This morning the Senate Education Committee passed Mark Leno’s SB 572, legislation that will require the governor to declare every May 22 Harvey Milk Day. The bill specifies that school children should participate in activities commemorating the life of Harvey Milk during their school day. Those familiar with California politics will remember Harvey Milk as the San Francisco County Supervisor who was gunned down by a fellow supervisor following a political dispute. Earlier this year a biopic on Milk won several Academy Awards, thus bringing more attention to Leno’s controversial bill.
The fact that SB 572 is sailing through the legislature isn’t shocking. In fact, the bill passed the legislature last year and was justly vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger who explained that Milk should be honored in the community where he had the most impact: San Francisco. The problem is the behavior of Republican turncoat Abel Maldonado during the hearing this morning.
My boss, Karen England, was testifying against the bill when Maldonado decided to go after her. Maldonado began asking questions about whether the bill would “require” teachers to instruct students about Milk, and how that would “harm” students. Karen proceeded to explain to the Senator that nothing currently prevents schools from talking about Milk, but that the matter should be decided at the local level—not at the governor’s office. But Maldonado would not let the matter go and repeatedly asked the same questions in an attempt to make Karen and other opponents of the bill look like bigots. Instead, he ended up looking like a jerk. Testifying on a controversial bill is never easy in the capitol, but it’s even harder when a Republican senator—someone usually dependable on pro-family matters—assails pro-family advocates.
The organization that Karen and I work for, Capitol Resource Family Impact, advocates for parental rights and family values in the capitol. Legislation like SB 572 offends many Californians—not just those with religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage—because they don’t want young children taught about the sexual lifestyles of political leaders like Harvey Milk. Abel Maldonado is already on the outs with the Republican Party because of his shameful sell out on the budget in exchange for the asinine open primary ballot measure. To attack a respected pro-family leader in a public hearing and then vote in favor of very controversial bill—which gains him no political points on either side—indicates that either Abel Maldonado has nothing to lose or he’s already lost it all and simply doesn’t care anymore. Either way, his behavior sealed his fate with any values voters in California and he now aligns himself with those who are intolerant of such voters.
CRFI recently released a video showing the hypocrisy of the “tolerance” message used to promote bills such as SB 572. While claiming to advance tolerance and acceptance, the tactics often used by homosexual activists are anything but tolerant and accepting. (Miss California Carrie Prejean learned that difficult lesson recently.) The video shows the death threats and hate mail Karen regularly receives as she advocates for family values.
Are these the kind of people Abel Maldonado wants to align himself with? His arrogant attitude and vote today indicate he has new political allies.