Land Of Milk And Honey

Last Wednesday Gary organized for a bunch of Pinkies to go watch the new Sean Penn film, "Milk". I had never heard of the person upon whom the film is based before, but it is one Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the U.S. He became one of the city supervisors of San Francisco back in 1978. It has been 30 years since that event, and, as a mark of how time has moved on, this film has been made as a celebration of his achievements.

I first heard about the film from one of the episodes of the Totally Rad Show, and I guess it is a mark of progress that what is essentially a video podcast about video games, gadgets and cartoons, i.e. boys toys, can rate any film about a gay man so highly. I loved this film too.

For me it was a perfectly presented window into life in 'Frisco in the late 70s, bell bottoms, hippies, and all, but especially into the life of gay men and women at the time. Gay people had gathered in the Castro for the safety of a community, but it was far from safe, with violence and queer bashing a sadly frequent occurence because of a strongly homophobic and bigoted society.

The main source of conflict in the film is the attempted passage of a law in California banning all gay men and women from teaching. It is interesting how the argument then (as now) is that being gay is somehow being 'anti-family'. What does that even mean? Anyway, Milk is tries to lead a political campaign to turn down this amendment, called Proposition 6.

At one point members of his team argue that it is important to let people have their privacy. But Milk's answer is that it is this privacy which is the problem. If people are secretive about being gay, it means that gay people can be seen as 'the other' i.e. not like me and therefore an easy target for discrimination. It is only when you come out that people realise that gay people are your brothers and sisters, your children, your colleagues, and sometimes even your parents and grandparents. So gay is 'us' not 'them'.

I'm not generally the activist sort, but coming out of that film with tears in my eyes I felt really proud to be gay, and proud to be out. But I also know that three decades down the line there are many people who still live in fear, and kids for whom coming out is still not an option. It is for them that Pride is so important.

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let the bullet destroy every closet door."
- Harvey Milk