Harvey "Milk:" "Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are"
Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 08:59PM Gay or straight, our lives have been affected by Harvey Milk. He's unknown to most Americans today, but his impact is undeniable. Whether we feel it daily because we're gay or because we're straight and have gay friends or family members whose lives are a little better because this man fought for a cause, Harvey Milk has affected our society.
"Come out, come out wherever you are" was his call after he became the first openly-gay person elected to a political position that high in government at any level. That was 1977. In the less than a year that he served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors -- that's their version of a Board of Alders or a City Council, he worked successfully to pass a citywide gay equality ordinance, and then worked to defeat a statewide law that would have led to the firing of suspected gay or lesbian teachers.
A fellow Supervisor Dan White unsuccessfully fought some of Milk's initiatives, and after several confrontations shot and killed Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone at their City Hall offices in 1978.
That's history. "Milk" is a movie about it. While it's still playing at some theaters throughout the state, I wanted to write about "Milk," and encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to take a couple of hours to learn about a very good man and his important cause.
I can't call "Milk" entertainment. It's a tremendous movie, and should win a number of awards -- Sean Penn is fantastic as usual, and Josh Brolin -- fresh off his portrayal of George W. Bush in "W." -- puts in another great performance as yet another tortured and confused character, this time Dan White.
While "Milk" the movie might not be entertainment in the usual sense of the word, it is a remarkable experience. For some, it will seem like ancient history. To me, it felt like yesterday. Many of the images I remember very well from my trips to San Francisco in many years past.
"Milk" is a history of the gay equality movement but it is much more: it's about the continuing fight against discrimination wherever it exists. It reminds us that not too long ago, one could be arrested just for going to a gay bar. Imagine that -- police would go into gay bars and arrest people just because they were there. Newspaper photographers would be there with their cameras, and the pictures and names of those arrested would appear the next day. We're talking about the early 1970s. I do remember it well. None of us should ever forget.
"Milk" is a dramatization, but is based much on history. I've read "The Mayor Of Castro Street," and studied Harvey Milk rather thoroughly during the past thirty years. I've seen "The Times Of Harvey Milk," (which can be seen free on Hulu, just go to http://www.hulu.com/watch/4957) which is a character documentary of his political career and the assassination (1984), and "Execution Of Justice," a made-for-television 1999 movie that was also very well done. "Milk" appears very accurate, and mixes in some period newsreel film with flawless precision.
Had he lived, Harvey Milk would be 78 years old now. I think he would be proud of the progress of the gay equality movement that he pushed along with passion. His call of "come out come out wherever you are" has been answered by millions of openly-gay Americans, including thousands involved in politics and government and business at all levels.
Still he'd be ashamed that one can still be fired or denied housing or services in more than half the states of this nation just for being gay. He'd be depressed at the recent defeat of gay marriage in California, but he would have got a good night's sleep and despite being an older man now he'd be out there the next morning passionately continuing "the movement."
"The movement." It's a fight that will always have to be engaged because hate and discrimination will always exist, so good men and women have to keep pushing. We'll get there.
"Milk" has another lesson as I watched it, and that is that a person doesn't have to be rich or become President to be in the position to do great things. Passion, idealism, and even tunnel vision toward a single goal sometimes does the job. Harvey Milk wasn't perfect. But he did great things.
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