I was specifically thinking of a scene where Milk speaks of the relative ease of coming out in the wake of some failed CA anti-gay legislation.

Still, though, what really struck me with the film is how much would be different were it set 10/15 years later (I know it’s a bio-pic, but you can get my drift).

Re your gay culture quip, I’m not sure I’d call myself knowledgeable about mid-twenties white straight southern grad student culture — that’d be my life — let alone any other. It seems to me that’s the challenge of our society today. It’s very difficult to make general statements because they are so many exceptions, and we now know how important it is to consider the exceptions. Perhaps I should have written more carefully, or perhaps the gay culture I’m familiar with is just different than what you’re considering.

Last weekend I stayed with good friends of mine, a partnered lesbian couple. One of them noted herself how unassuming and uncontroversial their lives are. They said they live what anybody else would call boring uneventful lives. They wondered what other folks thought their lifestyle was supposed to be, because in actuality, it’s as white toast and vanilla ice cream as anybody’s in their neighborhood.

So yeah, good questions that get at broader challenges in describing the lives we live today.

John McNeese