Milk

Harvey Milk - Crusader for Gay Rights

Another Monday, another day off. As usual, I spent part of it alone in a movie theater. This week's offering was the bio-pic "Milk" starring Sean Penn.

This movie chronicles the life of gay activist/politician Harvey Milk. Milk moved to the Castro district of San Francisco in the early 70's as the neighborhood was shifting from a blue collar Irish Catholic neighborhood into an area populated by gays and counter cultural refugees.

Milk opens up a camera shop. He starts to see some injustices taking place against the gay community. He quickly mobilizes a rag-tag army of volunteers. He runs for a civic post and loses several times. He finally wins and is elected city supervisor and is a member of San Francisco city council - becoming the first openly gay man to hold an elected public office.

The movie moves towards a show-down over "Proposition 6" which would allow school boards to fire openly gay teachers, and even teachers who support homosexuality. (The proposition failed at the ballots, largely due to Milk's ardent campaigning against it.) As is expected, the "Christian" activists are painted as the most bigoted people you can imagine - although I think they do use actual Anita Bryant clips, which is pretty sad.

Tragically, Milk and the then mayor of San Francisco were both shot and killed by a dis-gruntled fired city counselor. It seems that Milk was not killed for his sexual orientation or his activism - but simply by an unhinged man who lost it, after losing his job.

I have to say that I think Sean Penn is simply the greatest living actor today. The guy is unreal. He acts without saying a word. The way he walks and even stands makes you think he is the character he is playing.

Fast forward 30 years, and an almost identical battle raged in California over another Propositon.

Proposition 8, restricted the definition of marriage to be between a man and a woman and eliminated the right for same-sex couples to marry. This time the homosexual community lost. The proposition was passed by the strong support of African Americans and the Mormon Church. The Mormon church mobilized an army of volunteers and raised a lot of money.

This debate is not going anywhere. Milk's struggle for basic human rights for homosexuals will still be around for a long long time. You may not agree with Milk's lifestyle or beliefs, but you gotta respect what he accomplished for men and women who have been routinely discriminated and physically abused, simply for being themselves.