Harvey Milk Day in California?

Thanks to QueersUnited, one of my favoritest activist blogs.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D) in California's State Senate has proposed SB 572, the official designation of May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in that state. Last year, AB2567 (warning: anti-gay website) passed both houses and was sent to Gov. Schwarzenegger, who vetoed it saying that Milk's "contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level by those who were most impacted by his contributions."

In short: he's a local hero, not a state one.

I think, considering the success of MILK and the growing national understanding that Harvey Milk had on the movement -- "you gotta give them hope" -- that it is impossible for the Guvahnator to deny his influence (even Sean Penn is now championing the cause, btw) to the nation as a whole, let alone the state of California.

Equality California has set up a convenient online form for you to email the Governor your support. The reason we repost it here? Because Harvey Milk was the first person in the world I identified as a gay hero -- he was the first person I ever knew about that had done something great as a gay man. As a young kid in South Carolina, it was enough to remember him. I think all of us, all of us queers, knew about Milk long before the movie came out, and we all have our affinities for him, or stories about how we found out about him...

...which is why it's so wonderful that all of us get the chance to return the favor and thank Mr. Milk.

In related news, make sure you check out the growing movement, nationally, led by Equality Cincinnati's Dan Drent, to have a Harvey Milk postage stamp created.

Transgender Day of Visibility

I actually don't know if anything is going on here in town, except for Kate Bornstein at Xavier University tomorrow, but I think that's more incidental than planned.

From the PrideSource article:

"I went on Facebook and I was thinking...whenever I hear about our community, it seems to be from Remembrance Day which is always so negative because it's about people who were killed," Crandall, who heads up Transgender Michigan, recalled. "So one night I couldn't sleep and I decided why don't I try to do something about that.
"I thought, 'why doesn't someone do it?' Then I thought, 'why isn't that someone me?'"

...

Unlike Transgender Day of Remembrance, Crandall said, the day of visibility aims to focus on all the good things in the trans community, instead of just remembering those who were lost. "The day of remembrance is exactly what it is. It remembers people who died," she said. "This focuses on the living. People have told me they love Remembrance Day but it really focuses on the negative aspect of it. Isn't there anything that could focus on the positive aspect of being trans?"

It's a beautiful thing. Anyone know of anything else going on in town? In the meantime, it's good to remember that we're all a little trans -- after all, do you conform 100% to the expected norms of your sex? Or, do you fulfill the roles you feel are right for you? Clearly, trans-identity is more than this, but it's a good place to start thinking about how your own gender affects your life and your interactions with the world.

Thanks to Queers United for the heads up!

MILK by Gus Van Sant

I am so obscenely excited to see this movie. I have not been to see a movie in a theatre ... well, I want to say since the last Harry Potter movie. Really. I wait until it comes out on DVD.

This time, I'm going :-). Who's coming with me.



And if you ever wanted to hear the quote that's flying around the world from Milk... in his own voice... thanks to QueersUnited.



We honor you, Milk.

GENERAL STUFF: New word!!!

I made up a new word today (in honor of the Queers' United blogs' WORD OF THE GAY series -- check it out, their latest one is Sissyphobia, which I think Trevor Hoppe would like a lot):

Pracrastubation (noun)

the act of practrastinating school work by spending hours searching for internet porn, usually immediately after the connection to a high-speed internet line

verb: to procrastubate

adj: proscrasturbative

adv: proscrasturbatively

Teehee.

Later update: Damn... thought I was being original. Apparently it all ready exists...