Harvey Milk: The inspiring Gay Activist

Milk was a biographical film based on gay right activists and a politician by the name of Harvey Milk. Harvey was the first homosexual individual to be elected into the public office in California as one of the members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The film begins with the police raiding gay bars and arresting homosexuals during the 1950’s and 1960’s and then this follows up with a fast forward to 1978 in November where the press is releasing the information on the assassinations of Milk and Moscone. Equality was a key concept in the reading and it is extremely evident in the film that equality was not being given to homosexuals. This is what Harvey Milk was fighting for.

Homosexual equality was an issue throughout the film because they were looked at as different individuals and it was not accepted to want to be with the opposite sex. Harvey constantly threw himself out there as an activist, voicing his views on gay rights and it did not bother him that people knew he was gay. Those who followed him sometimes had an issue with how open Harvey was because they were afraid something would happen to him or that there would be more negative actions taken against the gay community. These very reasons, the fear of what people would think were what fueled Harvey to continue to push for homosexual equality.

Harvey Milk had a lover, Scott Smith (James Franco) who joined him on his journey to San Francisco where they thought would be the best place for a shot at reaching their goal of gay rights. They faced many issues when they came into San Francisco, one of them being that they were residing in a Catholic neighborhood where homosexual equality was not accepted. After arriving in San Francisco and settling down, Harvey and Scott decide to open a place called The Castro in an attempt to change the thoughts of the neighborhood they were living in. Harvey is constantly stressing the importance of being yourself, of not caring about what others think about you. Always stating that there is nothing wrong if you are gay because you are just like everyone else.

Harvey proves this to be true by taking on his political role and proving that just because he is gay does not mean that he cannot be seen as a political leader. As he fights for equality through his campaigns as a gay activist leader, Harvey still shows his commitment to politics and his strong passion for equal rights. This all leads back to the reading on equality, that each individual deserves to have the same rights no matter what color, race, religion or sexual preference. Denying rights to the gay community is discrimination it is just like denying rights to the black community and equality is needed. Milk is one hundred percent devoted to his politics and his fight for equality for the gay community and because of this he loses his lovers along the way throughout the film.

Loss after loss occurred and Harvey still kept pushing for what he believed in and finally won a Supervisors seat in San Francisco which caused a huge uproar to some and a round of applause to others. It was one for the books, that an open gay activist was now a political seat in California. Whenever differences are involved there are always people opposing the view of that individual. During the film, Harvey had an enemy because of his sexuality and that was Dan White. Dan White was a conservative who had a strong hatred against homosexual equality and disliked the fact that Milk did not approve of most of his projects that were brought to the table. White had a hard time dealing with the fact that Harvey was now a political leader.

When looking into the reading Equality was not the only concept that came to mind when it came to the film Milk. Unity was another one because of the bond the gay community had with Harvey Milk and each other. Estrangement is defined as a fall out between human beings where there is no