If you see one film this year, see Gus Van Sant's Milk -- if not for Sean Penn's and James Franco's phenomenal performances or Danny Elfman's score or a beyond-engaging history lesson, then see it to be inspired as you haven't been in years.
Something is stirring in the gay community. Maybe we're banking on Barack Obama's momentum. Now that hope is no longer a nostrum so easily met with easy guffaws, it seems like just a hop, skip, and a walk down the wedding aisle for gays.
It's a bit like that famous children's-book story: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the mouse is going to ask for a glass of milk. In this conceit, the cookie was Barack Obama; my hope is, that as Milk makes a splash across the country and world, the gays will have a glass of milk, as well. If you give the gays their milk, they're going to want a straw.
Whatever the case, you won't need to look very far to see the stirrings of a revolution long overdue. Facebook is almost glutted with grassroots campaigns: one to stymie a gay marriage referendum in New York, another advocating a national "gay strike" on December 10, and many others. The Human Rights Campaign has published an extensive list of the businesses that supported Prop 8 while enraged Americans call for boycotts, and the viral video "Prop 8: The Musical," featuring Jack Black as Jesus, has generated more than 1.2 million hits according to the New York Times.
It's palpable: This revolution is moments away from being ignited. (Can you feel it?) Complacency and cynicism are the grumblings of W.'s era -- they're so 2001.
So after you see the film (take a pack of tissues), let everyone you know know that Milk is our glass of milk, a very-much-in-reach glass of milk. Get the milk, and then start demanding a straw. Kick; scream; get the straw, and then... well you know the rest.