We have loved democracy, even when used against us

In honor of the Oscars, for which Milk was nominated in a few categories, here are a pair of essays about Harvey Milk. The first is by Dustin Lance Black, who wrote the Milk screenplay. He talks about why he wanted to tell Milk's story. That started from a recording of a speech by Milk (featured in the movie). Milk hopes gay kids in Des Moines and San Antonio hear his voice and learns there are options other than suicide and the closet:

. . and then one day that child might open up the paper and it says, “homosexual elected in San Francisco,” and there are two new options. One option is to go to California. . . OR stay in San Antonio and fight.

Black also discusses how it seems that gays, over the last decade or so (under the onslaught from Rove and co.), have become invisible again, waiting for straights to get our rights for us. After the Calif. gay marriage ban, Black, with the help of Cleve Jones (also a character in the movie), wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle:

We have always been willing to serve our country: in our armed forces, even as we were threatened with courts-martial and dishonor; as teachers, even as we were slandered and libeled; as parents and foster parents struggling to support our children; as doctors and nurses caring for patients in a broken health care system; as artists, writers and musicians; as workers in factories and hotels, on farms and in office buildings; we have always served and loved our country.

We have loved our country even as we have been subjected to discrimination, harassment and violence at the hands of our countrymen. We have loved God, even as we were rejected and abandoned by religious leaders, our churches, synagogues and mosques. We have loved democracy, even as we witnessed the ballot box used to deny us our rights.

We have always kept faith with the American people, our neighbors, co-workers, friends and families. But today that faith is tested and we find ourselves at a crossroad in history.

Will we move forward together? Will we affirm that the American dream is alive and real? Will we finally guarantee full equality under the law for all Americans? Or will we surrender to the worst, most divisive appeals to bigotry, ignorance and fear?

Black was delighted to see at one of the post-election rallies that the young people there gave up on their stodgy elders and took matters into their own hands. The youth are saying: We're not going to wait for straights to give us our rights. We're going to stop being invisible and work for our rights ourselves.


The second essay is by Armistead Maupin, who started writing his famous gay-themed Tales of the City about the time Milk was elected. Maupin writes about Milk's last boyfriend, a young man who met Milk only a month before the assassination.