Religious right tries to smear Harvey Milk on his day of honor

I spoke too soon yesterday.

Religious right members won't even let us have one day or one honor for our people without throwing their ugly hands into the mix in order to mess it up.

Family Research Council spokesperson Peter(I would like to see gays exported from the United States instead of being imported)Sprigg has written a nasty piece (which I am sure will be picked up) for World Net Daily:

When President Obama today awards a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk, it may mark the first time in history that the nation's highest civilian award has been granted primarily on the basis of someone's sex life.

. . . But Milk is famous only for winning one election, being murdered – and having sex with men. In his "gay rights" stump speech, Milk once said, "Like every other group, we must be judged by our leaders and by those who are themselves gay." What can we conclude about the homosexual movement in America based on the life of Harvey Milk? I recently decided to find out by reading "gay journalist" Randy Shilts' 1982 biography of Milk, "The Mayor of Castro Street."

Spriggs proceeds to break down his version of Milk's sex life with the panache and tenacity of a repressed religious leader going into detail about gay sex to shocked parishoners.

Maybe he is taking lessons from his friend Peter LaBarbera.

And when Sprigg isn't grousing about Milk's alleged sex life, he launches other unsubstantiated charges against Milk - i.e. he was anti-lesbian, he faked a hate crime, etc.

It's almost sad, really.

Sprigg's attack on Milk is the equivalent of a racist mentioning the Watts Riot of the 1960s without talking about the conditions that led up to it.

Harvey Milk's Presidential Medal of Freedom will not be posthumously awarded to him for his "sex life." And to minimize how he positively affected the American experience reveals more about Sprigg's homophobia than Milk's "sex life."

Harvey Milk is receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom because he stood up unashamed to be who he was. He demanded that he not be tolerated, not be accepted, but be respected.

And he also demanded in his own way that lgbts not accept what homophobes give us but to take what belongs to us - our God-given right to pursue the American Dream.

I guess I should be angry at Sprigg, but I'm not. Nothing he or any of his cohorts can say will ruin this moment for me.

Harvey Milk was an American hero and today he will be honored as such. He will be the first (hopefully not the last) gay man to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Milk is not receiving this honor because he was a famous actor who happened to be gay, or a famous musician who happened to be gay.

And he is certainly not receiving this honor for his alleged sex life.

Milk is receiving this honor as a openly gay man who challenged the notion that lgbts are unhappy people with hedonistic lives. His honor puts all of us out of the darkness of the smoky bars and into the front room of the White House, if you will.

I happen to like that move.

Milk was a diamond and no amount of dirt can remove his luster or the luster of this moment.

So nice try, Sprigg. But no sale.