When We Rise (2017) s01e02 Episode Script
Part 2
1 Previously on "When We Rise" Each generation has it's own epic confrontations that it must face.
I knew what I was called to do not as an individual, but as part of my generation.
Dad, I'm gay.
It's an illness.
It can be treated.
I'm not gonna see you again, am I? You have such strength in you.
About being black, maybe.
But being black isn't the only thing that's different about me.
Well, you be whoever you want to be in here, baby.
- Can I take your picture? - You sure that's all you want? We're having a rally to stop violence against women.
I need you to bring all the boys like you.
You got a big mouth.
We could use a few more.
[Chanting.]
Stop the violence! Stop the violence! The one thing that can make you strong you're burying it! You love women.
We will not be silent any longer! All of you combined are stronger than you know.
And fight to make this the place we're looking for.
Our candidate's Harvey Milk.
Man: Where you going, faggot? - Do you know her? - That's Diane.
Save us nelly queens It's time for us to fight back Reporter: And every few minutes, a demonstrator will charge out of the crowd and through the police line, shattering police car windows, setting many of the squad cars ablaze.
[siren wailing.]
Roma: The last thing I wanted was violence.
Hard to believe that only a year ago, everything had seemed so hopeful.
We thought we'd found a place to make our own, to be safe.
In the middle of the middle of a dream, creating the first-ever women's building a stronghold for women, by women, while the rest of America was under attack by failed beauty pageant queen Anita Bryant.
If homosexuals are allowed their civil rights, then so would prostitutes or thieves or anyone else.
Reporter: 200,000 Miamians have told their elected officials they wanted no part of a law which protects homosexuals.
Voters of Wichita, Kansas, have overwhelmingly repealed a city law protecting homosexuals.
Homosexuality is a question facing the voters of Eugene, Oregon, tomorrow a referendum to repeal gay rights protections.
But where'd ya pee? Roma: I stayed at motels, and I peed whenever and wherever I We don't need all the details.
In the bushes.
It scares me to think of you riding across the country all by yourself.
It's fund-raising.
If even half my sponsors pay up our building's mortgage is paid through March.
So, zero men.
I mean, don't these women appreciate men at all? There are women there with men in their lives, yes, but the building itself is man-free.
- Thanks.
- You're welcome.
They're just like the Knights of Columbus.
Women aren't allowed at your meetings, are they, Dad? - Oh, you're a secret society.
- No.
We provide psychological and health care, legal support, a credit union, child care so women can work, and some have suffered violence from men.
It's a place they can go away from male oppression.
No men, no future women.
My work is my focus to the exclusion of all other things.
For the good of others.
Right, Dad? You still have this thing.
[Chuckles.]
Of course.
You were happy, right? As a child? Of course.
Why? I knew.
Way before your father suspected.
All I have ever wanted was for my girls to be happier than me.
And I just I don't I don't know if that is possible with this um, this life.
[Whistle blowing.]
Help! Blow harder, faggot! Help! [Whistles blowing.]
Leave now, and don't come back.
It's you queers that gotta get out.
Go! Don't let them move it! - [Engine starts.]
- Blow their tires! Vote for Harvey! [Siren wails.]
Mr.
Jones! I want you to all go home and let them go.
If they're leaving, we'd like to see them take a ride in the back of your car, just like you do to us, but this time for good reason.
Stop! Run! That's right! Run away, and tell your friends this is our area now! Yeah! [Typewriters clacking.]
What are you doing after work? Going home.
Oh, fascinating.
Come with me to something a bit more expansive.
Like? There's a planning meeting for the Freedom Day party.
Freedom Day is a deceptively-named excuse for racist Castro bar owners to sell beer to horny white boys from Toledo.
My God, you're exquisite when you're angry.
We call it a diversity committee, but it's a coup.
Imagine a slew of radical angels seizing control.
Get some color in there.
Hmm? Gotta finish this, Gilbert.
[Sighs.]
Come fan the flames with me.
Gilbert, I'd rather burn Gay Freedom Day to the ground.
Absolutely exquisite! [Steppenwolf's "Sookie Sookie" plays.]
Mr.
Richard, come play! All right.
Here we go! Need a push, Mr.
Richards? Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know me.
[Engine sputters.]
[Engine starts.]
You better watch your step, girl Ah, don't step on that banana peel - Good evening, dear.
- Good evening.
You remember Roger.
Hey, Roger.
[Doorbell rings.]
Or you'll go up to the ceiling Good evening.
Is there a problem? Seems your neighbors don't care for your taste in music.
What's the trouble, honey? My wife, gentlemen.
Sweetheart, these officers are requesting we either tone down the revelry or reclassify the evening as the third world war.
It was my fault.
I'm sorry.
Do you wanna come in? Come in, please.
You two enjoy your night.
- Will do.
More quietly this time.
- Okay, yes.
Sorry! Bravo.
Straight as a safety pin.
Let it hang out, baby We just lay low and wait for the world to catch up to us.
Nothing can touch us here.
Home is many things where we find shelter from the world, where we belong, where our safety lives.
[Cheers and applause.]
Morning meeting.
Everybody downstairs.
Come on.
The most pressing issue Sophie and Cara moved to Willowbrook, and Luanne moved in with Heather and Pat.
We have an empty room.
We could bring in a new sister - or I'm thinking we could make that room - How about a nursery? Have you heard of turkey-baster babies? I'd like to have one.
Jean: But raising a child is expensive, even if the sperm is donated.
But we can help.
I can.
Thank you, Linda.
And you're right.
I'll need all of the help I can get.
Cleve: Dear Scott, anything feels possible here now.
Anita Bryant might be putting Florida down the drain, but not San Francisco.
Come back.
We'll get an apartment.
We can make this home.
I thought the whole point was for us to make a new way to walk in the world.
I can't think of anything more mold-breaking than a lesbian having a baby without male interference.
But why? Why all of a sudden? Just because I'm talking about it now doesn't make it all of a sudden, Roma.
Well, I don't want to be a mom.
Well, that's fine.
Jean doesn't either, right? Woman: Hey, this is a women's space only.
No, no, it's okay.
I'm a feminist, too.
Hey, Roma.
Hi, Cleve.
What are you doing here? I get it.
It's a women's space.
If you could just hand these fliers out, that'd be wonderful.
He wants to put us to work getting a gay white man elected.
If we're gonna support a candidate, it'll be Rita George.
Come on, Roma.
She has no money, and she has no base.
How about I show you right now what a woman can do with no money? [Laughs.]
Seems like the women here aren't interested in being a part of your patriarchal electoral sham! So, is that a yes or a no? That's a no, Cleve.
Milk for leader of the galaxy! [Laughs.]
The problem with a home is, no matter how strong its walls, it can lend a false sense of security leave you unprepared, vulnerable.
Ever since Anita Bryant's campaign for homosexual rights, there has been trouble over that issue.
