Editorial:

We’re willing to cut the Orange County Board of Education some slack about its decision last month to oppose commemorating May 22 statewide as Harvey Milk Day, in honor of the assassinated gay-rights activist and openly gay politician from San Francisco. We can understand that some practical considerations may have swayed the board’s five members to vote for a resolution against state Senate Bill 572, which calls for honoring Milk on his birthday.

We call into question the words that streamed from the mouth of the board’s president, Alexandria Coronado, when a Daily Pilot reporter interviewed her about the 5-0 vote. Coronado unleashed a tirade last week about schools supporting the homosexual “lifestyle.” She owes gay people an apology.

SB 572, which recently passed the Legislature, would establish a day of “special significance” in schools to honor Milk, along with other days honoring teachers, the California poppy and environmentalist John Muir. When the board voted last month, its members said the celebrations would detract from instructional time and force districts to pay expenses.

We know educational time is precious, but when Coronado voiced her feelings about sexual orientation, we were appalled.

“If you want that lifestyle, don’t make my tax dollars pay for it, and don’t make me teach it to my children,” she said, later assuring the reporter that she has gay friends.

These unenlightened words were articulated by the leader of a public body that influences K-12 education in Orange County. And let’s not forget that Milk campaigned against Proposition 6, which, backed by Orange County conservatives in the late ’70s, called for firing school teachers who were gay.

Let’s pick apart Coronado’s statement. First, homosexuality is not a “lifestyle,” but a set of genetic circumstances, the same as with ethnicity, height or hair color.

Second, Coronado should accept the reality that most children learn about homosexuality in school on a regular basis, and on the playground, where homophobic slurs are a staple of school culture.

Ginger Hahn, the director of a local advocacy group, told the Pilot that gay rights are “the last civil rights frontier.” Reading comments like Coronado’s, we find it hard to disagree. Students are taught to embrace diversity at every level of school, but when instructors whip out “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “The Diary of Anne Frank,” there seem to be few protests about “teaching” kids to be black or Jewish.

Milk had several straight allies — including San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, who died by the same assassin — and dedicated his political career to fighting discrimination, not trying to change others’ sexual preference. That is the essence of a civil rights leader, and schools, however they go about it, should acknowledge his efforts.

If the board voted to bypass Harvey Milk Day for time and money reasons, we understand. But to decry legislators for trying to induce a more tolerant atmosphere in the classroom is shameful.