This weekend, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill which designates a day, May 22, to recognize and memorialize Harvey Milk. (Schwarzenegger vetoed the same bill last year.)
That's the good news. The bad news is Schwarzenegger also vetoed two bills affecting trans people in California. From TransGriot:
AB 1185 would have allowed qualified transgender people born in California to return to the county of their birth to obtain a new birth certificate reflecting the correct gender, as well as any accompanying name change....Schwarzenegger also vetoed AB 382 which would have established protections for LGBT prisoners, which he said was "unnecessary."
67 percent of LGBT inmates in California report being sexually assaulted; the rate for sexual assault of LGBT prisoners is 15 times higher than the overall population. So yeah...real "unnecessary."
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oh the consequences of electing hypermasculine cartoon characters to public office.
Tell me about it. I live in Bakersfield CA and most people have voted for him. I really don't want to know why...
Looks like you haven't watched Terminator and Conan the Barbarian. That's why. Tell me how much better his main opponent in the election would have been.
Fortunately by the time Ah-nold took office I had left the state...Unfortunately Ah-nold is just a symptom of the problem. That a guy who got (correct me if I'm wrong) less than 30% of the vote during his first run, can actually preside over the largest state in the Union is scary. That this is far from the worst thing about CA gov't is worse. The entire CA gov't is dysfunctional. Sorry but that state is just fkcd.
that is totally and completely fucked up. Unless of course, you subscribe to the mainstream attitude that trans folks aren't people.
This is fucked up, and it just goes to show how people would rather pay lip service (dedicate a day to Harvey Milk) than actually change society (pass trans rights bills). I ask you, which would Harvey Milk rather have had? I think the right way to honor Milk would be to pass the trans-rights bill.
I don't live in California, but still, it's fucked.