my wife and i watched Milk the other night and she said that she got the impression that Dan White was a gay man in denial and took out his self hate on Harvey. did anyone else think that?
Yes...I think it was a possibility. Apparently, so did Milk, as he said something to that effect in the movie
shareCertainly the movie tried to give that impresion, but I've never heard anything to say that it was true in real life. Probably it was added for dramatic effect, to create an unspoken tension between the two characters - part fellowship and part opposition.
It certainly made for a good movie.
* * * FedEx just took NINE days to send me an "overnight" package. * * *
Whether he really was I don't know, but Harvey in the film certainly implied that he suspected Dan had secret homosexual desires.
shareIt wasn't added just for dramatic effect for the movie. According to his biography, "The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life & Times of Harvey Milk" (Randy Shilts, 1982) Harvey Milk strongly suspected that Dan White was a closeted homosexual and told several people that he was dangerous because of that. Obviously this doesn't prove that Dan White was a closeted gay man, but Milk did indeed believe that he was.
shareHe was probably in the closet like most conservatives. They hate on gays and vote against gay marriage, then get busted with under-aged male prostitutes or trying to pick up men in airport bathrooms. LOL Sad, but true.
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"He was probably in the closet like most conservatives."
Way to stereotype... *rolls eyes*
Typical lame commiecrat crap. The facts are that Dan White didn't kill Milk because he was gay; he might have loathed him for that, but ultimately he killed Milk (and Moscone) because they stabbed him in the back politically.
shareAfter having seen the movie, I did research online about Dan White. I have not read ONE thing that indicates that he was gay or closeted. The only thing that came from is a line from the movie where Harvey intimates he's gay while his fellow gays doubt him. I'm guessing that was just Dustin Lance Black just wrote that in as a posthumous dig at White for killing Milk.
shareradrobbd--I've never come across any research indicating White may have been gay either. Did Milk ever in fact speculate that he was?
I think you may be right about Black's motivation for putting that comment about White being a closet clase in Harvey's mouth. If that's true, it was very unhelpful. Sadly, there are gays who instantly label all homophobes as repressed gays, which just makes us look guilty of our own bias.
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I am not referring to Milk thinking White was gay or closeted. White was not trying to kiss Milk. He was drunk. HOW STUPID! This is purely speculation on your part, and on Van Sant's part, which is bull$hit. People want to suggest/fantasize that White was closeted all they want, but there was NOTHING that stated that Dan White was gay, closeted or otherwise.
As far as Harvey going on about White being gay, this, once again, does NOT indicate that White was closeted. This was a fantasy on Milk's part, or the idiot that thought this up for the film.
I stand by my previous post.
I am not referring to Milk thinking White was gay or closeted. White was not trying to kiss Milk. He was drunk. HOW STUPID! This is purely speculation on your part, and on Van Sant's part, which is bull$hit. People want to suggest/fantasize that White was closeted all they want, but there was NOTHING that stated that Dan White was gay, closeted or otherwise.
As far as Harvey going on about White being gay, this, once again, does NOT indicate that White was closeted. This was a fantasy on Milk's part, or the idiot that thought this up for the film.
I stand by my previous post.
Yes, I think he might've been gay. He committed suicide two years after he got out. That, combined with the extreme act of murdering Milk in the first place, makes me believe he probably had severe issues that stemmed from the repression/denial of his homosexuality.
It's called projection.
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I doubt the real Dan White was gay
Perhaps Milk thought he was gay- he could see the signs of emotional strain in Dan White, and beign gay he read his own strains into it
I know a lot of gay folks like to presume that anti gay straights are closeted queens expressing their conflicts in negative ways
I know that when I first discovered about myself, I was trying everything I could to "turn straight". When I got to college, I turned to religion, and a lot of people thought I was one of the most homophobic people they'd ever met. Only thing was, at the time they didn't know that it was eating me up inside. I was hiding it so well that I was going through major depression as well as feeling physically sick a lot.
So, it is quite possible that a homophobic person is actually hiding the fact that they are gay, although, I don't believe that all homophobes are secretly gay.
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Most ignorant gay bashers are in the closet.
shareThere is no evidence to suggest that Dan White was homosexual. IMO, no I don't think he was.
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