Now in California, there is Proposition 6 a proposal to let school boards fire teachers who support homosexual rights.
It would call for firing any teachers in California who practice or advocate homosexuality.
Reporter #2: The man who sponsored the initiative, State Senator John Briggs, is waging a one-man campaign.
Reporter #3: The law would empower school boards to fire anyone for advocating, soliciting, imposing, encouraging, or promoting private or public homosexual activity directed at or likely to come to the attention of school children and/or other employees.
I've dedicated my life to helping kids.
If this passes, it'll it'll create witch hunts.
Briggs: And I care about the family.
And I really believe that homosexuality is a real threat to the survival of this country.
Woman: I handle adults and children at the E.
R.
, and everybody knows I'm gay, and don't nobody bother me about it.
But if Briggs passes, they'll come after my job next.
It's not just lesbians.
This thing, it says straight people who support gay-friendly places like this building, they get fired too.
Woman: I'm working on my teaching credential, Roma.
I don't think I can risk running the daycare here anymore.
Any association with a place like this is risky, but I lost a major donor today.
We lose daycare, we all lose all the volunteers who depend on it.
- Attendance is already down by half.
- Yeah, I get it! Enough! Listen! I'm sorry.
You're forgetting, there is another danger here.
When I came out they tried to take my kids.
If they decide that we are a danger to children, what happens to lesbian adoptions or lesbians who want to have children on their own? This is not gonna go away.
No, of course, but the question is, how do we Where do we go? How do we start? I know it's a numbers game, okay? It's more than a numbers game.
It's your damn right.
I'll support you.
I'll fight for your right to be a mother.
You okay? No.
We could lose every volunteer and donor, and none of us knows how to fight a thing like this.
So the least we can do is find a gay man who will shoot in a cup for us.
Hell with Briggs.
She loves a good cause.
You made me feel Mighty real You made me feel Mighty real I wanna live here! Gay beach under our window.
We could afford it if we took on one more job each.
With Scott, maybe.
He's resourceful.
Sounds like you two have a whole lot in common! Stop it.
If anything, I would be the third wheel.
He wants to do hair, not politics.
Oh! Scott: Cleve? Scott! Cleve? Ah! Scott! Scott! Oh, my God! [Both laugh.]
- I missed you! - Oh, my God! Oh, my God, what happened here? This was an old Catholic mess when I left! You have to meet Harvey.
He organized it all.
I'm on his campaign for city supervisor.
- I'm sorry.
This is Marvin.
- Hi.
He thinks that Liza Minnelli is the second coming of Moses.
And this is Scott.
Well, hello, Marvin.
[Chuckles.]
What? What, is it my hair? No, no, no, no, no! No, your hair has potential, okay? This whole place does.
I mean, it's not Amsterdam.
I mean, that's where we really should be.
But I could dig this for a few months.
But let's go dance, my lovely new dancer boy! - What? - Yes, go! - Go, go, go! - Cleve, you coming? You made me feel Mighty real You made me feel [Indistinct conversations.]
Hey, he's with me.
Back off.
You came.
Thank you.
Can I get you a beer? Joint? Mescaline? Acid? Loosen you up? You seem tense.
Don't wanna be loose tonight.
Without objection, I submit that we spend the $200 on additional stands for used records and books.
Fine.
The matter is passed.
I have an objection.
Back here.
You have the largest stage there is outside of New York.
Why not use it for more than just selling used records and beer? 'Cause this year, our lives are at stake.
I nominate Ken Jones to the new diversity board.
Freedom Day's a community party, not a political protest.
And this isn't your community, Tenderloin.
Don't get me wrong.
I like a good party.
But Briggs says you have to be fired if you even walk into a place like this.
When the music stops, there might not be any of your bars left.
I'm here because my partner could lose his job if this bill passes.
Turn your party into a protest, and you could focus our anger.
You could unite us.
You've got that power.
Use it.
I second that this young man join us on this board.
If he's on, then I go.
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye [Crowd murmuring.]
[Scattered applause.]
- This isn't what I wanted.
- Then why are you here? I'm pissed off.
That's all.
Mm-hmm.
Lead with that.
Hey.
Uh, come in, come in.
Sit down.
Our little attempt at electing the first openly gay man to major office.
You really think gay men and women lesbians could win at the ballot box? Together, maybe.
You have to meet Harvey's new campaign manager.
Anne.
Annie? Do you know Roma? - Hi.
- Hi.
I came to the women's building for your Save the Whales night.
Yeah! How's it going? Well, we failed three times, but now we have Annie.
And this time we have to win because if we don't - it sends the wrong message.
- To Briggs.
Exactly.
And Briggs targets us women more than anybody else.
But if we can beat Briggs, imagine the message that sends.
We'd be the first state to ever beat back an anti-gay measure.
Which would mean taking our cooperative model here to a whole new level.
We would need more than just Annie for that.
Our women's building is already gay and straight.
We have the space, resources, and contact lists you don't have for a state-wide fight.
And what about the separatists? The women who are against men will have a choice to make.
It may rip some of our community apart, but I don't see any other way forward now.
Reporter: It looks like New Year's Eve on Market Street.
The first gay supervisor elected in San Francisco.
His name is Harvey Milk.
Roma: The new San Francisco Board of Supervisors was diverse women, racial minorities, and a progressive mayor who painted all the cop's cars powder-blue.
But Dan White had been a cop.
His election to that same board told us there were plenty who'd vote for Prop 6 and against our lives.
And keeping my word, we let men into our home.
But some of our separatist sisters didn't see the wisdom in the collaboration and left, when what we need was unity.
Roma: We have a large network of contacts librarians, nurses across the state.
We need to go door-to-door.
We send out a fund-raising letter to your list.
Take that money to Fresno and Bakersfield.
Find the three gay people there, any clergy or local officials who will support us, and say And say, "This is how you make a flier.
This is how you canvass.
" Right, but they're too afraid to canvass alone.
I agree with Roma.
We need to go door-to-door alongside them.
Hey, he was in our bathroom! Well, there's not a frickin' men's room! So, make new signs.
Oh, he's cute, but dumb.
- Really? - Yeah.
- That one went to Princeton.
- Which one? He's a total narcissist.
Look at him.
You think that's hereditary? - That's true.
- Probably.
What about that guy? The one in the back? You can't just pick him out of a lineup.
Anonymity is key.
- We know.
We need a go-between.
- Yeah.
Where's Shoshanna? She's the only Dyke I know who can keep a secret.
Shoshanna: A chain of secret-keepers.
Look, I'll ask a friend to ask a friend until we find a donor.
That way, I won't even know who the jerk is.
Good.
Thank you, Shoshanna.
Thank you, Roma.
Refocusing Freedom Day to a political protest means groups from Redding to Fresno want to march.
