
When he began public life, though, Milk was a preposterous figure — an "avowed homosexual," in the embarrassed language of the time, who was running for office. In the 1970s, many psychiatrists still called homosexuality a mental illness. In one entirely routine case, the Supreme Court refused in 1978 to overturn the prison sentence of a man convicted solely of having sex with another consenting man. A year before, it had let stand the firing of a stellar Tacoma, Wash., teacher who made the mistake of telling the truth when his principal asked if he was homosexual.

1 comment:
It kind-of freaked me out, how much Sean Penn looked like Harvey Milk in the film. If you had asked me before I saw the film, I wouldn't have thought they looked alike at all.
Post a Comment