I did a little social experiment before I went to see this movie, and I think the results are important to share with you guys.  In the group of friends that I polled, most of them are well-educated seniors at Ohio State University, but none of which are gay.  I first asked, “who knows who Harvey Milk was?”…not a one.  “Who knows what the Stonewall Riots were?” …still none. “Who knows who Matthew Shepard was?” …1 out of 4. “Who knows what Act Up was?” …none. 

I think the educated people in America are failing to recognize and failing to remember that a gay rights movement ever took place in the United States.  What’s scarier, is that I don’t think the answers would be much different if I had asked random young gay people the same questions.  Without our history, we do not exist as a subculture, as a culture, and we are doing a disservice to our community. 

So, I definitely applaud Gus Van Sant’s Milk if only for the fact that he is breathing life into the story of a gay icon that fought so hard for what many of us are so apathetic about. 

In American high schools they are not going to teach gay history just like they are going to fight proper comprehensive sexuality education: until then it is your duty to do your own homework.  You can even call it homowork  if you have an aversion to the word “homework” :) Knowing the history of your culture, what you’ve fought for, why you’ve had to fight, what arguments people have used and continue to use against you, the more powerful you will be as an activist and as a citizen. 

Now, about the movie.  I’ve read quite a bit about Harvey Milk, and I remember the less-sexy (The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) by Epstein.  Van Sant doesn’t stray too much from the story line, but I was most captivated by the way he showed the power of the gay movement then.  Today we queers are just so family friendly, but I got goosebumps at the way Van Sant showed Milk building and organizing a  crowd…and passing the buck.  We need more leaders like this.  We need people to recruit us.

I like how there were parts of the film that were unabashedly sexual, and that it wasn’t all white picket fences: basically the characters were gay, not wannabe straights, and they didn’t gallop off into a sunset together, it was a little closer to real life.  I had a friend argue to me after seeing the film that it didn’t do enough to convince straight people that gay people deserved rights.  I thought about it, and I think, “why the hell do that?”.  Yes, it’s important in the long run.  However, isn’t it interesting to think, for once, this may have been a movie made for gay people?  Shocking.

So. Go see it regardless of sexual orientation, it’s a good story.  But if you are inclined toward a one Mr. James Franco, you might enjoy the story even more.