That's thousands more So, we need a flag to unite us.
Man: And we already have a pink triangle.
Excuse me? The pink triangle was designed by Nazis for a holocaust.
You know what's wrong with the pink triangle? Hitler.
- He has a point.
- I know I do.
We need something from nature provocative, political eight colors, because eight is a natural number! Gilbert, how much? Well, um, at least $1,000, I'd guess.
[Crowd murmuring.]
Gilbert, we do need someone to decorate the main stage.
How about we nominate Gilbert to lead that committee? Dr.
Jones: What about school, son? Harvey asked me to be an intern for him.
That'll earn me eight credits in San Francisco State's political science department.
I see.
And I got an apartment.
Uh, an application for an apartment.
It's in a good old Irish Catholic neighborhood.
It's hard for me to believe that you found something of that sort in San Francisco, son.
Um, we just don't have any credit.
But the landlord said that if I got my dad to cosign, then we'd be good.
I just It'd be nice to have a home again.
Come back to your real home, get treatment.
Then I'll support you.
[Vehicle door opens.]
Man: Hey, welcome home, Harvey! [Vehicle door closes.]
[Receiver hangs up.]
My new clothes look fabulous.
I don't know who the name is.
I just found it.
And it looks good on me.
That's all that matters.
- He's still talking to him.
- No, he's not.
Oh! So, Harvey's talked to the landlord for us.
He's a part of Harvey's business association.
And he gave us a lease! A lease sounds like a commitment.
It's six months, honey.
It's not wedding bells.
Cleve! Cleve! Cleve? Hey! This is pretty! - How are you? - I'm good.
I know who that is.
You know who that is.
- That one? - That one, with the pink.
I thought you Scott! Someone wants to meet you! Hi.
Oh God, please don't tell me you have a crush on Scott.
Listen, two bottoms don't make an outfit, but three make a sisterhood.
Sylvester will forget about Scott quick enough.
We're family now.
Okay? Get your party down Get your pigtail down Get your heart beating, baby I got my timing right I got my act all tight You know it's got to be tonight, my little babe Your mama says you don't, your daddy says you won't The perfect trick.
Leaves right away and turns into a pizza.
[Laughs.]
Tie your mother down, tie your mother down Lock your daddy out of doors I don't need him nosing around First day at work, and I look just like my father.
[Laughter.]
Give me all your love tonight As citizens, the police ought to support our effort to parade up Market, which can safely accommodate our growing numbers, and on that day, provide us with the protection that they promise but far too rarely deliver to our community.
[Applause.]
It's not enough that we don't throw them in jail, but now we have to protect them.
And whose whose budget does that come out of? I mean, it's gotta make your blood boil.
He has homos over kids.
Listen, my top priority right now is the children's portion of the mental health center in your district.
Well, I did campaign on the promise of getting that out of my district, and I do have the votes.
And I admire you're a man of your word.
But let's put a plan in place for where these kids might go so that no one suffers.
We can work on this together, Dan, right? Yeah.
Hey, uh, you got time for lunch, buddy? Yeah.
Yeah, lunch sounds great.
How could you even talk to that son of a bitch? Talking to that son of a bitch is part of my job.
It's what pays for this house.
Not that any of that seemed to matter to you today.
If anyone even suspects that we have a relationship of any kind Why Why would they, Richard? Thanks to you, nobody anywhere knows we mean a damn thing to each other.
Is that what you want, Ken? You want everyone to find out about us? Richard and I stayed married for a reason.
It's afforded us this home, our stability.
We need more discretion now, Ken, not less.
This is not just about us anymore.
If you could hear the phone calls coming in to the committee from all over from people putting their fears in my hands counting on California for their last hope.
Prop 6 is the enemy here.
Dan White, not me.
Shoshanna: Okay, it's some basic questions.
There's height, weight, medical history, family background This person has red hair.
My family has red hair.
And do looks matter? Not over intellect or personality.
I don't support that.
It's your kid, not your dentist.
Sense of humor's important.
Hey, got a bus for Fresno canvassing.
It seats 75.
Can I count you all in? Roma, you know I get carsick on buses.
Do you remember the buses in, Toko, Roma? Do you remember the goat? [Laughs.]
Crapped at every bump in the road.
So disgusting.
[Laughs.]
Italian.
Hair type oily.
Skin type dark white.
He His goal is to be a stand-up comic, and he has a degree.
If you want smart and funny over looks, that might be your guy.
He has nice handwriting.
Cleve: Harvey asked me to bring up an idea.
If everyone marching writes their name and hometown on a poster board and carries it for the news cameras, then it'll be the largest coming-out event in history.
It's one thing to come out to friends in the city another to national-news cameras.
And when gay America stops hiding, then straight America's gonna see how many of us they already know and love.
Cleve? You work for a gay politician.
You're free to lead the charge if you so please.
But if I'm too out, my partner loses his job.
[Siren chirps.]
What are they doing in our neighborhood? They think they're winning again.
Ken, this is an all-in strategy.
If everyone comes out, then we might win.
If not, if straight America doesn't know that they already know at least one of us, then they're going to vote against us.
We loaded into buses, gays and lesbians together, and knocked on doors in cities and small towns.
Some slammed doors.
But many others listened.
Roma: I was afraid of knocking on strangers' doors.
But really, the truth is I think they're even more afraid of us than we are of them.
That's what Tembe used to say about the snakes in Africa.
[Laughs.]
I miss it there.
What else do you miss about Africa? We skipped the light fandango [Keys clatter.]
Huh.
I got breakfast! I was feeling kind of seasick Oh.
Looks like we have a top in the house after all.
But the crowd called out for more [Both laughing.]
Morning! Great news Mr.
Curly Oily Sperm Donor said yes! [Laughing.]
I'm making waffles! Well, wheat germ promotes ovulation.
I'm not hungry.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go out.
You've had him here three nights this week.
Is he paying rent? This isn't about rent.
We agreed the perfect boyfriend is one who turns into a pizza.
Pizzas don't spend the night every night.
Pizzas don't smoke all of my weed.
I missed watching the season finale of "Dallas" with him, so he's a little bit pissy.
I waited all week for that! Marvin, we don't own our sisters.
But, Scott, it's 1978.
We don't have to couple up like our parents did.
The fact is, it's 1978 and we are not our parents.
It's unrealistic and probably a good bit selfish to want one person all to oneself.
- Jean - Let me finish! I love you, Roma.
I guess what I need to know now is Roma, do you still love me? You know I do.
So, maybe it is possible.
You mean the three of us? Truth is, we're young and we live in the Castro.
Harvey told me each of us are gonna fall in love a thousand times here, have our hearts broken a thousand times.
Now, what we can't do is let a man get between our sisterhood or whatever you are now, Scott.
We have to make this home our priority because I might seem like I've got it all together, but it's you two that really give me strength.
