Yep. Sometimes subscribing to the Equality California mailing list turns up some terrific stuff. It seems that the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco have a major renaming of SFO in the works.
Obligatory photograph here:
To the San Francisco Chronicle story. It's a ballot initiative.
David Campos, who represents part of the Mission District, believes that Milk has become such an important symbol of civil rights that his name belongs on the airport. Why not? We know who John F. Kennedy and Fiorella LaGuardia were, but let's go down the list. O'Hare? Hartsfield? Moisant? Logan?
Today, Campos will introduce legislation to get the proposal on the November ballot for local San Francisco elections. His rationale:
"There are already a number of things honoring Harvey Milk, including schools, but nothing of this national and international scale," said Campos, who is gay. "It's time to send a message that members of the LGBT community are treated with dignity and respect. ... In places all over the world, including Europe and Asia, people of all walks of life look up to Harvey Milk."
Scott Wiener, who represents the Castro district, agrees.
"It would be very fitting to name the airport after Harvey Milk," Wiener said, but added that it will probably "spark a robust conversation about the various people who have made significant contributions to San Francisco.
And won't that robust conversation be interesting!
This has win-win all over it. It's a local citywide election. That means an area that cast 83.5% of its votes for President Obama. It should bring out the national hate groups en masse screaming about honoring sodomites and the like and threatening a boycott, which no one will pay any attention to. Think about it! This might even deflect their attention from the states that are working on marriage equality.
Thank you, Supervisor Campos. This should be fun!
8:28 AM PT: I'm just sorry it won't be renamed in time for Netroots Nation 13!