Milk Screenwriter to Push for Harvey Milk Day

by Michael Jones · 2009-05-06 06:28:00 UTC
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Dustin Lance Black

Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award-winning writer of "Milk" will testify before the California State Legislature today, in hopes that the state will pass a resolution creating an annual "Harvey Milk Day."  The day would be commemorated each year on May 22 - Harvey Milk's birthday - and would largely be a symbolic effort to honor the slain LGBT rights leader for his contributions to civil rights.  Unlike MLK Jr. Day, or other holidays of the like, the day would not give employees or schools a day off, and would not cost California any money to enact.

Instead, creating the date would encourage civic organizations and schools to focus on Milk's legacy of equal rights, and continue to tell his story that Black so eloquently told in making the movie "Milk."

The California legislature passed a bill in 2008 to create Harvey Milk Day, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it because he didn't think Harvey Milk had enough name recognition outside of San Francisco.  That line of thinking has been totally thrown out the window now, with the international success of Milk and the Oscars that the movie reaped earlier this year.

As Black said earlier this year when he won the Oscar:

If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told they are less than by the churches, by the government, by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.

Though creating a Harvey Milk Day is largely symbolic, it certainly is one way of bringing Milk's presence from 30 years ago into the present with us today.  Clearly we could use his voice, and his legacy, in the continued fight for equal rights.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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