Hiding, suicide, prison, drugs, alcohol those were the old solutions for who we were.
Now, every single thing we did to try to build a home, it was all landing on the moon, every bit of it brave, untested, brand new.
This spermy nightmare has a 60-minute shelf life.
You got 20 left.
You You want me to get you anyone? No.
Just some privacy.
[David Bowie's "Changes" plays.]
Coming out isn't something you do once.
It's often in stages that grow in risk to your friends and your community, your family, an ever-expanding, never-ending act of bravery.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Turn and face the strange - Ch-Ch-Changes - The rainbow.
A promise.
- Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes - A thing of nature.
- Turn and face the strange - Just like all of us.
Where's your shame? You've left us up to our necks in it And if we ever want be free we have to stop hiding.
No matter the repercussions.
Strange fascination fascinating me Ah, changes are taking the pace I'm going through Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Turn and face the strange Ch-Ch-Changes Ooh, look out, you rock 'n' rollers Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Turn and face the strange Ch-Ch-Changes Pretty soon now you're gonna get older Time may change me But I can't trace time On November, there should not be one citizen, conservative or liberal, radical or reactionary, who has not met face-to-face with a gay person! [Cheers and applause.]
There are enough of us to do it! But the real question is Cleve: Sally's organized women in this city for decades, right? Yes! She should debate Briggs with Harvey on television.
Would she? We could dress them up like Mom and Pop U.
S.
A.
Briggs: We are not talking about So, you're saying that the percentage of population is equal to the percentage of child molestation.
- There's no difference.
- No, I'm not saying that at all.
- Well, that's what you just said.
- No, no, I was saying that we cannot prevent child molestation, so let cut our odds down and take out the homosexual group and keep in the heterosexuals.
Why take out the homosexual group if it's more than You know, overwhelmingly it is true that it's the heterosexual men, I might add - who are the child molesters.
- I believe that's a myth - I've never seen - Oh, Senator.
The FBI, the National Council on Family Relations, the Santa Clara County Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Center.
Roma: We put our safety on the line and came out in every city.
But come election night, we had few clues if we'd be safe in California come morning.
Santa Clara's latest 48% yes, 48% no, 68% reported.
[Indistinct conversations.]
Roma, I did it myself and it took.
I'm gonna have a baby, Roma.
And I want to raise it with you.
What about Jean? And all the others? I don't want that.
I want you.
And Fresno reminded me of what I want why I came here.
We got L.
A.
! L.
A.
! Prop 6 is dead! [Cheering.]
Jean and I we still have a lot of work to do.
How can you not see it? Allow yourself this work, Roma, but recognize the value of love, too.
It's okay.
I can do it.
What I can't do is be with you and Jean.
Not after Fresno.
So, congratulations, Roma.
You did it.
Briggs is done.
[Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" plays.]
[Confetti cannon fires.]
It may be time for you to shave your beard.
Yeah Bad girls Bad girls Talking 'bout the sad girls, yeah Sad girls Sad girls Talking 'bout bad, bad, girls, yeah Friday night and the strip is hot Hot Sun's gone down and they're out to trot Out trottin' Spirit's high and legs look hot [Confetti cannon fires.]
Do you wanna get down? [Sighs.]
So, this is what winning looks like.
Diane's leaving us.
I just can't see myself ever being a mother.
[Sniffles.]
Or having a family.
[Sighs.]
Maybe we're here for something bigger than ourselves.
Maybe we were put here to fight.
[Chuckles.]
Aw, come here.
[Confetti cannon fires.]
And for 20 days, we almost believed it that we'd won, that we were equal.
But they snatched it back faster and with more brutality - than any of us could have imagined.
- [Gunshots.]
[Police radio chatter.]
Dianne Feinstein: As president of the Board of Supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement.
Both Mayor Mascone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.
The the suspect is Supervisor Dan White.
Roma: We defeated Briggs, but it only took days before a city supervisor, a former cop, turned his gun on us, as if to show us loud and clear we had no power.
And when Dan White's defense argued it was a diet of Twinkies that had fueled the murders, his all-white, straight jury nodded along.
Woman: Mr.
Jones, do you have a comment on this verdict? [Vomiting.]
Mr.
Jones? [Coughing.]
They let him off with manslaughter.
They let him get away with murder.
Take Harvey's bullhorn.
Do what he taught you to do.
Reporter: When news of the verdict was announced, the city's gays began to march.
[Chanting.]
Remember Harvey Milk! They started marching just two hours after the verdicts came in in the Dan White trial.
From Castro Street, marching east on Market towards San Francisco City Hall.
[Chanting.]
Dan White was a cop.
Out for blood and in the streets! Steer them up Hope Street, so they don't burn City Hall down.
We remember Harvey! We remember Harvey! We remember Harvey! We remember Harvey! [Crowd yelling.]
No violence! No violence! No violence! No violence! Fight back! Fight back! [Chanting.]
Fight back! Fight back! Fight back! Fight back! Slow down! Don't run! Slow down! Don't run! The cops are in the Castro.
They're tearing it apart.
I'm not sure this is the way to build it, Cleve.
We won at the ballot box when they said we couldn't, and they resorted to murder.
So we turn to their courts for justice, and they told us it's okay to kill fags! Now they want us to retreat to our ghetto! I won't! We fight them here, tonight, until they realize this is our home and we're fighting for it with our lives! Slow down! Turn around! Fight back! Slow down, turn around, fight back! [Chanting.]
Slow down, turn around, fight back! Slow down, turn around, fight back! Slow down, turn around, fight back! You should go now! No more! So, Mom, I'm writing you this letter to try and answer the question I couldn't last year.
The truth is, I don't know if I can be happy with this.
Not yet.
Not until we have a place to call home, where we're safe.
And that fight is far from over.
From tragedy sprung new political power.
[Reporters clamoring.]
I promised Harvey Milk that I would make state assembly members take a public vote every session on a gay anti-discrimination bill.
It was working all right.
It maybe even good again.
No further questions for the assemblyman, thank you.
We were making headroom, using the machine to build and rebuild our dream.
But that's the thing about equality a little taste leaves you wanting more.
Hundreds of teens gay, straight, black, white run here every year because our city has a reputation of acceptance.
But we're not equipped to receive them.
They end up on the streets, turning to drugs and crime to survive.
At our Haight Street drop-in, we offer support and a path off the streets.
But we need more funding to get to more youth while their dreams are still intact.
[Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" plays.]
When routine bites hard And ambitions are low And resentment rides high Cleve: Bobby! The eagle has landed, and she's thirsty.
You know, a gay character comes out in "Fame," but they cast a straight guy to play him.
You think we'll ever have a gay movie star? We already do Cary Grant, Anthony Perkins, Montgomery Clift.
It is good to be home.
I'm two days into a four-day weekend, and all I have to show for it is a rash on my feet.
