More Experiences With the Reader’s Suggestion on the Movie Milk
Last Saturday evening, a group of us went to see “Milk,” and all we can say is, Don’t Miss It! How often do you see a movie where the main characters are facing up to the powers that be, struggling with each other and the world for some truth, and braving the armed forces of the state and ‘traditional values’ to fight for what’s right?
As the Revolution review said, while not an ‘issue film,’ it could hardly be more timely and its relevance was not lost on the audience the night we went, which was overwhelmingly middle class and included a good percentage of gays. We took up “A Reader’s Suggestion“ and when the film ended and the final credits were rolling, one of us got up and did some brief agitation about the situation with Christian fascists being much worse now than it was with Anita Bryant and we had to take to the streets now too. We also included some agitation that Obama is NOT standing up to these theocrats, but we must, and hope lies with revolution. Many people applauded after the agitation and in about 5 minutes, three of us sold more than 40 copies of Issue #148 that featured the fight against Prop 8 on the cover and got $25 in donations.
Many of these people might not have given Revolution a second thought in normal times, and most of them probably voted for Obama, but our agitation was very well received, including the sharp criticism of Obama’s conciliation, and Revolution went home with dozens of people whose minds—and hearts—were opened up by this powerful movie, putting sharp truth in their hands and challenging them to join up with the revolutionary movement that can get to a world where patriarchy in all its guises has long since been surpassed and no one faces persecution, and even death, just for living their sexual orientation.
