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Article: Milk and martyrdom.(REEL LIFE)
- Article from:
- Clinical Psychiatry News
- Article date:
- February 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 International Medical News Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Milk" is a biopic about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay American to be elected to a major public office, as a city supervisor in San Francisco, in 1977. Before that, Milk (Sean Penn) was nicknamed the "Mayor of Castro Street" (the main boulevard running through the city's most prominent gay neighborhood) for his efforts to create a safe zone for gays in an era when homophobia was still rampant.
Though he was always seen as a pariah by law enforcement, Milk gradually gained support from the straight culture. Once elected supervisor, he wrote one of the toughest laws protecting gay rights ever enacted. He successfully fought a state ballot initiative calling for ...