Well, maybe if you wore shoes in the bathhouses? I went hiking, and it was rotten.
Mm-hmm.
Any of those your thing? The blond.
I don't know how it's done in Seattle, but here's how it's done in the Castro.
Watch and learn.
Make eye contact as they walk past.
You count to three One, two And if they look back, that means they're interested.
Then you have a quick chat, nothing too personal, take him home fish in a barrel.
Love, love will tear us apart again Hi! Auntie Jean loves you so much! I'll come back to check on you on Tuesday.
I'll meet you out front.
Roma: She's amazing.
Yes, she is.
I told Jean you wouldn't want me here.
But she said, "We're lesbians.
We show up.
That's what we do.
" Roma, the circle, all your friends I love the help.
But with Annie and my new job, I need to protect myself.
When they come, you come.
It's not good for me, and I know it's not gonna be good for Annie.
So no more just showing up, okay? Oh.
Okay.
Good? Hey, Daniel.
- What's up, man.
- Where you been? I been around Bay Shore area, you know.
I got a work gig now, man.
I'm restocking.
Restocking what? Well, we got alarm clocks, we even got bird cages.
We even got stuff from all over, man.
Why? What's the matter? You disappear, it usually means you're using.
I'm just hungry.
So if you ain't gonna feed me, I'll go.
Christopher: Hey.
Hey! Hey! I'm sorry, but if something's called chili, it must have spice.
Christopher.
Christopher! I got it.
You know better than to come in here high.
My mom, she says everything is better spicy.
I want something tastes more like home, okay? You talking to your mom again? You see we're, uh, starting a social group for the gay kids in the Tenderloin? Thursday nights.
I'm not a gay man.
Okay.
I'll invite a few young ladies like yourself.
Okay? [Silverware clatters.]
Daniel? Daniel, Daniel, Daniel! Excuse me.
Guys? Excuse me.
Only family can be back here.
He doesn't talk to his family.
Pneumocystis pneumonia is typically seen in cancer patients, the elderly not young, healthy He is a heroin user.
Well, heroin shouldn't impact his T-cells like this.
Daniel: What's happening? We're gonna figure it out.
I'm not going anywhere.
It's not poison oak.
It's not bruises.
Bruises are normally isolated and not symmetrical.
But I have seen a few cases like it as of late.
We'll have pathology back in a few days.
How's Sacramento, Cleve? Well, we got the gay rights bill out of the labor committee, finally.
Makes wearing those disgusting ties almost worth it.
I, uh I saw a spot like it on a guy's back who I was with.
Tell him to come see me too, then.
It's not like I got his name.
Well, if you see him again.
Why? If it's what I think it is, it's something I'd normally only see on old farts.
Are we done here? I don't wanna waste another moment of this weekend.
I called my guy in Jersey, and he said he's seen cases like this too, in homeless drug addicts.
They all died, Pat.
What if we've got what they have on their streets on ours now, too? Is this kid gay? What's that got to do with anything? The CDC just put out a new Morbidity and Mortality report.
In it, they talk about immune issues in New York and California in gay men.
If this is real, what is it? It's one report very dry.
Now, do me a favor.
Find out if the kid is gay, and then let's keep it amongst ourselves, okay? Don't let me go back to Sacramento! [Laughs.]
While you're in Sacramento fighting for our freedom, they're all landing here to get their first taste of it.
Hundred new ones a day.
And I'm gonna screw every one last one of them.
These are the good times Daniel's smart.
He convinced a whole block on Geary to let him wash their windows for five bucks each.
Ah.
But as soon as he gets enough to score, he disappears.
When he comes back, I think, "All right, this time I'll get through.
" Yeah, I get that.
Want me to go with you to see him? I went to see Pat Norman about him.
But, yeah you have more experience with kids like that, so, yeah, I'd love you to come.
[Laughs.]
It's Tuesday night.
The boys await.
- And you are ruining our floors.
- Ah, come on.
Man: The Gay Liberation Front was the name first chosen to describe the organization of homosexuals coming together to assert their pride, their feeling that they had been denied their rights and that they were very angry.
We want the freedoms the freedoms to love, and sometimes even to love a bit in public, that belong to the heterosexuals in this country.
Lost inside Adorable illusion and I cannot hide I'm the one you're using Please don't push me aside We could've made it cruising, yeah You know, now that I'm a public official, I really should stop coming here.
Don't you think? You're more an assistant to a public official.
Aren't you? [Laughs.]
Oh, the thing about Ken is he has a lover, but they're emotionally monogamous.
But only emotionally.
You see, he doesn't like this place.
It's not Oakland enough for him.
Too many white boys here.
Which I don't mind one bit.
Your plan for day one is take vitals, Q4, you say hello, clear some meal trays, change beds, PRN, and make a written report.
Got it? Phlebotomy order has to be in by 6:00 or you're gonna get stuck with an intern who doesn't know the difference between an artery and an artichoke.
[Chuckles.]
[Coughing.]
No, no, Diana, I I don't want you going in there.
That's an isolation room.
Let's go get you a hospital I.
D.
Come on.
You know, sometimes teenagers I work with trade sex for things they need money, food.
Have you ever done that? I think what Ken is asking is if you've ever had sex with men.
You can tell us.
We'll be discreet.
Get away from me.
Both of you.
Is that what you do to all your kids? You give them things, and you try to turn them into your little bitch? - Daniel - I'm not a queer! You ain't doing me, and I ain't doing you.
I'm sorry.
We're We're sorry.
We don't want anything from you.
[Coughing.]
I do have experience with this, you know.
Being gay and black? Those ideas don't exist side by side for most.
You gotta get to that truth sideways, Richard.
Okay, here we go.
Wouldn't expect you to understand.
I'm taking a walk.
Ken? - Hey! - Hey.
- What are you doing here? - Hey.
Mm.
Do me a favor? Keep an eye on the patient in 220 for me.
In isolation? His name's Daniel.
I got to go, and I don't want to leave him alone.
He's just a kid.
Okay.
Thank you.
[Daniel coughing.]
Ken: My mother used to say, "Everybody's got a second brain in their belly.
They got instinct that tells you the things your head can't handle.
" I knew it in my gut.
My instincts were tripping the alarms at every turn.
Man: Cleve, a third of those men have already died.
The CDC wants to call it gay-related immune deficiency, or GRID.
So, it is a gay disease.
Gay people have been around forever, so I can't see how it is, but that's what they call it.
These lesions I'm seeing are called Kaposi sarcoma, or KS.
It indicates the immune system is failing.
Is that KS on Bobby's feet? You know I can't tell you that.
The big question is, what's causing it? What things set gay men apart clothing, plants, our bars, or is it is it gay sex? I've helped start a KS education research foundation.
With research, we pressure the government for funding.
We have legal support, the Bay Area Reporter, but politically we don't have anyone.
