Official panned for Milk remark

About a dozen students, parents, pastors and advocates attended Wednesday’s Orange County Board of Education meeting to speak out against comments board President Alexandria Coronado made to the Daily Pilot regarding a state bill to create a Harvey Milk Day, in honor of the slain gay rights activist and San Francisco county supervisor.

“If you want that lifestyle, don’t make my tax dollars pay for it, and don’t make me teach it to my children,” Coronado, who represents portions of Costa Mesa and other cities, told the Daily Pilot on Sept. 22.

“One of the things the feminists taught us is that language is important,” said Fairview Community Church Senior Pastor Sarah Halverson, who spoke at the county board meeting Wednesday.

“When she said ‘lifestyle,’ she did not really pay attention to what is such a reality for so many LGBT folks. Sexual preference isn’t something you choose, like trying on a first-day-of-school outfit. … For them to stand by those words, it borders on hate speech. We all know that hate speech turns into hate crimes.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law at the beginning of the week. It would encourage schools to commemorate Milk on May 22, his birthday, which is now marked as a “day of significance.”

Other days of significance honor naturalist John Muir, teachers and the California poppy. School districts will decide whether to require lessons about Milk.

Spokeswoman Laura Boss of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District said she has not yet received any direction or communication from the superintendent or the school board on whether the district will commemorate the day.

Representatives from Equality California, a nonprofit that first suggested the bill, also spoke at the board meeting.

“As a gay male, high school was torture for me. I wasn’t personally discriminated against, but I felt like I couldn’t be comfortable being myself,” said Daniel Shad, the organization’s Orange County regional field manager.

“When statements like [Coronado’s] come out, especially from the president of the Orange County school board, that’s only going to perpetuate the discrimination.”

Naomi Blackwood, 16, a Los Alamitos High School junior, also spoke at the meeting.

“I know kids, young adults, who have been teased, beaten, harassed and abused by friends, family and complete strangers for the sole reason that these youth are in love with human beings of the same sex,” she told the board.

Naomi described the atmosphere at her school as warlike.

“It’s just hard to keep fighting when you know that everyone in the world is against you,” she said.

Naomi’s father, AJ Blackwood, who is openly gay, said he also spoke at the meeting.

“President Coronado took notes, and said our comments were duly noted,” he said. “I hope that not only the board duly noted our comments, but that she duly noted our comments personally.”