Pioneering gay rights activist Harvey Milk was shot to death in his office 30 years ago today.
Last night, I went to see the new movie based on his life and laughed and cried. ‘Milk’ is a solid, spendid film — oddly not quite as powerful as the Oscar-winning documentary that inspired it but anchored by a staggering performance from Sean Penn.
In his review, Roger Ebert made me smile:
“I have become so weary of the phrase ‘openly gay.’ I am openly
heterosexual, but this is the first time I have ever said so. Why can’t
we all be what we prefer?”
Well Rog, partially because of things like the Mormon funding of anti-gay legislation. They seem surprised by the anger they’ve stirred up but, as always, Dan Savage gets right to the point:
“In the wake of Prop 8 millions of gays and lesbians all over the
country have decided that we’re no longer going to play by the old
rules. We’re not going to let people kick our teeth down our throats
and then run and hide behind ‘Nothing personal—just my private
religious beliefs!’ That game’s over.”
Someone should tell that to Donny Osmond, whose views on marriage are sadly predictable:
“I do support our Church leaders who say that we can accept those with
gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their
temptations.”
Osmond even plays the tired “some of my best friends” card. Boy, for a guy who does a lot of musical theatre, he really seems out to piss off his gay fan.
Oh, for a voice of reason! Wait, here’s two! Keith Olbermann and Candace Gingrich explain it all for us. Harvey Milk would be proud:
Why you can trust Xtra