I know you've got Sacramento, but this community trusts you.
We need you.
We work together, maybe we can get some answers before this gets out of hand.
If sex is the problem and it is fatal then we're all dead.
Ken: Labelling this a gay disease is part of the problem.
The kid from our teen center said he's straight.
- You believe him? - Maybe, maybe not.
But isn't it possible that kids here and Jersey and New York and L.
A.
are getting sick another way? A gay disease is a gift to the moral majority.
And I don't wanna sit back and watch years of political progress roll back because of some mythology they've created and labelled "the gay plague.
" So, your silence, the silence of City Hall, is about politics? About the community your community not panicking.
And, yeah, a little bit is to try to stem the tide of more anti-gay backlash.
Why would we panic? Listen, man, I work for the Department of Health.
And nobody wants to get this more right than I do.
You represent our community in City Hall now.
I'm not going to say anything until I know that we have a treatment and a cure.
But we don't know how long that's gonna take.
I won't be quiet anymore.
Our friends are dying.
If you know anything anything Pat, you have to share it.
Man: Okay, let's ventilate the patient.
Do you have I.
V.
? Here, I'm getting it now.
Woman: Line in.
Standing by.
Keep bagging him.
Taking it now.
[Monitor beeping.]
Right away, Doctor.
BP's dropping.
You have a child, Diane.
No one would blame you if you wanted to stop.
This is unlike anything we've ever seen.
You don't have to be a saint.
Polio, influenza, cholera Those are all deadly.
The only difference here is it's affecting gay people.
If straight people were dropping dead, the world would have redirected it's resources right to us.
We'd be swimming in volunteers.
Instead, you and I are working double shifts 'cause the hospital's understaffed, and GRID patients are being sent here from everywhere.
That pullback, that avoidance, that neglect That's homophobia disguised as caution.
And if it continues, you could call this a genocide.
So, no, I don't I don't think it takes a saint to not participate in that.
Men are dying in hallways in New York City.
We can't let that happen here.
We could build a San Francisco standard of care.
I'm saying if it's a gay male issue, is it any surprise? Seriously, come on.
I mean, they go out at night, they do tons of drugs, they drink all the time, and they have sex with strangers.
Is it a shock that they catch something? This is not herpes, though.
People are actually dying here.
Yeah, well, women are dying of breast cancer.
I don't see many gay men up in arms about that.
You've got that right.
Okay, let me just put it to you this way.
Okay, go.
If this thing turns out to be sexual, that means women are at risk as well.
The invisible women the housewives, the prostitutes.
Then of course, there are the children.
I just wanna have a forum here so I can maybe quell the gay men's hysteria.
[Crowd clamoring.]
[Gavel banging.]
Woman: Keep it down! Pat: I do not have definitive information on how GRID is spread.
So then, what is the city's prevention strategy? As soon as I have the appropriate data At this point, I'm more interested in inappropriate data.
Roma: This isn't a joke, people.
No, it's not a joke.
There's a thousand theories and a million rumors and absolutely no information.
It's the lack of information that creates panic, Pat, not the other way around.
Incomplete information does not help, either.
There, she just said it.
Incomplete information implies that you know something! - What do you know? - Yes, please.
Stop talking in circles and answer our questions.
Should we stop having sex? Yeah, I think that would be a good idea.
[Crowd murmuring.]
- Do you have proof? - Based on what? - One at a time! - What do you know? One at a time! What do you know? Just tell us! What do you know? Give it a rest, Cleve.
Raise your hands.
Maybe until we know what this is for sure, no more bathhouses? No more roller rink Tuesdays? Just us.
Like a boring old straight couple.
I don't want to die.
And I don't ever want to hurt you.
Yeah.
Reporter: Many religious groups have far less trouble defining homosexuality.
When you break the moral laws of God, you mentally, physically, and spiritually pay the price.
You're saying that this is a result of lifestyle - Absolutely.
- and immorality.
You know that's true in your heart.
Thank you.
That is That is very helpful.
[Sighs.]
That was a community health liaison from Miami.
They've got a cluster of new cases in Haitian immigrants mostly women.
This could be the proof we need to rip off the "gay" label and get federal action.
Proof of what? That it's not just a gay thing.
I.
V.
drug users, black folks, poor folks, immigrants, women.
You think any of those groups are gonna get Reagan to give a damn? If I didn't know any better, I'd say it's a government plot.
[Laughs.]
Yeah.
I work for the government.
They couldn't pull something this intricate off.
Willfully letting it spread that's another story.
Marvin: When did they start installing those ionizers in all the bars? Last year or two.
What if it's the ionizers? Who'd go through all that trouble? The cops, the pope, Jerry Falwell.
This isn't a conspiracy to kill us.
Maybe just to knock us back down to size, take our political power.
Marvin, go on, tell them.
I got an audition with the Prince Street Players to play the White Rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland.
" Back in New York? They're getting sick in New York, too.
Not running away.
This has always been my dream.
Okay.
Would you stand up? I need you to open your robe.
If you take me to dinner first, maybe.
[Chuckles.]
I said I need you to open your robe or leave.
- What are you doing? - Hey! - Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! - Sir! Sir! Stop it! Take your hands off of him! Hey! Come on! Sir! You can't be in here like that.
I'm sorry.
Do you ever share towels with anyone else? No.
Perfect.
Who are you? Oh, are you Cleve? I asked you first.
Mike Mike Gorman.
Well, Mike, the last thing I need right now is some straight government suit hanging around here screwing with my head.
I don't I don't represent any government interest.
I'm part of a UCSF research study on KS that may help determine risk factors for what the CDC is calling GRID.
Glad to see our little plague here is so exciting for you.
Now, how do you know my name? You're what we call a-a key informant.
Your your profile in the community could lend credibility to help encourage participants.
I delayed talking to you because I'm not a Castro clone, but that doesn't mean I'm not attracted to men, and you're you're out of my league, so I I got nervous.
[Chuckles.]
[Laughs.]
You need these men to tell you their dirty secrets? Yeah.
Well, that just might be my superpower.
Have you ever had any of the following diseases or conditions syphilis? Nope.
Do you have multiple sexual partners? - Yes.
- In a good week.
Yes.
Do you have an open relationship? - Openish.
- Yeah, "ish.
" Do you have unprotected sex? - Yes.
- Depends on the day.
Do you frequent bathhouses? - Occasionally.
- Together? - Sometimes.
- Yes.
- Do you own a Ficus plant? - Yes.
I'm sorry.
I'm not sure I don't actually know what a F - What it is.
- what that is.
Have you travelled abroad in the last six months? I travelled with a broad, but only to New York.
Is there anything else you'd like to tell us or you want us to add to this? - I saw some bumps once.
- It's not really a big deal.
When did they first appear? - Three Maybe a month? - Maybe a month.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Do you have KS or think you might? - I don't know.
