Milk is a film that follows

the career of Harvey Milk, from his fortieth

birthday to his death. Milk is a political activist for gay
rights in San Francisco. In 1977, Milk is finally able to win a
seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him
thefirst openly gay man to be voted into a major position
of public office in California. He begins an effort to defeat
Proposition 6, a statewide initiative to ban gays and their
supporters from public school jobs. The film also details
his complicated working relationship with Dan White,
another Supervisor on the Board. Ultimately, Milk is
successful in overturning Proposition 6, but he
is assassinated shortly after by White.

This story takes place in San Francisco, during

the 1970s. To put things in context, the American
Psychiatric Association had just removed homosexuality
from its official list of mental disorders, meaning that it was
still highly stigmatized. Initially, Milks political activism is
centered in Eureka Valley, a working class, predominantly gay
neighborhood, 8though his later work involves
California as whole.

This movie connects to our current unit in that it expands

upon protest movements of the 1970s, specifically the gay rights
movement. The late 1960s and the 1970s were characterized by the
rise of counterculture, in which people rejected the traditional thinking
of American society. The movie explores the fairly new gay rights movement,
featuring activism forequal treatment of gay people and a change in long
held prejudice against them. Harvey Milk championed the gay rights
movement in California, passing a gay rights ordinance for
San Franciscoand overturning Proposition 6.

I found Milk to be very informative, especially

becauseMilk was so important to the early gay rights
movement, yet I hadnt really heard of him before this film.
The film showsMilk passion for activism, and I felt just as
triumphant when the film showed the defeat of Proposition 6.
Overall, it was moving and felt very real, and I enjoyed
watching it, despite a rather tragic ending.
 One of Milks main conflicts involves Milks efforts
to pass the gay rights ordinance in San Francisco,and his
subsequent fight against John Briggs Proposition 6. Another
conflict involves a clash between political views as Milk rejects
Whites conservative project proposals, leading to
Whites growing resentment of Milk (which culminates
in Whites assassination of Milk).