It took Hollywood 30 years to make a feature film about the life of Harvey Milk, and when Gus Van Sant finally got the gig, and Sean Penn agreed to play the title role, it came out too late to have an impact on the California election. Would Milk, the movie, have helped defeat Prop. 8? Nobody knows. But the movie is inspirational, and with any luck will carry the message of Milk's life to the masses. Milk always said that the more straight Americans got to know gay and lesbian people, the more they would be open to equal rights.

The Guardian covered Milk's career as it was happening, devoted a special issue to him when he was assassinated, covered the trial of Dan White and the infamous Twinkie Defense and the riots afterward. And with the movie hitting theaters this month, we're taking a look not just as the movie but the political legacy of Harvey Milk.

>>Political theater

Gus Van Sant gives Harvey Milk his close-up

By Kimberly Chun

>>Politics behind the picture

Would Harvey Milk be happy with San Francisco today?

By Steven T. Jones and Tim Redmond

>>I remember Harvey

Guardian memories of the long-haired young hopeful

By Bruce B. Brugmann

>>The apathy and the ecstacy

St. Harvey inflames, but does he inspire?

By Marke B.

>>Hot flash gallery

Now and then in the photography of Daniel Nicoletta

By Johnny Ray Huston

>>Behind the "Twinkie Defense"

The reporter who coined the infamous phrase looks back at the White trial

By Paul Krassner

>>Past, present, future

The time is now for The Times of Harvey Milk

By Johnny Ray Huston

BONUS

>>Where's Harry?

Harvey Milk's political torchbearer gets written out of film history

By Tim Redmond

From the archives (PDF)

How the District Attorney Joe Freitas’s office blew the Dan White murder case, May 23, 1979

By Robert Levering and David Johnston