What sort of symptoms are you experiencing? I'm seeing the spots.
- Have you seen a physician? - No.
- Do you have health insurance? - No.
You guys are gonna figure this out, right? We're going to try.
I spend all day making vegetable soup, and you bring him chocolate pudding? - It's what he asked for.
- It's all sugar! He's still got a metabolism.
He can handle it.
Unlike some people.
[Chuckles.]
Ken: I'm not a god or a healer.
I thought the way to help was to look for the truth.
The truth shall set you free.
But he died on a Tuesday night all alone.
I'm so sorry about Daniel.
- I was doing the best I can.
- It's not enough.
Where are the rest of the women? Or is it just when it's politically helpful that we act like a family? Diane: Every traditional support system has turned it's back on these men, and nobody knows better how to work outside the system than us.
What are you asking for, Diane? This institution, and all the things that we know how to do because we're used to being left out.
[Chuckles.]
Which programs do we sacrifice? - Rape crisis? - Right.
Battered women? Childcare? The Roma I knew years ago wouldn't be so easily deterred in a crisis.
We don't have endless funds.
What gets cut? What I'm saying is this isn't something nice we can do This is a necessity.
And it's gonna take vision for us to step up.
So I'm asking you to dig deep for our brothers, Ms.
Visionary Roma Guy.
They are dying.
I heard about Daniel.
He didn't have anyone.
He had more than I would've.
It's nice to see you.
You gave him more than any of us here will ever get.
He got family from you.
What do you think about a job here so I can keep an eye on you? Hey.
Do you have a minute? No, I don't.
The other night, I sensed some unresolved crap towards me.
I understand, but I was at work.
It wasn't the place for that.
You do realize that now you're at my work.
You wouldn't return any of my calls.
I wrote you letters after Toko, Diane love letters.
And you never responded.
I took that to mean you moved on, so I moved on too.
Love letters? They were weird detailed updates about your professional status.
"Hey, Diane, I had an interview with N.
O.
W.
today.
They bought me a Caesar salad!" Well, clearly we are just in two very different places now.
Yeah, I'm in hell.
You're on planet narcissism.
I'm trying to clear the air.
Then maybe we can truly be done.
Take a lap around this ward.
If at the end of it you still think that my bid for volunteers is some excuse to work out unresolved feelings, then, yes, Roma, we can be done.
[Coughing.]
Man: And it was the Kaposi sarcoma that triggered everything.
It's such a rare malignancy, and yet now, we're seeing apparently about 10 to 15 new cases per day in the country, with a doubling rate every six months.
Come on in.
I think there's some room back there.
Hi.
Hi.
Happy birthday.
My journal from the Peace Corps days.
I thought you might want to know what a love letter looks like.
This map was used by Harvey Milk in his last election.
It marks the population of gay men in the city, the red areas indicating where the gay men live.
[Crowd murmuring.]
These blue points indicate opportunistic infections associated with GRID, and as you can see, they line up perfectly.
The geographic pattern combined with the behavioral surveys support that this is likely a sexually-transmitted disease being contracted almost exclusively by men from other men.
No, how do we know this isn't just you - feeding the media storm? - Yeah! All these cameras to beat us down? No, I'm not one of them! I'm one of us! And this is happening in our neighborhood, our homes.
This is what the beginning of an epidemic looks like.
It's a shape seen in other large-scale outbreaks, such as hepatitis.
Does it have a long latency period, like hepatitis? Latency is a period of time one is infected and contagious before showing any symptoms.
In hepatitis, this period is several years.
Could this be the same? Yes.
So you're saying many of us in this room already have it? It's possible.
Maybe even likely.
Please, everyone, look at the map.
Look at our neighborhood.
This is ours This is our truth.
Each one of us must own who we are and start to demand the same health and protection straight people would demand in a plague! Ken: That night, things became clear that whatever it was standing between each of us and our truth, be it fear, denial, shame that those forces would hold us back and steal our lives away just as quick as any infection would.
All my life, I was told I had to choose gay or black.
We make this a gay fight, a lot of black people are going to die.
Have you ever thought instead of taking the "gay" out of GRID, what if you take "gay" to the black community? You know? I don't think you realize how long that road would be.
I can't go back to Sacramento, not for a while.
Man: I understand.
What use is a gay rights bill if there's no lives to protect? Stay there for now.
Thank you, sir.
Please, your job is safe here, all right? But be careful.
Your people need you alive.
We'll figure this out quickly, sir.
Make eye contact as they walk past.
And then you count to three One, two GRID is God's gift to fags.
[Coughing.]
Cleve: Somebody call Randy Shilts at the Chronicle.
If I'm gonna be assassinated, I sure as hell want to get some good press out of it.
What? Marvin had a seizure at the airport on his way to New York.
It's meningitis.
His immune system is gone.
No.
No, he's a dancer.
He's strong.
- Hey! Whoa, Cleve? - Where are my glasses? What are you doing? Put that back.
[Groans.]
You're all sweaty.
Shh.
It's okay.
It's okay.
I'm right here.
Shh.
Now, you're gonna go to New York and you're gonna you're gonna play the White Rabbit.
You're gonna be so good.
Everybody Loves a winner So nobody loved me Lady Peaceful Lady Happy That's what I long to be Reporter: AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, kills four out of 10 people who acquire it, and that mortality rate might climb.
Ken: It wasn't until women started dying and babies were born with it that the CDC changed GRID to AIDS.
But it didn't matter that the word "gay" was gone.
To straight America, it was still that disease that kills fags.
My proposal is for a mobile needle exchange aimed at our neighborhoods dispersing condoms - and clean needles - You want to encourage our children into a life of homosexuality? Or you just want to turn them into drug addicts? These are measures aimed at members of our community who are already participating in risky behaviors.
Startup cost is $2,000.
To encourage our children to embrace sin? I say this as someone who served three tours in Vietnam This is a war.
And it is going to come to our community the black community.
There is no gay in a real black man.
No real black man is a homosexual.
I am standing in front of you as a proud gay black man telling you that if you continue to force gay black men to live closeted double lives, a decade from now you will be burying their wives, their children, our children.
We cannot allow fear and bigotry and ignorance to allow - this to happen to our own! - Mr.
Jones.
Mr.
Jones.
Next is the Ellis Street playground.
Diane? We're with the women's building.
Roma said you could use some help.
She did? Uh, yeah, thank you.
Follow me.
Hi.
I'm here with the women's building.
Is there anything you need? No.
No, I'm, um, I'm up in trauma.
He's my best friend.
Why don't you take a break? I'll stay here with him.
Ouch.
Visiting a friend? Yeah.
Are you on this ward? No, no I'm up in trauma.
Just visiting a friend.
Up or down? Oh.
[Chuckles.]
Down.
Ground floor.
Funny.
That's exactly where I was headed.
I read your journal.
