A Tale of Two Anti-Gay Propositions and How They Relate to"Milk"

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, wearing a "No on 6" button and talking with Dan White (Josh Brolin)

Ironically, Black and Van Sant deliberately chose to use archival footage of Bryant instead of an actor to portray her because they worried no one would believe she'd said the things she said. "Looking back, when you hear some of the quotes that Anita gave, if played by an actress, I felt like it could be seen as caricature," said Black. "It's hard for some folks today to think that she said and meant some of the things that she really said and meant, so having it be actually footage helped give it that authenticity."

Spend a few minutes looking at the "Yes on 8" ads today and it won't be hard to believe at all.

One of Harvey's most powerful weapons in fighting Prop 6 was asking lesbians and gay men to come out to our friends, families, and co-workers. "People vote two to one for us, if they know just one of us," he says in a pivotal scene in the film, when he launches his campaign to defeat Prop 6.

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, fighting Prop 6

Sean Penn, who turns in a staggering performance as Harvey Milk, thinks the film might have the same effect on audiences, even though he acknowledges that most won't see it until after the vote on Prop 8 is history.

"There's something in the movie where Harvey Milk is emphasizing what an impact it makes if people know that they know just one of us," he said. "And I think that there is a version of that that comes from the experience of watching this film. You're watching a lot of very good hearted human beings and, you know, how they decide to f*ck is irrelevant."

Prop 6 was the religious right's answer to the wave of gay rights laws that were being passed all over the country in the late 70s. Most of them were being overturned at the ballot box: in Oregon, in Kansas, and most famously in Florida's Dade County, where former beauty queen and orange juice spokesperson Anita Bryant was the driving force behind a successful rejection of a gay rights ordinance in the county. Prop 6 was to be the final push, the one that would once and for all end the gay rights movement's momentum.

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk shaking the hand of Victor Garber as San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in a newspaper clipping created for Milk

Similarly, Prop 8 is supposed to stop the growing trend of states to recognize marriage equality: first Massachusetts, then California, now Connecticut. Because even though both are or were state initiatives, battles won and lost in California are often seen as decisive. The nation watched Prop 6, and it's watching Prop 8 now.

The defeat of Prop 6 was one of the great human rights victories not just of Harvey Milk's lifetime, but of all of ours. It set the stage for innumerable other cities, states, and counties to pass laws protecting lesbians and gay men from discrimination in teaching and other professions. It helped bring us to the historic battle we're engaged in today.

And as Harvey says in Milk, when addressing a crowd protesting the repeal of a gay rights law in Kansas, "History shows that if we continue to fight, we win."

Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones, fighting the good fight in Milk