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At the beginning of 2008 I set up a table at a LGBT job fair in central London, representing a small charity I was working for at the time that wished to recruit volunteers. There were plenty of organisations happy to sign up fresh graduates for actual paid work - the police, firemen, banks, insurance companies, local governments, you name it. I shared my table with two bitchy and unfriendly guys from our sister phoneline organisation who made me want to run away from the place as soon as I could. The event was organised by a pair of transexuals who went around each table making sure everyone was OK. Students came and went as well as mature workers looking for a change of career. I Saw my community in full action - a community that I admitedly don't participate in, or even feel I belong to.
Last night, I was invited by lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amberholic for a preview screening of Milk in Notting Hill and found myself sitting beside those two bitchy guys again. Luckily, they didn't try to start a conversation and the film soon started. The film itself is about the rise of California's first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk - his help in turning the Castro in San Francisco into a gay neighbourhood, "a home away from home"; his fight against religious bigots; his role at the start of gay rights across America. There's a power to the film that comes from what happened recently in California's elections. Back then, in 1978, California fought against Proposition 6, an attempt by extreme Christians to fire any teacher that was gay and banning them from working. Milk helped fight agaist Proposition 6 and defeat it in the ballots by a huge margin (over 60%) Now look at the state of things today with Proposition 8... how could it get this way?
The biopic follows a chronological timeline, weaving real footage from the time into the story. It's conventional enough to appeal to queers as well as Middle America. What makes it quite special is Sean Penn, who does a brilliant job in the title role, and James Franco, the best translation I've seen so far onto the big screen of a Tom of Finland figure. The film left me with a lot of thoughts and mixed feelings (especially about my involvement these days with anything resembling "gay rights"). Eventhough we have come along way, with our civil partnerships and job fairs, those hippies and early queers had something good: they had a sense of common goal, of history in the making, that didn't leave them apathetic at home, unwilling to engage with politics. They had each other, and they felt they could count on that.
Last night, I was invited by lovely
amberholic for a preview screening of Milk in Notting Hill and found myself sitting beside those two bitchy guys again. Luckily, they didn't try to start a conversation and the film soon started. The film itself is about the rise of California's first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk - his help in turning the Castro in San Francisco into a gay neighbourhood, "a home away from home"; his fight against religious bigots; his role at the start of gay rights across America. There's a power to the film that comes from what happened recently in California's elections. Back then, in 1978, California fought against Proposition 6, an attempt by extreme Christians to fire any teacher that was gay and banning them from working. Milk helped fight agaist Proposition 6 and defeat it in the ballots by a huge margin (over 60%) Now look at the state of things today with Proposition 8... how could it get this way?The biopic follows a chronological timeline, weaving real footage from the time into the story. It's conventional enough to appeal to queers as well as Middle America. What makes it quite special is Sean Penn, who does a brilliant job in the title role, and James Franco, the best translation I've seen so far onto the big screen of a Tom of Finland figure. The film left me with a lot of thoughts and mixed feelings (especially about my involvement these days with anything resembling "gay rights"). Eventhough we have come along way, with our civil partnerships and job fairs, those hippies and early queers had something good: they had a sense of common goal, of history in the making, that didn't leave them apathetic at home, unwilling to engage with politics. They had each other, and they felt they could count on that.
