Wonkette Movie Night: Milk
'I am here tonight to say that we will no longer sit quietly in the closet. We must fight.'
In 1977 I was 14 and hating myself for thinking that I liked girls more than boys; meanwhile Harvey Milk was being elected as California’s first public office holder to be openly gay. It was really not that long ago that the queer community lived under constant threat, when being gay was illegal, when young people saw no future in being themselves. Everything old is new again. Is it nuclear family or strong families month? Because Gay Pride includes both of those. I like Esquire’s take: States Have Replaced Pride Month with an Insanely Weird Conservative Holiday.
And this is where I broke down in tears while writing.
I am a 63-year-old non-binary lesbian. I have witnessed significant change happen in the lives of gay people since I first accepted that I was gay at the age of 18 in Indiana. I lived through the oppression and hate, to the shift of acceptance and love, then back again to hate. It went from slashed car tires and beer cans tossed at my head in the ‘80s and ‘90s to high fives in the street when gay marriage was legalized during the Obama years to clenched fists and threats of violence during the Trump reign. I hoped for an easier life for the young queers that followed after me. Old dykes can be relied upon for that kind of thing. It is something that Harvey would have understood.
This Gay Pride month feels incredibly important right now. We have come so far yet many of us olds have seen the pattern repeat. This community has always been an easy target when Republicans have wanted to prove how much they believe in family and the Bible. But it is also a chance for us to remember those who put their lives on the line to say,
All men are created equal. No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words.
Milk is the story of a complicated and imperfect man who did much to inspire the LGBTQ+ community and worked to change the laws that treated us as second class citizens. Harvey Milk showed tremendous courage in stepping up, when death threats might have stopped others.
Harvey moved us forward yet here we are in 2026 fighting to keep what Harvey fought for. We will not let his courage be for naught. He believed fighting for the gay community also meant fighting for all marginalized communities.
It meant offering hope.
On November 27, 1978, Dianne Feinstein, made this announcement to the press:
Today, San Francisco has experienced a double tragedy of immense proportions. As President of the Board of Supervisors, it is my duty to inform you that both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed, and the suspect is Supervisor Dan White.
That is how Harvey Milk’s life ended at the age of 48. But I prefer to celebrate his courage.
Now some say that Harvey was not murdered because he was gay, it was politics!
Really? Mayor Moscone was murdered for political reasons. Harvey was too, but we know what Harvey’s politics were. It is of course not so simple, if Harvey were not fighting for the right to just exist, it could have been “just politics.”
He also spoke about a simple thing, hope.
This movie is a celebration of his life and his courage in fighting for the gay community. That is how we should remember him and honor his work.
I always fight for hope, I can see no other way to win in this battle that we all know we are in, fighting for more than LGBTQ+’s right to exist, more than all the things that are not straight, white, Christian and male. We are fighting for all of us.
From the “Hope” speech that sticks with me as I was a young gay person in Fountaintown, Indiana :
And the young gay people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias and the Richmond, Minnesotas who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only gays, but the Blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us’es, the us’es will give up. And if you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.
The trial of Dan White also gave us what was known as the Twinkie Defense.
On June 26, 2025, the USNS Harvey Milk was renamed the USNS Oscar V. Peterson by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Milk stars Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, and Cleve Jones. Directed by Gus Van Sant.
Milk is available with subscription on Prime; free with ads on Dailymotion; $3.99 in the usual places.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
The animated short is Cariño by Carlos Taborda, Roshel Amuruz, and Ashley Williams.
Next week’s Movie Night selection is Bound, available for free with ads on Pluto TV. $3.99 in the usual places.
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𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀:
In 2016, while a guest on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air," Cleve Jones told the interviewer Terry Gross that several weeks before filming on Milk began, he and Emile Hirsch (who played him in the movie) met and started spending time together so that Hirsch could base his portrayal on the real Jones: "I got to show him my neighborhoods and places I'd lived. We had meals together. We became friends. And it's a peculiar sensation to know that you're being watched by an actor who's going to portray you. And I will say that there was one moment...when I'm driving around town and I suddenly realized that I was trying to butch it up. I was so horrified when I realized what I was doing. That's when I took him back and made spaghetti and said, now listen, you know, OK, I'm a big old queen but I'm not a cartoon. I'm not a caricature, and you better get this right. But he did, he did. I loved the movie."
Cleve Jones conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2020. Interview with Heather Cox Richardson on FB on May 20:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1ERAChqang/
Fuck you FB
Also please do not dump on me for promoting Movie Night on FB.
I always share the movie post on FB and Bluesky.
It shows the movie poster and subhead.
Not this week.
FB only shows a link to Wonkette. No clue shown as to the fact that the movie is Milk.