There is not much I could say about the movie Milk, dramatizing 8 years in the life of gay and human rights activist Harvey Milk, that has not already be written and blogged about with more wisdom than I can bring to bear. Having seen it with my beloved today, it was an experience that i don’t really want to let pass unremarked.
That the movie is very well made under the directorship of Gus van Sant is well known already. As a reminder of our past, the news film from the 1970s was especially poignant. It was impressive to witness again the passions stirred by Anita Bryant’s anti-gay crusade; as not-yet-out gay Canadian, it was something of which I had been aware but which did not touch me personally. And of course, while she was spreading her vile message, Canadians were enjoying already nearly a decade of legalized homosexuality; something that was not realised in the USA until years later.
I first visited San Francisco for the second Gay Games in 1986. At the time the gay and lesbian presence in the city,reflected by the affection of my host - a man with whom I was deeply in love - for the city by the bay seemed to bear the permanence of time long passed. Today’s film reminded me that the gains gays and lesbians had made were still very fresh and we know now, very fragile. Juxtaposing Proposition 6, which sought in 1968 to remove the employment rights of gays and lesbians in California and was defeated by a broad coalition of citizens from Ronald Reagan to Harvey Milk, with Proposition 8, which in 2008 revoked the equality rights of lesbian and gays and was championed by another coalition of neo-conservatives and religious fundamentalists, we are reminded that the victories of the 1970s demand constant vigilance if they are to be assured and preserved.
The stories of the 1970s political activists remain inspiring. Sadly, the stories of suicidal teens are as real today as they were in the mid 1970s. Harvey Milk’s message that success in the campaign for equality demands that all gay and lesbians wherever they live and work identify themselves as sons and daughters, cousins, aunts, uncles, co-workers and neighbours is as valid today as it was in 1978. If a film like Milk inspires even a few to come out, it has been a worthwhile project. It it saves one life, from suicide or a homophobic hate crime, it is a magnificent labour.
