You could relate to Harvey on many levels.
I had planned on getting my oil changed this morning, but the dealership can't fit me in until this afternoon, so I sat down and watched The Times of Harvey Milk, winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1984. It's a film I've been wanting to see ever since I saw Gus Van Sant's Milk last fall and one where I've had to wait a long time for it to filter down through my library's hold list. Directed by Rob Epstein and produced by Richard Schmiechen, The Times uses vintage news reports, photos, home movies and interviews, coupled with contemporary interviews with people who knew Milk (and who understandably get a little emotional at times because his murder was still in the recent past at the time the film was made) to tell his story and of the advances he spearheaded for the gay rights movement during his brief tenure in public office.
Well-deserving of its Oscar (as well as all the other awards it received), this film goes beyond the scope of Van Sant's Milk by covering the violent demonstrations that broke out when conservative city supervisor Dan White -- who killed not only Milk, but also San Francisco mayor George Moscone -- was found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder and given what the gay community perceived to a light sentence. (The fact that he committed his crime in November 1978 and was released from prison before this film came out in October 1984 is still quite shocking to me.) A quarter of a century later, it's sobering to think we're still fighting some of the same battles (isn't it about time we got rid of "Don't ask, don't tell"?), but the fact that gay people can live more openly across the country (and not just in the Castro) is a tribute to Milk's continuing influence.