Got Milk?

A GAY HISTORY LESSON:

For those unaware, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay politician - elected city supervisor of San Francisco back in the late 1970s. He was, according to Time magazine, "the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet."

As the self-proclaimed 'Mayor of Castro Street', he was active during a time of substantial change in San Francisco politics and increasing visibility of gay and lesbian people in American society. Sadly, he was assassinated in 1978, along with then-Mayor George Moscone, by recently resigned city supervisor Dan White, making him a martyr within the gay community.

White's relatively mild sentence for the murders led to the White Night Riots, and eventually the abolition of diminished capacity defense in California.

Milk has been the subject of numerous books and movies -- including the INCREDIBLE 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk -- which received an Academy Award and was later produced as an opera. (I recommend this film HIGHLY!) Also, this past May, to coincide with his birth anniversary, a bust of Milk was placed in San Francisco City Hall's ceremonial rotunda. This is the first memorial to an openly gay person to be featured so prominently in a public building.

So - that brings us to today; if you haven't heard already - MILK is coming to the big screen! And here is the first video look at Gus Van Sant's "Milk." The film tells the story of Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn), and will be out this November. Milk costars James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsh and Diego Luna.