"I Want to Recruit You"

This weekend Matt and I saw the movie MILK, starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk. We generally find movies about actual events interesting, and this being about the first openly gay politician to be elected to public office seemed intriguing.

I was blown away. In many respects, actually.

To start, Sean Penn's performance was phenomenal. If I've ever seen an actor melt into a character, it was on this screen. Mr. Penn became Mr. Milk. It took me reminding myself that this was Penn... Penn...

Secondly, the story, which I have never heard before, was all-inspiring.

After unsuccessfully running for political office for three consecutive years, Harvey finally landed a seat in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He went from the prominent figure for hundreds to tens of thousands of members of the gay community. And after campaigns across the country were being fought to stifle the rights of those who chose this alternate lifestyle, Harvey willingly invited the fight for their civil liberties to be brought to California.

Harvey Milk staking out campaign headquarters

The culmination came in 1978, when conservatives submitted Proposition 6, otherwise known as the Briggs Initiative, suggesting that all homosexual teachers, and anyone associated with them should be eradicated from all school districts in California. The argument was that gay teachers would teach children to be gay. ("Sort of like French?" Harvey would dead-pan in a debate with the proposition's leader, John Briggs). In these debates Briggs would compare homosexuals to pedophiles. The ultimate conservative argument was the "protection of the children".

Sound familiar?

It was difficult to walk out of the theater, 30 years later, knowing that these people were still in the battle of their lives. And that the "protection of marriage" was still winning.

I don't know what anyone's political or religious beliefs are. But mine can be summed up simply: LIVE AND LET LIVE. ...These people should have the same rights we are entitled to, regardless of sexual orientation. In 20 years, this is going to be looked at as the same type of civil liberty struggles African Americans and women went through. But perhaps less forgivable considering how "advanced" we consider ourselves to be.

...So yeah, MILK. If you don't know the ending, I don't want to ruin it. And if you don't plan to see the movie... I encourage you to at least look into the story.

Also, have you heard of the "Twinkie Defense"? Totally related.

This story is extraordinarily beautiful, if you can look past the hatred.