A bill commemorating the first openly gay politician Harvey Milk was signed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger according to the governor’s spokesman Aaron McLear on Monday.
The governor rejected a similar bill previously but Milk, being an inductee to the California Hall of Fame and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, has become a “symbol of the gay community,” McLear told CNN.
“He really saw this signing as a way to honour the gay community in California,” he added.
The bill, which passed the Senate in May and the State Assembly just last month and one of 704 signed by Schwarzenegger, will mark May 22, which is Milk’s birthday, as a significant day across the state of California.
Spokeswoman Andrea McCarthy said that the legislation drew feedback of over 100,000 phone calls and email. Though most of them are on the opposing side, Twitter feedbacks have been supportive of the bill so far.
The measure will not close educational systems or state offices but Randy Thomasson, the president of SaveCalifornia.com, sees it as a factor to “mock gay weddings” or incite gay parades at schools. Thomasson, who opposed the bill, labels Harvey Milk as “a terrible role model for children.” But for Geoff Kors, the executive director of Equality California, Harvey Milk is a hero and a role model.
“It’s very appropriate that the state he worked in and passed the first gay rights bill in the country should honour him,” he said.
Milk led the civil rights movement and briefly became San Francisco’s supervisor before his assassination in 1978 by fellow city supervisor Dan White.
