Thirty years ago yesterday (November 27, 1978) San Francisco Board of Supervisor
Harvey Milk and Mayor
George Moscone were assassinated by
Dan White, another city supervisor. Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the U.S. Prior to his death he championed a movement against a California proposition (Proposition 6, dubbed the
Briggs Initiative) which sought to ban gays and lesbians, and anyone who supported gay rights, from working in California's public schools. In the midst of a national right-wing, conservative, religious movement heralded by folks like
Anita Bryant the proposition was soundly defeated. Fast forward to today. A new film "
Milk" [
trailer] (starring Sean Penn in the title role) is
garnering critical acclaim and is relevant to current events. "
Harvey came up against a lot of obstacles, which I think is the case for any gay man now," says Brolin, who plays Dan White [in the film]. "The irony is that Prop 8 is now what Prop 6 was then."
posted by ericb
on Nov 28, 2008 -
60 comments
