California School Board Erases Harvey Milk from Curriculum
metroweekly.comLast month, the board of the Temecula Valley Unified School District voted to block a social studies textbook whose supplemental resources mention gay civil rights activist and politician Harvey Milk as a historical figure of note, with the president of the conservative-leaning board calling the former San Francisco Supervisor a “pedophile.”The textbook, titled Social Studies Alive, was recommended to be approved for students in first through fifth grades.
Although the textbook itself doesn’t mention Milk, the board’s conservative Christian majority – which took power during the 2022 midterms – objected to a supplemental reading package mentioning Milk that accompanies the textbook.
Milk, a U.S. Naval veteran, was one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office. While serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978, a political colleague, former Supervisor Dan White, shot him and Mayor George Moscone to death at City Hall.
Milk became an icon not only because of his historic electoral success, but due to his activism fighting against anti-gay ballot measures, like the 1978 Briggs Initiative – which sought to ban openly gay men and women from working in California’s public schools.
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