OC Register Columnist Yvette Cabrera wrote in her column on Monday about the flap over comments made by Orange County Board of Education President Alexandra Coronado over the establishment of Harvey Milk Day in California and the vote of the Board to urge the Governor to veto the legislation, which he signed earlier this month. For me personally, in addition to the comments Coronado had made, the unanimous vote of the OC Board of Education to oppose the bill was especially painful.
A long time friend of mine, former colleague, and founding Executive Director of AIDS Walk Orange County Elizabeth Parker sits on that board and voted along with her colleagues. From my experience I have know Parker to be one of the least homophobic individuals I have met, and one that board she has proven to be one of its more progressive members. Despite Parker’s protests that her vote had nothing to do with homophobia, but rather an objection to an unfunded state mandate; I find her justification and that of the rest of the Board to be nothing but blatant homophobia. I am pleased that despite their ignorance, the OC Board of Education will have to follow the provisions of the legislation.
Here is an excerpt from Cabrera’s column followed by a link to the complete story. Please take the time to read it.
The homophobic comments were so hateful, so biting, that Alberto “AJ” Blackwood had to stop reading. He clicked away from The Orange County Register online comment page, walking away from what had become, for him, a virtual cauldron of toxicity.
The comments were responses to news stories on a series of controversial statements made in recent weeks by Orange County Board of Education President Alexandria Coronado. After the school board voted to oppose a state bill proposing to honor the slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, Coronado was quoted as saying, “If you want that lifestyle, don’t make my tax dollars pay for it, and don’t teach it to my children.”
Though the bill honors Milk for his work as a civil-rights leader, Blackwood and others see Coronado’s comment as a referendum on gays and gay rights.
And, because of that, Coronado’s was one comment Blackwood couldn’t walk away from. On Wednesday, Blackwood and about a dozen others took their feelings directly to the school board, where Blackwood told Coronado that, because of her comments, she had failed his children.
Read the rest of Cabrera’s column HERE.