At an event Friday honoring the first
Harvey Milk Day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed optimism about repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” this year.
Speaking to a crowd at San Francisco's
LGBT Community Center in the Castro District, Pelosi, a Democrat,
said Harvey Milk helped open doors for the gay community.
“We'll come right back to Harvey Milk
when he said his victory signaled a green light to all who were
disenfranchised,” Pelosi said. “A green light to move forward
and that the doors are open to everyone.”
California lawmakers have designated
May 22 – Milk's birthday – as Harvey Milk Day. Milk would have
turned 80 this year.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
reluctantly signed into law state Senator Mark Leno's Harvey Milk Day
bill last October. Schwarzenegger rejected a similar measure the
previous year. In vetoing the first bill, Schwarzenegger said Milk's
accomplishments should be celebrated at the local level.
Milk's 1977 election to the San
Francisco Board of Supervisors made him the first openly gay elected
official from a major U.S. city. The next year, Dan White, a
disgruntled former supervisor, gunned down Milk and San Francisco
Mayor George Moscone inside City Hall. During Milk's short tenure,
the camera shop owner turned politician dramatically increased the
visibility of the burgeoning gay rights movement.
At Friday's event sponsored by Equality
California, the state's largest gay advocate, Pelosi expressed
confidence that “Don't Ask,” the 1993 law that bans gay troops
from serving openly, would be repealed this year.
“'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' I feel
quite certain, will be a memory come Christmas,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi's remarks come as Congress
prepares to take up the issue of repeal.
Rallies honoring the memory of Milk are
expected to take place in 25 cities throughout the country on
Saturday.