I can't believe it, they are finally making a movie about Harvey Milk! Yep, Gus Van Sant directs...Sean Penn is Milk.
For those of you who don't know, Milk was the first openly gay elected official, but then (sorry if this is a movie spoiler for those who didn't know) was assassinated along with SF Mayor George Moscone by another council member, Dan White. The tragedy continued-White was found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder by a conservative jury based on what later became called the "twinky defense"--he claimed he wasn't emotionally stable from eating too much sugar.
Gays marched to city hall in a protest that turned violent including the burning of police cars. Police retailated and stormed a gay bar in the Castro. Such an amazing piece of gay history right up there with the Stonewall riots, and I wonder how many people know about it, especially the whole generation of people born well after the events.
Its a testament to how the gay community rises and unites in the face of diversity. It reminds me of what I saw in our Salt Lake community during and after the "No on 3" campaign...despite the tragedy of an an aggressive campaign against equal marriage rights, it helped energize and strengthen the gay political community and led to the election of two more openly gay Utah state legislators.
This is why Gay Pride celebrations like last weekends are so important to me. People go for so many reasons, but for me once a year I need to see the sheer breadth of people with who I share that one common trait.
And when we face adversity--whether its anti-gay politics or our own hesitation to put a picture of our partner on our desk at work just like our straight co-workers would--Pride events remind us we are in the midst of people who share our common goal: to have what our neighbor has and nothing more or less.
Joel Shoemaker is advertising manager for IN Utah this Week and needs to see a therapist about his addiction to CNN.
For those of you who don't know, Milk was the first openly gay elected official, but then (sorry if this is a movie spoiler for those who didn't know) was assassinated along with SF Mayor George Moscone by another council member, Dan White. The tragedy continued-White was found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder by a conservative jury based on what later became called the "twinky defense"--he claimed he wasn't emotionally stable from eating too much sugar.Gays marched to city hall in a protest that turned violent including the burning of police cars. Police retailated and stormed a gay bar in the Castro. Such an amazing piece of gay history right up there with the Stonewall riots, and I wonder how many people know about it, especially the whole generation of people born well after the events.Its a testament to how the gay community rises and unites in the face of diversity. It reminds me of what I saw in our Salt Lake community during and after the "No on 3" campaign...despite the tragedy of an an aggressive campaign against equal marriage rights, it helped energize and strengthen the gay political community and led to the election of two more openly gay Utah state legislators.
This is why Gay Pride celebrations like last weekends are so important to me. People go for so many reasons, but for me once a year I need to see the sheer breadth of people with who I share that one common trait.And when we face adversity--whether its anti-gay politics or our own hesitation to put a picture of our partner on our desk at work just like our straight co-workers would--Pride events remind us we are in the midst of people who share our common goal: to have what our neighbor has and nothing more or less.Joel Shoemaker is advertising manager for IN Utah this Week and needs to see a therapist about his addiction to CNN.
2 comments:
I was very impressed with the number of families I saw walking around the Pride grounds. It is becoming a popular event with the straight crowd and that to me shows our increased acceptance in the community. We've far to go, but its important to celebrate our successes.
i like oride becouse u get to see couples walking around holding hands and have thier arm around each other and it has become more then just gay people lots of str8 people come out and have a fun day and there is no vilace
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