He had until midnight, and with 700 other bills on his desk, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had us thinking he was going to repeat history and kill a chance at creating the statewide holiday Harvey Milk Day.
He didn’t: Schwarzenegger signed.
But that’s not all he John Hackcock’d. He also signed a bill specifically outlining that any same-sex couple that married before Prop 8 went into effect would have their marriage legally recognized in the state.
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AlanInUtah
Now that he has signed to allow the marriages performed before the PropH8 passed, this should open up a new argument for discrimination.
Now that there are a select few gay couples who are allowed to have their marriages viewed as equal to heterosexual couples, does it not discriminate against those other gay couples who want to have that same right?
Who knows, maybe this will be the start on the path towards fixing this crap?
ksu499
I like Arnold.
SteamPunk
Now that I live in California, I suppose I need to hunker down and finally watch the movie “Milk” or that documentary about him I saw on Hulu, because sadly I have no idea *what Harvey Milk did to be awarded a state holiday 🙁
*Other than be the first openly-gay public leader, of course. But I still think I’m over-looking some major accomplishment. That’s not meant to take anything away from his legacy; just my lack of knowledge.
BobP
Steampunk…yes, you really do need to educate yourself about Harvey Milk. One of the things he did was to give his life by being an out gay man. “Now that you live in California” (I can’t really see how that matters, unless you’ve just come from Mars),
you should find out what happened in SF the night of the assasinations. It’s a very important page in Gay history in the US.
Jack
Wow, wonders never cease.
Brian
A USPS commemorative stamp would be a good next step in honoring Harvey Milk. California has finally done it on a state level. A postage stamp would make for tangible national recognition.
B
AlanInUtah wrote, “Now that he has signed to allow the marriages performed before the PropH8 passed, this should open up a new argument for discrimination.” Not true technically – the California Supreme Court had already ruled that those marriages were valid and still upheld Proposition Eight, which does not mean that a majority of the justices liked that proposition. Signing the bill (and the legislature passing it) are nice gestures, but have no impact beyond a show of support.
B
BobP wrote, “Steampunk…yes, you really do need to educate yourself about Harvey Milk. One of the things he did was to give his life by being an out gay man.”
Dan White assassinated both Harvey Milk, who was gay, and George Moscone, who was straight. White apparently felt betrayed after White resigned for financial reasons and Moscone would not reinstate White to the board of supervisors. For some reason,
White blamed Milk as well, and killed them both in a mindless act of revenge. Whether Milk’s sexual orientation had anything to do with it is not clear – it is hard to say what was going through Dan White’s mentally disturbed head – but the fact that he killed a straight guy as well would suggest that homophobia was not the main motive.
Aside from being the first gay supervisor in San Francisco (at least, the first openly gay one), Milk was instrumental in stopping the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned gays and lesbians from working in public schools. The defeat of this initiative ended a national trend.
Fitz
Milk was also instrumental it helping organize a community-watch type of thing in the Castro, when the cops wouldn’t do crap about the bashings.
Charles
I do think it’s great that Arnold signed the bills, but let’s not kid ourselves. The only reason he did so was because he’s on his way out, so he has nothing to lose.
B
Charles wrote, “I do think it’s great that Arnold signed the bills, but let’s not kid ourselves. The only reason he did so was because he’s on his way out, so he has nothing to lose.” In the case of the bill for Harvey Milk, don’t forget that Milk was recently posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It would be kind of awkward for Arnold to say that Milk did not deserve state-wide recognition when he received the country’s “highest civilian honor” (to quote the phrase on the White House web site).
Fitz
I don’t think Arnold cares the he is on the way out– he has done what he wants to do always. Good bad, and ugly.
For people who don’t live in CA– I really can’t overstate how serious the financial issue is here.