SAVECALIFORNIA.COM NEWS RELEASE
June 17, 2009 -- For Immediate Release

California Democrats Advance 'Gay Day' for Public Schoolchildren
Homosexual legislators attack pro-family leaders opposed to SB 572

Sacramento, California -- A California bill that would authorize an official day honoring the life and values of the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk has passed another Democrat-controlled committee. Late Wednesday, SB 572 by homosexual activist state senator Mark Leno passed the Assembly Education Committee, Democrats for, Republicans against.

The text of SB 572 states that "On Harvey Milk Day, exercises remembering the life of Harvey Milk and recognizing his accomplishments as well as the contributions he made to this state" should be conducted; specifically, "all public schools and educational institutions are encouraged to observe...and...conduct suitable commemorative exercises."  

"This bill is not about 'gay rights' or 'stopping harassment,'" Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a statewide pro-family organization that has been generating opposition phone calls and emails to legislators, testified to the committee. "Instead, SB 572 is outright promotion of everything Harvey Milk believed in -- the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual agenda pushed upon schoolchildren as young as kindergarten, without parental permission." 

Despite the testimony of SaveCalifornia.com and other pro-family organizations, the Democrat-controlled committee passed SB 572, but not before Leno and  a fellow homosexual activist, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, a committee member, verbally lambasted pro-family opponents of the bill.

"Your ignorance, blaseness, and bold stupidity show the need for such a day of significance (honoring Harvey Milk)," said Ammiano, adding that the testimony of Thomasson and other pro-family leaders was "ludicrous."  

In his closing remarks, Mark Leno chastised the "hate messages of those who spoke in this room today." Invoking Christ-like symbolism, Leno praised Harvey Milk, who, he said, "literally gave his life" so that open homosexuals like him could be elected to office.

Another Democrat member of the committee, Mike Eng of Monterey Park, supported the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender indoctrination bill for K-12 students, remarking, "We need to deal with tolerance very early."

In his testimony, Thomasson pointed out that SB 572 is written so broadly and without limits, that it would allow virtually anything that a school wanted to do to honor Harvey Milk every May 22, including "gay pride parades" and children dressing up and cross-dressing to positively depict the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda.

Telling the committee that SB 572 "should be defeated because parents don't want it, children don't need it, and the public is solidly opposed to it," Thomasson held up a poll commissioned by San Francisco TV station KPIX. Conducted in March, the poll that found that an overwhelming majority of Californians oppose creating "Harvey Milk Day."

When asked, "Do you think Harvey Milk's birthday should? Or should not? Be recognized statewide as a 'day of significance?" 69 percent answered "should not" and only 19 percent answered "should." A majority of Democrats, independents, Republicans, liberals, moderates and conservatives each held that "Harvey Milk Day" should not become a statewide "day of significance," in schools or otherwise. (Source: http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollPrint.aspx?g=8dd73373-5bc1-434e-9df6-84de00449a71&d=0)

Voting in favor of SB 572 in the Assembly Education Committee were six Democrats: Julia Brownley of Santa Monica, Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, Juan Arambula of Fresno, Joan Buchanan of San Ramon, Wilmer Amina Carter of Rialto, and Mike Eng of Monterey Park. Two other Democrats who supported the same bill last year, Jose Solorio of Santa Ana and Tom Torlakson of Martinez, were missing during the hearing.  

Voting against SB 572 in committee was one Republican, Martin Garrick of Carlsbad, who was not in the room during the hearing on the bill. Welcoming Garrick back for the vote, SB 572 author Leno quipped he was "hoping to have Republican representatives here." Absent during the entire hearing and vote on SB 572 were the committee's two other Republicans, Brian Nestande of Palm Desert and Jeff Miller of Corona.  

"Sadly, the California Legislature seems hell-bent on promoting the homosexual lifestyle as a role model for children," said Thomasson. "It's absurd -- the government school system teaches children not to smoke or use drugs, yet SB 572 would teach children as young as kindergarten that homosexuality is good and healthy and maybe even for them. That's just not true. Homosexual and bisexual behavior causes up to 82 percent of all HIV transmissions in California." (Source: California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report March 2009 http://ww2.cdph.ca.gov/programs/aids/Documents/HIVAIDSMergedMar09.pdf)  

Last year, the same bill (then numbered AB 2567) passed the Democrat-controlled Legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Governor Schwarzenegger should veto SB 572. This inappropriate bill tramples parental rights and has nothing to do with academic excellence," Thomasson said. "It's telling that SB 572 is supported by the anti-family teacher unions, which hold so much power and have so much disdain for protecting the children they claim to serve."

The Legislative Counsel's Digest for SB 572 states, "This bill would provide that the Governor proclaim May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day, and would designate that date as having special significance in public schools and educational institutions and would encourage those entities to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on that date."

The text of SB 572 states that "On Harvey Milk Day, exercises remembering the life of Harvey Milk and recognizing his accomplishments as well as the contributions he made to this state" should be conducted; specifically, "all public schools and educational institutions are encouraged to observe...and...conduct suitable commemorative exercises."

Under SB 572, what will children in government schools be taught and how will children's minds be "exercised?" The answer is whatever Harvey Milk believed or is said to have believed:

Religion is dangerous: "More people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, my friends, that is true perversion." (Harvey Milk, speaking at a homosexual rally in 1978. Source: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/harvey_milk/) 

All doors of sexual experimentation must be opened: "If a bullet should go through my head let that bullet go through every closet door." (Harvey Milk. Source: www.sacbee.com/111/story/1112044.html) 

If have homosexual feelings, you must declare yourself gay or lesbian: "Milk believed strongly that coming out was the responsibility of every gay man and woman." (Source: http://everything2.com/node/153707) 

Gay and lesbian marriages are good and natural: "So much of the spirit represented with the Supreme Court's decision last week is the spirit of Harvey Milk and his legacy manifesting today in real change." (San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, shortly after the California Supreme Court created "same-sex marriages" in May 2008. Source: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/22/BA3B10PV5C.DTL) 

SB 572 comes on the heels of school sexual indoctrination laws signed into law in 2007. When fully implemented, SB 777 and AB 394 will teach children in California government schools to support homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality via instructional materials, programs and activities, and school "safety" guidelines. In addition, the California State School Board in 2008 implemented SB 71, requiring public schools that provide sex education to promote unmarried sexual activity with no restraints other than mutual consent.

"SB 572 instituting an official 'Gay Day' in public schools will further motivate parents to remove their children from the anti-family public school system," Thomasson said. "We're encouraging parents to visit RescueYourChild.org to learn how to rescue their children while they still can. With public schools becoming sexual indoctrination centers, homeschooling and church schools are no longer parental options, they're parental imperatives." (For more information, see www.RescueYourChild.org.) 

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SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. We stand for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.