Another bad call by school board

When the Newport-Mesa school board decided to “protect” our children from President Obama’s speech, I asked, “What next?” Now I know (“Board opposes Harvey Milk Day,” Sept. 24).

Our children’s educators have voted against a bill to set aside a day to honor gay-rights leader Harvey Milk. One of California’s own, Milk fought for the underdog and lost his life for it. His election as the first avowed homosexual in California is truly historic, and as a role model, Milk’s life illustrates how important it is for people to actively stick up for themselves and one another. For Board of Education President Alexandria Coronado to say a day should commemorate only “someone who’s done something really special” is actually an argument in favor of Harvey Milk Day!

We cannot deny that some of our schoolchildren already suspect or know that they are gay. How idyllic it would be if they also knew they would be respected by their peers and protected by their schools despite their inclinations.

The schools are the right place to enlighten and educate classmates to respect others. How is this different from providing sex education? Or shall the Newport-Mesa schools “protect” our children from this useful knowledge, too? I find this quote from Coronado narrow-minded and rudely dismissive of roughly 15% of those in her charge: “If you want that lifestyle, don’t make my tax dollars pay for it, and don’t make me teach it to my children.”

Complaining that Harvey Milk Day would cut into class time is clearly a weak, silly excuse, and the amount of expense would be negligible. I reject as disingenuous Liz Dorn Parker’s statement that opposing Harvey Milk Day has nothing to do with his homosexuality!

Spending a little time one day each year teaching and exhibiting respect for those who are different from “the norm” could go a long way toward preventing the hazing and persecution that are often ladled upon those children who are, or are suspected of, being gay.

Most outrageous of all in this article is your giving voice to Randy Thomasson, a so-called pro-family organization leader. Apparently the families he has in mind do not contain a gay relative.

How sick is he to say, “Based on the historical record of Milk’s sordid life, this could include teaching elementary and secondary schoolchildren that adult-child homosexual ‘sex’ is OK, having multiple sexual relationships at the same time is OK?”

The use of the word “sordid” is disgusting, and the implication ridiculous. Like John F. Kennedy, or any of our leaders who has distinguished himself or herself by service as an exemplary citizen, Milk would be honored for the good he has done for humanity, not for the details of his personal life.

The convoluted “reasoning” that to honor Milk would be to embrace his lifestyle for all attempts to disguise the real motivation for teachers and for the conservative organizations who oppose Senate Bill 572: a deep-seated prejudice against anyone who isn’t like them.

This basic prejudice lies beneath their desire to “protect” students, whether the subject is a non-straight California legislator or a non-white president of the United States.

LIZ SWIERTZ Newman lives in Newport Beach.