Milk

A while ago we watched the movie "Milk" and I were to write about this on my blog. The movie was released in 2008 and it is based on a true story of Harvey Milk's extraordinary life. I will first write a bit about the film and Milk's life and then discuss why he was such an important person, and still is today.

Harvey Milk is well known for being the first openly gay man to be voted into major public office in America, and for his long and tough fight for equality for the gay community. In the movie, Harvey Milk is played by actor Sean Penn, who after my opinion did a brilliant job in this movie.
The movie follows Harvey Milk through the last eight years of his life. While turning 40, he lived with his lover Scott Smith in New York, but they soon found out that they wanted to move to San Francisco. In San Francisco they started a small business together, and they soon got a lot of new friends in the working-class neighborhood they had settled in.

Harvey Milk fought for equal rights and opportunities for everybody in the community - young and old, man and women, straight and gay. Milk soon became an outspoken agent for "his people" in a society filled with prejudice and hatred against gay people and people who were different. Milk got many followers and started to get more into politics. As Milk was getting more and more known for his political view and his wish to one day be a part of city government, his relationship with Scott eventually ended. Milk ran for public office several times. The fourth time the campaign was a success; Milk was elected as supervisor for District 5 in San Francisco.

The happiness that followed the election where Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man to win a seat as a city supervisor, didn't last long. On November 27 in 1978, another supervisor, Dan White, shot and killed Milk and San Francisco mayor George Moscone.

In the movie we can see what a big difference Harvey Milk made with his politics, most of all how he helped thousands of other gay people to stand up for themselves instead of being ashamed. Milk knew that he had a lot of enemies, and as we also could see in the movie, he recorded some of his thoughts on tape just in case if someone would kill him. Milk said "If I'm killed, let that bullet destroy every closed door." This show how passionate he was about his politics and his fight for justice. He knew that he risked his life in his battle for equality, but as long as he helped other people to get it a little better, he was willing to make that sacrifice.

Harvey Milk was killed in 1978, which is only about 30 years ago. The gay peoples rights have changed a lot after the death of Harvey Milk, and a lot of it is because of him. Milk is still an important person in the fight for justice and equality, and he is a great role model in the gay community today.

In 2009 Harvey Milk was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the American President Barack Obama, and this award is one of the highest civilian award in the US. I think this really shows that Milk really is important in the US today, 30 years after his death.

On this picture you can see Harvey Milk's nephew, Stuart Milk, recieve the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of Harvey Milk from President Barack Obama.

I really liked this film. It is always great to see how just one person can make such a difference in a community. Harvey Milk was a strong man who dared to stand up against a prejudiced community, and I think that actor Sean Penn really managed to capture his great personality and eagerness to succseed.