Monet, I had a historical reason to watch Milk. This is not a diatribe against gays just the history as I know it. Its what actually happened.
In the early sixties we lived in the Castro District of San Francisco. It was an area on the west side known as Eureka Valley. It was a family neighborhood centered around Douglas Elementary School and Eureka Valley Park. We lived there when Kennedy was shot. I went to the 5th and 6th grades there. In 1965 we moved up to Sonoma, California. When I asked my stepdad why we were moving he said "this town is going to pot." I was just 11 at the time and didn't know what he was talking about but he was an old WW 2 marine that didn't like gays.
In the fifties and sixties there was a military draft. The military had a policy against gays but it didn't matter if you were gay or not when it came to the draft. A gay person, once in the military, was sent to San Francisco to be processed out of the service. Many gays stayed in SF because there were plenty of jobs and the cost of living wasn't bad. The years rolled by and more and more gays congregated in SF. So much so that they started taking over whole neighborhoods.
They were taking over our neighborhood, Eureka Valley. The families started moving out. Long story short. We lived on 19th and Castro. One block away, 18th and Castro is now known as the gayest 4 corners on the planet earth. Douglas Elementary School is now known as Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy. Eureka Valley Park is now named after Rikki Streicher a bar owner that catered to gays.
Harvey Milk Lived in Eureka Valley. That's why I was interested in the movie. So okay, I didn't like it because they destroyed our neighborhood. At least thats what we thought happened. But its a lot of years later and I actually enjoyed the movie. Harvey Milk showed gays how to gain political power, something they had never had before. I'm certainly not gay, if you kiss me you better have a split between your legs, but I like Harvey Milk.
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