'Milk' Writer Dustin Lance Black Helps Get Harvey Milk Day Approved

Oscar winning screenwriter for Milk, Dustin Lance Black's, influence helped a California State Senate committee to approve legislation for a Harvey Milk Day to honor the slain gay rights pioneer.

The Senate Education Committee voted 7-2 to send the bill Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco introduced, to the full Senate.

The bill would designate Milk's birthday, May 22, as the annual Harvey Milk Day to recognize the former San Francisco City Supervisor's life and contributions to the state. The day would not be deemed an official holiday, thereby causing the state no cost, according to the Associated Press.

Public schools would be encouraged to conduct, "suitable commemorative exercises" to honor Milk.

Black, won the Oscar for penning the screenplay to the biopic Milk, testified that spreading Milk's story would help to inspire gay youths who might otherwise contemplate suicide.

"I grew up in a very conservative environment, in a church that condemned homosexual activity," Black said, admitting that he'd considered suicide as a teen. "I knew I was gay from a very early age. I knew I was less than my fellow students and, according to my church, I was right down there with all the sinners, murderers and rapists."

The story of Milk's fearless fight for gay rights gave him hope, Black said.


"For the first time in many years, I did not think about taking my own life and I did not cry myself to sleep on Sabbath nights, and I started to dream again and I stopped trying to vanish and I started trying to excel," he said.







Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for "Milk," testified that Milk's story would inspire gay youths, who often feel inferior and contemplate suicide.

Black, who is gay, said he considered killing himself until he heard about Milk from a San Francisco area theater director when he was 14.

"I grew up in a very conservative environment, in a church that condemned homosexual activity," Black said. "I knew I was gay from a very early age. I knew I was less than my fellow students and, according to my church, I was right down there with all the sinners, murderers and rapists."

He said Milk's campaigns against prejudice and bigotry "lit the fire" for the national and international gay rights movements and gave him hope.

"For the first time in many years, I did not think about taking my own life and I did not cry myself to sleep on Sabbath nights, and I started to dream again and I stopped trying to vanish and I started trying to excel," Black said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year, saying it was up to the community to decide to honor Milk.

Supporters of the bill hope the success of Gus van Sant's Oscar-nominated film Milk will embolden Schwarzenegger to change his mind regarding the bill.

"If there's one thing Arnold Schwarzenegger understands, it's box office," Leno said. "Harvey Milk now has box office."