As the 30th anniversary of his assassination approached last week, coupled with the opening of the new Sean Penn biopic on his life, it became clear that the lessons of Milk are being lost to the newest generation of the LGBT community.
How many times this past week have we read -- in regard to Barack Obama's historic victory, or in reference to the passage of the anti-gay measures -- that "the long arc of history bends towards justice." This always sounds patronizing to me, like, "There, there, young fellow. Everything will be just fine. You just wait."
In 1972, after Sen. Joe Biden's wife and child died, I wrote him a note of condolence. That letter is long gone, but not his response to me, which arrived later that winter.