Instead of spending another night drinking beer and reading blogs, I decided to head to the theater and see Milk, that new movie with Sean Penn portraying the first openly gay politician to ever be elected to public office. Everyone should know what this movie is about, and if not, here's a quick synopsis:

Harvey Milk triumphed over adversity despite the wide spread contempt held against gays, and he was able to not only win a seat in public office, but became a prominent voice in the gay rights movement. His activism helped defeat a proposition in the late 70's that would have allowed gay teachers to be fired for simply being gay.

This pissed off another member of the board, who decided to take out his homophobic aggression on Milk by shooting him and the Mayor behind closed doors in the capital after the proposition failed. Milk was a hero in the gay community during his life, and even more so posthumously.

Also... Milk had plenty of gay sex along the way.

Apparently, this alone offends people 30 years later, in 2008.

About 20 minutes into the flick, I notice an old guy sitting four rows in front of me squirming around in his seat. At this part in the film, Penn's character Harvey Milk is flirting with a guy in the subway, trying to pick him up. Sexual innuendos are exchanged, making out ensues.

Moments later, shirtless men are playing grab ass and the guy's chair is squeaking like crazy. Squeak squeak squeak....

This scene is apparently bothering the old guy. So much so, that by the time the love making is over and the two gay guys are laying in bed sharing the after glow, the old man has stood up, snatched his coat, and huffed and puffed loudly as he headed for the exit.

Now, there are only three reasons I can think of for why this guy left a movie 20 minutes after he paid $10 bucks to get in.

1: The movie just sucked. Maybe he thought it was bad acting, poorly written script, shitty direction, or any combination of those. I'll admit, I've walked out of a few shitty movies myself because they were just painful to sit through. Dude, Where's My Car? immediately comes to mind.

2: He had to take an emergency shit.

3: The sight and thought of two men having sex was intolerable. Based on my observations, this is most likely what the old man's problem was. Did he not know what the movie was about before he purchased his ticket?

I can't believe people like that still exist. I severely doubt that this man has never sat through a sex scene between a man and a woman at some point in his life, and compared to most heterosexual sex scenes in movies, this one was pretty mild.

In all reality, the only thing bothering that man was his own prejudice. A prejudice that existed only in his mind and in others like him, and therefore has nothing to do with reality. It's not as if a giant dick was going to fly from the screen and smack him in the forehead, forever giving him gay cooties. He made it a point to let others know he was offended, but in doing so he only made a fool of himself.

It was easier for him to be offended, rather than accepting, of a culture different from his own. But throughout history we've learned that civil progress can only be truly obtained when we do the exact opposite, and reserve offense for those that are unable to accept.

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