Red carpet report from the "Milk" premiere in San Francisco

 
Gus Van Sant and the cast of Milk

In case you were wondering what San Francisco, and the struggle for gay rights, would have looked like if Harvey Milk had lived, you should have been on Castro Street Tuesday night for the premiere of Gus Van Sant's Milk.

Yes, it was glitzy and glamorous. Yes, the stars turned out in their fancy clothes, and the press was there in force. But the night belonged to the hundreds of chanting, sign-waving, fist-pumping demonstrators across the street, telling the world to vote "No on Prop 8!"

Nearly every person who made the walk down the red carpet turned and acknowledged the demonstrators, including star Sean Penn, who arrived last. Every photo that was taken had a wall of blue protest signs in the background. Almost every star was wearing a "No on 8" button designed to look exactly like the "No on 6" buttons worn in the film.

In fact, the resonance of the fight against Prop 6, a 1970s initiative that would have fired all gay teachers and their advocates in the state of California, and today's battle against an amendment to the California constitution stripping lesbian and gay citizens of their right to marry, was so powerful it's hard to believe the film was written long before Prop 8 was even conceived.

I asked screenwriter Dustin Lance Black about that, and he told me that even though he had no idea how timely the story of the fight against Prop 6 would turn out to be by the time the film debuted, there was one thing he did know when he was writing it: "There will always be another struggle."

Focus's Andrew Karpen and James Schamus (L&R) with San Fran Mayor Gavin Newsom and wife
 

Inside the theater, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who set off the firestorm that became Prop 8 by defying state law and issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, introduced the film with a fierce expression of pride in the city and its heritage, and the legacy of Harvey Milk. "This is a city that doesn't just tolerate its diversity, it celebrates it," he said. But like Black, he acknowledged that the battle for equality isn't over. "So much has changed, but the struggle remains." He finished by saying, "Special thanks to Harvey; I know you're here somewhere."

Director Gus Van Sant thanked everyone for their support of the premiere, which was a benefit for several LGBT organizations, including the Hetrick Martin Institute, home of Harvey Milk High School, and the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center. He thanked the many stars and politicians who were there that night, as well as the thousands of San Franciscans who helped make up the crowd, march and demonstration scenes in the film.

AfterElton.com spoke with Black, Van Sant, and Penn the next day, as well as with James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, and Josh Brolin. We'll fill you in on what they had to say about the fight for marriage equality, the legacy of Harvey Milk, their experiences making the film, and their hopes for its future, over the next few days.