Follow Harvey Milk’s advice: the more Californians meet and interact with openly gay and lesbian people, the less likely voters will be to sanction discrimination
When the late Sup. Harvey Milk was fighting to defeat the Briggs Initiative, a statewide ballot measure that would have barred gay people from teaching in public schools, he repeatedly made the point that the more Californians met and interacted with openly gay and lesbian people, the less likely the voters would be to sanction discrimination. Mayor Gavin Newsom made the same basic point in his statement following the horrifying Supreme Court decision that legalized discrimination in this state.
“I know many of my fellow Californians may initially agree with this ruling,” he said, “but I ask them to reserve final judgment until they have discussed this decision with someone who will be affected by it.
“Please talk to a lesbian or gay family member, neighbor, or coworker and ask them why equality in the eyes of the law is important to every Californian.”