employee who wanted his job back. Recently the name of Harvey Milk has become even better known outside of the state of California because of a movie that had Sean Penn starring in the title role. That attention led to both a lot of additional support for a bill to honor Harvey Milk as well as more detractors who felt that Milk wouldn’t serve as a good role model. In the end though, Gov. Schwarzenegger has basically put pen to paper to insure that Harvey Milk does get recognized around the state of California each May 22nd.
The new Harvey Milk bill was part of a lot of legislation that Gov. Schwarzenegger signed through on Sunday, just barely meeting the midnight deadline to get all of the work through the system. CNN reported that Schwarzenegger signed 704 different bills on Sunday, and it would be interesting to know just how many of them that Schwarzenegger really knows a lot about. This is the second recent honor that Harvey Milk has received, as President Obama also gave Milk a Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, cementing his legacy, and showing that everything Milk stood for is still very important today. Hopefully the bill will show that there is a lot of support for Milk out there, despite the grumblings of a few people in the California Senate. The truth is that Milk is a role model for many, and is well deserving of being honored.
Source: CNN Article
