Last week, the California school system dedicated an entire day to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician to run successfully for public office in the state. Children ages K-12 were taught to admire the man who gained public approval for a gay lifestyle in 1977.
On that same day, family, admirers, and political leaders gathered at the White House in D.C to unveil a postage stamp bearing Milk's image to commemorate his name.
However, the former city councilman's history is far more sinister than politics. Milk, who is viewed as an icon among the LGBT community, was a known sexual predator, often targeting teens and young men.
According to Milk's biography, The Mayor of Castro Street, written by his friend and fellow homosexual activist, Randy Shilts, "Harvey always had a penchant for young waifs with substance abuse problems." Shilts adds that Milk had a relationship with a 16-year-old boy who was "looking for some kind of father figure. ... At 33, Milk was launching a new life, though he could hardly have imagined the unlikely direction toward which his new lover would pull him."
President of the American Family Association (AFA) Tim Wildom calls commemorating a sexual predator in the public school system a "twisted definition of education."
"Behind parents' backs, children as young as 5 years old will be made to participate in commemorative exercises that celebrate a known sexual predator," said Wildom.
"It's no secret that Milk sought out and preyed upon impressionable minors, specifically young boys, to gratify his sexual fantasies," Wildmon says. "Regardless of anyone's beliefs about sexual practices between adults, for the state of California to sanction teaching children to honor a man who might very well have preyed upon them is a twisted definition of education by any standard."
Milk, who was assassinated alongside Mayor George Moscone in 1978, has been annually commemorated since 2009 after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared his birthday "a day of significance."
The AFA reveals that there is no parental notification or consent for Harvey Milk Day. Thus, parents must keep their children home from school on that day to protect them from commemorating and honoring a man known to sexually prey on minors. Organizers at SaveCalifornia.com have created a page to equip California parents to take action. Those who don't have children in public school can still take action via the page.
Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber says the U.S. Postal Service is "whitewashing reality" in choosing to feature Milk on the postage stamps.
"Harvey Milk was known as a pederast," Barber told One News Now. "That's a man who in his mid-30s had a sexual appetite for teenage boys as young as 15 years old."
He continued: "Harvey Milk was demonstrably, categorically an evil man based on his rape of teenage boys, and the fact that our U.S. government would be commemorating and recognizing him as some kind of hero really just boggles the mind."
