Harvey Milk

I love it when I watch a movie that has a profound impact on me.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love movies that are pure fluff, feel-good pieces of entertainment.  But once in a while it feels good to watch something that gives me a better perspective on humanity, that things aren't always just black-and-white, that there is ALWAYS a different way to do things.

I just got done watching the movie Milk.  Honestly, I watched it for three reasons.  One, because Sean Penn won an Academy Award for it, and two, because Lucas Grabeel from High School Musical is in it, three, James Franco is in it and he is amazing.

But I'm glad I watched it for totally different reasons.  Yes, Sean Penn is masterful, yes, Lucas is still one of my heroes, and yes, James Franco is delicious even when he is making out with Spicoli.  But beyond all that, the movie has an awesome message.

I consider myself politically moderate, but I guess I would say I'm an uneducated liberal.  Not uneducated in that I can't read or was raised in the backwoods and am "ign'ant", but uneducated in that I don't take the time to research an issue enough to have a concrete reason to back it up.  However, I often find myself leaning toward the left more often than not, and I'm not sure why.

I think Milk let me feel a little more comfortable with my hazy political labels.  For those who don't know, the movie is about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to a major political office.  He was elected to be a city supervisor of San Francisco, and he and the Mayor of San Francisco were both assassinated by a fellow city supervisor.  

Harvey Milk was a Democrat, but honestly I had to look that up on Wikipedia.  I do not recall them ever mentioning his political party in the movie.  His whole campaign was about the rights of humans.  Any human in America has rights, the right not to be fired from a job they have already obtained based on qualification and performance, simply because he chooses to have sex with a man instead of a woman in the privacy of his own home.

I'll be honest; I'm not an open supporter of the GLBT movement.  I don't attend rallies, I don't buy t shirts, I don't plaster Facebook with it.  However, I am an open supporter of humanity.  I don't think the government can legislate who we can love.  I don't think that America is going to disintegrate into moral chaos if we allow gay people to get married.  I don't think that all gay people have a less stable home life than heterosexuals.  And guess what?  I was raised Catholic.  It's cliche, but there are many parallels between the story in Milk and the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.  

I DO think that people should be judged by their character, by their choices, and by their actions.  I would oppose a gay couple adopting a baby if they were abusive and malicious, the same way I would oppose a heterosexual couple adopting a baby if they were abusive and malicious, the same way I would oppose an interracial couple adopting a baby if they were abusive and malicious.

I think what Harvey Milk did was honorable and courageous.  He had his faults, he had his failures; but that proves that he was human just like all of us, homosexual or not.  He was a human, and he loved humanity enough to make the ultimate sacrifice.  I read that something like 30,000 mourners turned up on Milk's home turf of Castro Street and marched quietly to City Hall, holding a candlelight vigil in memory of their hero.  That is remarkable.