Harvey Milk 1930 - 1978
Dec. 15th, 2008 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acquiescenceI went to see Milk today with my friend who came into town to spend the day with me. I'd seen a few previews for this movie over the last month or so and it looked pretty interesting and just the sort of movie I would enjoy.
It was an excellent movie, both in subject matter and overall style. I hadn't ever really heard of Harvey Milk before this movie, I hadn't ever really paid attention to the gay rights struggle across the country that the film showed.
I expected it to be a movie I liked, I expected it to be a movie I would enjoy seeing - I didn't really expect it to be a movie that made me react quite so strongly. It's been a long time since a movie has made me really react to anything. I know I don't normally use my journal for things like this but I think this is something that needs to be said especially in light of recent social and political events.
But in watching this movie, I realized you know 1978 ... that was just 6 years before I was born, that was only 30 years ago from today, that was right before my generation. And it made me think of how far we've come. There are protections for homosexuals gays lesbians that people were voting against 30 years ago. There are civil unions now, people can't just be fired for their sexuality in most places today, there are openly gay men and women in political office across the country.
And despite all that there is still so far we have to go.
We are still a long way away from equal civil rights for all people. And that just blows me away. Our constitution says "All men are created equal" doesn't that mean we all have the same "unalienable rights"? Because that is what it seems to mean to me. Not that All straight men are created equal, not that only straight men and women are privy to these rights, but ALL MEN, ALL WOMEN, gay or straight.
I don't normally think about any of this. I appear to most people as a happily straight female, and usually I'm alright to go with it - what I do in my personal life isn't really anyone's business but my own. And unless things are affecting me directly I don't really take note of them.
Except the thing is, they are affecting me directly. I just choose to ignore it.
Because I'm not really a straight female. I lie somewhere in the middle, and every time someone says that God hates Fags, that the gays are corrupting America's youth, that being gay is just like bestiality, that the gays will infect us all with their "disease" ... that's affecting me. That's me they are talking about.
And it makes me angry, It makes me angry that things are the way they are. That if I ever found a nice girl I wanted to marry, I can't do that - because that'd be a threat to the American family. It makes me angry that people think God hates me because I might happen to fancy another woman, that it makes me a sinner, that it puts me on the same level as it does the person to sexually molest children or the person who likes to fool around with animals.
It makes me angry that the majority of Americans seem to be ok to just let things go the way they have been.
And it hurts. I know that I have plenty of friends who think I am going to hell because of the way I want to live my life. I know that my mother thinks people are only gay because it's trendy. That she thinks it's gross and disgusting for two men or two women to kiss. It hurts, more than I've ever really admitted to myself before.
What is it about gays, about bisexuals, about transgenders, about people who are different that is so threatening to America? What is it about me that is so threatening? What is so wrong with me?
How can we still be saying the same things we were 30 years ago? Haven't we gotten past all that? Haven't we moved on? When is the day going to come that it will be ok to be gay?
And the thing is ... it's not about being gay or straight, it's not about being a man or a woman, or black or white. It's about being people. It's about being human. And it's about realizing that we are all human, that we are all citizens of the United States, and until we can end this history of bigotry and hatred we are never going to be able to really say that the Constitution is something that this country stands for.
Separate but Equal doesn't work as history has shown us. It's time to stand up and say equal rights for all regardless of age, of class, of creed, of religion, of race, of sex, of sexual orientation, Equal Rights For All.
It was an excellent movie, both in subject matter and overall style. I hadn't ever really heard of Harvey Milk before this movie, I hadn't ever really paid attention to the gay rights struggle across the country that the film showed.
I expected it to be a movie I liked, I expected it to be a movie I would enjoy seeing - I didn't really expect it to be a movie that made me react quite so strongly. It's been a long time since a movie has made me really react to anything. I know I don't normally use my journal for things like this but I think this is something that needs to be said especially in light of recent social and political events.
But in watching this movie, I realized you know 1978 ... that was just 6 years before I was born, that was only 30 years ago from today, that was right before my generation. And it made me think of how far we've come. There are protections for homosexuals gays lesbians that people were voting against 30 years ago. There are civil unions now, people can't just be fired for their sexuality in most places today, there are openly gay men and women in political office across the country.
And despite all that there is still so far we have to go.
We are still a long way away from equal civil rights for all people. And that just blows me away. Our constitution says "All men are created equal" doesn't that mean we all have the same "unalienable rights"? Because that is what it seems to mean to me. Not that All straight men are created equal, not that only straight men and women are privy to these rights, but ALL MEN, ALL WOMEN, gay or straight.
I don't normally think about any of this. I appear to most people as a happily straight female, and usually I'm alright to go with it - what I do in my personal life isn't really anyone's business but my own. And unless things are affecting me directly I don't really take note of them.
Except the thing is, they are affecting me directly. I just choose to ignore it.
Because I'm not really a straight female. I lie somewhere in the middle, and every time someone says that God hates Fags, that the gays are corrupting America's youth, that being gay is just like bestiality, that the gays will infect us all with their "disease" ... that's affecting me. That's me they are talking about.
And it makes me angry, It makes me angry that things are the way they are. That if I ever found a nice girl I wanted to marry, I can't do that - because that'd be a threat to the American family. It makes me angry that people think God hates me because I might happen to fancy another woman, that it makes me a sinner, that it puts me on the same level as it does the person to sexually molest children or the person who likes to fool around with animals.
It makes me angry that the majority of Americans seem to be ok to just let things go the way they have been.
And it hurts. I know that I have plenty of friends who think I am going to hell because of the way I want to live my life. I know that my mother thinks people are only gay because it's trendy. That she thinks it's gross and disgusting for two men or two women to kiss. It hurts, more than I've ever really admitted to myself before.
What is it about gays, about bisexuals, about transgenders, about people who are different that is so threatening to America? What is it about me that is so threatening? What is so wrong with me?
How can we still be saying the same things we were 30 years ago? Haven't we gotten past all that? Haven't we moved on? When is the day going to come that it will be ok to be gay?
And the thing is ... it's not about being gay or straight, it's not about being a man or a woman, or black or white. It's about being people. It's about being human. And it's about realizing that we are all human, that we are all citizens of the United States, and until we can end this history of bigotry and hatred we are never going to be able to really say that the Constitution is something that this country stands for.
Separate but Equal doesn't work as history has shown us. It's time to stand up and say equal rights for all regardless of age, of class, of creed, of religion, of race, of sex, of sexual orientation, Equal Rights For All.