Gay Marriage and the Oscars

The Oscars last Sunday rose above the usual glitz and glamor and celebrity when Milk walked away with two very prestigious awards. The movie Milk is about the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Harvey Milk, who the film chronicles, showed the country that in the face of bigotry he could turn the other cheek and be cordial, accepting, loving, and full of optimism, despite getting death threats and hate mail while running for public office. This is something I find to be very inspiring and amazing because of how frightening it must have been to have to take on people who hated him so much for no apparent reason except for his sexual orientation. Unfortunately, that was enough of a reason for someone on the same board as Milk, named Dan White, to murder not only him, but also the mayor of San Fransisco.

This blog post, however, is not about the past and the hatred that occurred during a certain period of time, but rather the optimism and hope I feel the future holds. It is a feeling that we can make the future a better place for our own children and for future generations. I believe each generation strides to accomplish this, and along with what happened last night at the Oscars this sentiment may soon become more and more accepting. The movie Milk received won two Oscars on Sunday, one for Best Actor, Sean Penn, and the other, for best screen play, by Dustin Lance Black a gay man who has an amazing story of his own and wrote a beautiful script which was rightfully recognized by Hollywood. It was a wonderful night to celebrate and to also highlight current issues in the gay rights that need to still be addressed. Hollywood, which I believe has never had a problem going with the most popular thing at the moment (I can still remember Roger Moore, the infamous director and outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the Iraq War, getting booed after winning an Oscar in 2003 about how wrong it was to invade Iraq...which people started to see as a quagmire) So it is easy to see how Hollywood would want to embrace a movie like Milk, especially in an area which months ago passed a terrible Proposition banning gay marriage.

I think Sean Penn's speech at the Oscars was both honest, and directly from the heart. We really do need to step back and examine ourselves, and asks whether or not we want to continue to deny people the right to be happy. I do not think allowing to people of the same-sex the right to marry would affect anyone heterosexuals marriage, or the sanctity and institution of marriage. I believe that we should not discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation and Sean Penn is correct in what he said. I also think this article in the San Fransisco paper is dead on when it comes to what he said.