A healthy reminder

I've just got back from the cinema after seeing the new film Milk with Sean Penn. I recommend it - it was very good.

The film is the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected into high public office in the USA (and, by extension, almost anywhere else in the world)

It is always good to be reminded that we did not just end up where we are by chance, that the freedoms we enjoy were not just a steady evolution of policy and culture but the fruit of hard fights by the people who came before us - pioneers who often gave their lives for the happier future which they never had the chance to enjoy.

Of all the various political campaigns of which I have been a part, it is the apathy in the LGB community which is most striking. In a way, this is due to the success of those like Harvey Milk. But things aren't right yet. Mental health problems still occur more regularly in gay young people, children still get incessantly bullied at school over their sexuality and full equality under the law is very close, but not quite there. Elements of our society also still seek to sideline gay people, indeed, to disenfranchise gay people and undo all that the Labour government achieved over the last ten years.

And let's not forget the nine countries in the world where homosexuality is punished by death, and the many more where it is illegal or met unchallenged by the state with violence, intimidation and murder. We live in a global age, securing one's own freedom does not entitle that person to make do and sit back.

Films like Milk are good - they are a healthy reminder that what we have should not be taken for granted - that society has many people to whom it owes thanks. I hope it also serves to remind the gay community that giving up now would be an unforgivable disservice to those on whose shoulders we stand. While hate crime against gays continues, while kids in this country suffer at the hands of a culture which oppresses them, and while teenage boys face public executions in Iran, the words and deeds of Harvey Milk still have much further to travel - I only hope it is films like these which provide the inspiration to march on.