Harvey Milk Day bill signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger

This is certainly wonderful news, especially as it came on the day National Equality March: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has, at last, signed Harvey Milk Day into law.

The governor had vetoed a simlar bill last year and there was fear that he might do so again. But since last year’s veto, the movie Milk was released and won Academy Awards for star Sean Penn and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Also, president Barack Obama posthumously awarded Milk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Milk fought hard against discrimination – including Proposition 6, a ballot initiative that would have made firing gay teachers—and any public school employees who supported gay rights—mandatory. It lost by a million votes. As a supervisor, Milk was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city but just 11 months into his term, he and Mayor George Moscone were murdered at City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White.

Milk was just 48 years old and had been a gay rights activist for less than a decade. There was so much still ahead.

Karen Ocamb reports on her LGBT POV blog: The Harvey Milks Day bill – AB 2567  requires “the governor proclaim May 22 each year as Harvey Milk Day. It would encourage public schools and educational institutions to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on that date.”

It does not make it a state holiday.