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Harvey Milk Day, a state day to honor the slain San Francisco gay rights advocate, is now official in California thanks to a somewhat unexpected signature Monday from Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has vetoed such legislation in the past.
The bill was one of two key gay rights bills authored by State Senator Mark Leno of San Francisco, who says he's "pleasantly surprised" that the governor put his pen to both; the other bill makes gay marriages performed in other states legal in California.
Leno, reached Monday, said he believed Schwarzenegger finally signed the bill this session to establish a day for the late San Francisco supervisor because "Harvey Milk Day is an idea whose time has come.''
In the past, Schwarzenegger "could suggest that Harvey was a local personality,'' he said.
But that was before Milk's life and accomplishments were recognized in a shower of honors last year: there was the success of the Oscar-winning film, "Milk,'' the biopic starring Sean Penn, who also pushed for the measure; the President's Medal of Freedom, and an induction into the Goveror's own California Hall of Fame.
"It all seemed to come together,'' Leno said, adding that "I greatly appreciate the governor's revisiting this bill.''
As for the vociferous opposition from some religious and conservative groups, like Save California.com, who are already calling the signing "outrageous"?
"The vitriol spoke for itself,'' said Leno.''
On the marriage issue, "we wrote the bill very specificially to match not only the intent but the very words of the Supreme Court's decision in upholding Prop. 8,'' he said. "We thought it was necessary to clarify the legal status of thousands of legally married couples.''
Schwarzenegger, it seems, agreed on both counts.
