(LifeSiteNews) – California Democrat Governor and potential presidential candidate Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that the state will be intervening to purchase copies of a textbook that had been rejected by a local school board over its promotion of late LGBT icon and child sex abuser Harvey Milk.
Newsweek reports that back in May, the Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) Board of Education voted to reject a state-recommended social studies curriculum over its inclusion of supplemental material intended for fourth-graders concerning Milk, the former San Francisco Supervisor and California’s first openly homsexual elected official who was killed in 1978 by a disgruntled ex-colleague.
Milk’s death made him a “martyr” for LGBT activists under a prevailing narrative suggesting he was murdered for his sexuality, when in fact his killer Dan White, who also killed Mayor George Moscone the same day, was a former friend of Milk with mixed positions on “gay rights,” and actually shot both men because he blamed them for keeping him off the city’s Board of Supervisors.
TVUSD board members objected to the material’s favorable depiction of Milk due to his alleged history of illicit relations with underage boys. “My question is why even mention a pedophile?” asked board president Dr. Joseph Komrosky. Board member Danny Gonzalez said “the inclusion of sexually based topics and the glorification of a known pedophile who happened to be an advocate for gay rights to 10-year-olds” was “morally reprehensible and inappropriate.”
“I want you to know that we’re moving forward, the state’s moving forward, toward purchasing and procuring those social studies books,” responded Newsom. “Your kids have the freedom to learn, and you have the freedom to access those books … So rest assured, we’ll be sending those books down in very short order.”
“If these extremist school board members won’t do their job, we will — and fine them for their incompetence,” the governor added.
A school board in Temecula decided to reject a textbook because it mentioned Harvey Milk.
CA is stepping in.We’re going to purchase the book for these students—the same one that hundreds of thousands of kids are already using.
If these extremist school board members won’t do… pic.twitter.com/r2iirL8b5v
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 13, 2023
“[W]hat the Governor has conveniently ignored is that members of the Board of Education expressed other significant concerns about the District’s process, including whether it had adequately engaged the community regarding the adoption of curriculum, as well as whether the proposed curriculum adequately addressed the needs of English learners and special education students,” Komrosky responded. He said TVUSD stakeholders are currently working on a new curriculum “that meets all state standards.”
“What is also unfortunate is that the Governor knows this and has elected to publish this threatened action ahead of the District’s hard work on this matter that will come to fruition in just a few days,” Komrosky said.
Across the nation, controversy has exploded in recent years over schools adopting classroom materials and library books that seek to expose children to sexual themes and instill in them left-wing values on topics such as homosexuality, gender, race, and economics. The trend has fueled a parent backlash that has been credited with Republican gains in states like Florida and Virginia, whose current respective governors, Ron DeSantis and Glenn Youngkin, have taken leading roles in fighting back.
The 55-year-old Newsom, who survived a recall election in 2021 and was reelected in 2022, is widely speculated to be Democrats’ top pick to replace the 80-year-old President Joe Biden on the presidential ballot next year, to compensate for Biden’s underwater job approval and pervasive fears about his mental health, and take advantage of polls indicating strong dissatisfaction with both Biden and former President Donald Trump as their parties’ respective White House nominees.
Newsom has recently held events in red states ostensibly promoting Biden’s reelection, which observers have suggested serve a secondary function of building his own name recognition outside of California for a candidacy of his own.