Harvey Milk ‘thanks’ Georgia for scrapping anti-gay bill (VIDEO)
The video was released to thank Georgia’s governor for scrapping anti-LGBT bill HB 757.
In 1977, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person in the US to be elected to public office when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
For decades later, his iconic words are being used in a thank you video to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, who vetoed the anti-gay ‘religious liberty’ bill earlier this week.
If signed into law, the bill would have would have banned the government from taking action against anyone who discriminates against LGBT people – as long as they do so based on a sincerely held “religious or moral conviction”.
“Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio, there’s a young gay person who all of a sudden realises that she or he is gay, knows that if the parents found out that they’ll be tossed out of the house, the classmates will taunt the child,” Milk says in the video.
“That child has several options: staying in the closet. Suicide.
Milk then tells of a phone call he received from a young gay person soon after his election, who told him: “Thanks, there’s hope for a better tomorrow.”
The video ends with the message: “38 years later, we still have hope.”
The clip was released by Marc Benioff, CEO of cloud computing giant Salesforce.
Benioff put together a network of high-powered executives to call on Deal to veto the bill.
He is now focussing his attention on North Carolina, where Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill last week which voids all local ordinances protecting LGBT rights, as well as permitting businesses to discriminate against LGBT people on the grounds of religious belief.
The new law also bans transgender students in public schools from using their preferred bathroom.
McCrory’s decision has attracted a legal challenge as well as a growing boycott of the state – with New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and New York State all cutting formal ties with the state in protest, through a travel ban.
“We will have to let people know this is not okay,” Benioff told Time Magazine.
Watch the thank you video below:
