Saturday, December 27, 2008

To Harvey

Finally saw MILK last night in a movie theater in the City Across the Bay-- Oakland, CA. While feeling some regret that I didn't see it at the Castro, I realized that it's just another sign of progress: We Are Everywhere. By the end of the film I heard lots of sniffling and saw plenty of teary eyes.

Still smarting from the passage of Prop 8, Milk's story, told and acted so beautifully, gives us strength and inspiration. Yes, it gives us "hope." Harvey may not have been resurrected but there's no doubt his spirit lives on.

And so we offer this vintage black and white photo by Crawford Barton as a tribute to Harvey Milk and his comrades.

It shows a smiling Larry Lara (Barton's lover) standing nude with the city of San Francisco as a backdrop.

It is both a personal and a political statement. And there's no doubt that Harvey, who had a keen sense of drama and an eye for male beauty, would have appreciated it.

2 comments:

Longshanks said...

At first glance I thought that was Burt Reynolds!

Still haven't seen Milk. I am such a bad gay. Looking forward to it, though.

Even more looking forward to the day James Franco falls in love with me.

glam

Barry Harrison said...

Yep, I can see that, Glam. For those of you too young to remember, here's Burt's most famous photo (from 1972).

It's now being recycled in a directTV ad campaign that has what seems to me a homophobic subtext: “Everything should be seen in DirecTV HD. Well, maybe not everything.” There's still something wrong with looking at the male nude I guess.