We were in love.
The kind of love that makes people cross oceans, have babies, and grow old together.
And if we were straight, we would've designed our whole lives around that.
But two women then.
We had no words for it.
No paradigm, nothing.
And you're right.
It's my lack of vision that's kept me from having this a family.
- Roma - I know I've hurt you.
I know I've made a big mess of it all.
And the world's falling apart around us and untangling.
It may be impossible.
But the truth is, we're not done yet.
To most of America to white people, black people, straight people, people of God, we were invisible untouchable pariahs to anybody but our own.
Cleve: We send this message to America.
We are the lesbians and gay men of San Francisco.
We are survivors.
We shall survive again, and we shall be the strongest, most gentle people on this Earth.
How many of you have lost a friend coworker or a lover? If we are to survive, we cannot die in silence.
We must make their names known.
Write their names.
Write their names, and put them on this federal building.
Write their names so they know we are their sons and we are their daughters.
Write their names.
Write their names.
It's a quilt.
Ken: Richard and I knew that the truth might be frightening that we know that we're both positive.
Some people say we're all gonna die.
I say they're wrong.
We're gonna fight this together.
And we're going to live.
We are going to live.
I knew what I was called to do not as an individual, but as part of my generation.
Dad, I'm gay.
It's an illness.
It can be treated.
I'm not gonna see you again, am I? You have such strength in you.
About being black, maybe.
But being black isn't the only thing that's different about me.
Well, you be whoever you want to be in here, baby.
- Can I take your picture? - You sure that's all you want? We're having a rally to stop violence against women.
I need you to bring all the boys like you.
You got a big mouth.
We could use a few more.
[Chanting.]
Stop the violence! Stop the violence! The one thing that can make you strong you're burying it! You love women.
We will not be silent any longer! All of you combined are stronger than you know.
And fight to make this the place we're looking for.
Our candidate's Harvey Milk.
Man: Where you going, faggot? - Do you know her? - That's Diane.
Save us nelly queens It's time for us to fight back Reporter: And every few minutes, a demonstrator will charge out of the crowd and through the police line, shattering police car windows, setting many of the squad cars ablaze.
[siren wailing.]
Roma: The last thing I wanted was violence.
Hard to believe that only a year ago, everything had seemed so hopeful.
We thought we'd found a place to make our own, to be safe.
In the middle of the middle of a dream, creating the first-ever women's building a stronghold for women, by women, while the rest of America was under attack by failed beauty pageant queen Anita Bryant.
If homosexuals are allowed their civil rights, then so would prostitutes or thieves or anyone else.
Reporter: 200,000 Miamians have told their elected officials they wanted no part of a law which protects homosexuals.
Voters of Wichita, Kansas, have overwhelmingly repealed a city law protecting homosexuals.
Homosexuality is a question facing the voters of Eugene, Oregon, tomorrow a referendum to repeal gay rights protections.
But where'd ya pee? Roma: I stayed at motels, and I peed whenever and wherever I We don't need all the details.
In the bushes.
It scares me to think of you riding across the country all by yourself.
It's fund-raising.
If even half my sponsors pay up our building's mortgage is paid through March.
So, zero men.
I mean, don't these women appreciate men at all? There are women there with men in their lives, yes, but the building itself is man-free.
- Thanks.
- You're welcome.
They're just like the Knights of Columbus.
Women aren't allowed at your meetings, are they, Dad? - Oh, you're a secret society.
- No.
We provide psychological and health care, legal support, a credit union, child care so women can work, and some have suffered violence from men.
It's a place they can go away from male oppression.
No men, no future women.
My work is my focus to the exclusion of all other things.
For the good of others.
Right, Dad? You still have this thing.
[Chuckles.]
Of course.
You were happy, right? As a child? Of course.
Why? I knew.
Way before your father suspected.
All I have ever wanted was for my girls to be happier than me.
And I just I don't I don't know if that is possible with this um, this life.
[Whistle blowing.]
Help! Blow harder, faggot! Help! [Whistles blowing.]
Leave now, and don't come back.
It's you queers that gotta get out.
Go! Don't let them move it! - [Engine starts.]
- Blow their tires! Vote for Harvey! [Siren wails.]
Mr.
Jones! I want you to all go home and let them go.
If they're leaving, we'd like to see them take a ride in the back of your car, just like you do to us, but this time for good reason.
Stop! Run! That's right! Run away, and tell your friends this is our area now! Yeah! [Typewriters clacking.]
What are you doing after work? Going home.
Oh, fascinating.
Come with me to something a bit more expansive.
Like? There's a planning meeting for the Freedom Day party.
Freedom Day is a deceptively-named excuse for racist Castro bar owners to sell beer to horny white boys from Toledo.
My God, you're exquisite when you're angry.
We call it a diversity committee, but it's a coup.
Imagine a slew of radical angels seizing control.
Get some color in there.
Hmm? Gotta finish this, Gilbert.
[Sighs.]
Come fan the flames with me.
Gilbert, I'd rather burn Gay Freedom Day to the ground.
Absolutely exquisite! [Steppenwolf's "Sookie Sookie" plays.]
Mr.
Richard, come play! All right.
Here we go! Need a push, Mr.
Richards? Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know me.
[Engine sputters.]
[Engine starts.]
You better watch your step, girl Ah, don't step on that banana peel - Good evening, dear.
- Good evening.
You remember Roger.
Hey, Roger.
[Doorbell rings.]
Or you'll go up to the ceiling Good evening.
Is there a problem? Seems your neighbors don't care for your taste in music.
What's the trouble, honey? My wife, gentlemen.
Sweetheart, these officers are requesting we either tone down the revelry or reclassify the evening as the third world war.
It was my fault.
I'm sorry.
Do you wanna come in? Come in, please.
You two enjoy your night.
- Will do.
More quietly this time.
- Okay, yes.
Sorry! Bravo.
Straight as a safety pin.
Let it hang out, baby We just lay low and wait for the world to catch up to us.
Nothing can touch us here.
Home is many things where we find shelter from the world, where we belong, where our safety lives.
[Cheers and applause.]
Morning meeting.
Everybody downstairs.
Come on.
The most pressing issue Sophie and Cara moved to Willowbrook, and Luanne moved in with Heather and Pat.
We have an empty room.
We could bring in a new sister - or I'm thinking we could make that room - How about a nursery? Have you heard of turkey-baster babies? I'd like to have one.
Jean: But raising a child is expensive, even if the sperm is donated.
But we can help.
I can.
Thank you, Linda.
And you're right.
I'll need all of the help I can get.
Cleve: Dear Scott, anything feels possible here now.
Anita Bryant might be putting Florida down the drain, but not San Francisco.
Come back.
We'll get an apartment.
We can make this home.
I thought the whole point was for us to make a new way to walk in the world.
I can't think of anything more mold-breaking than a lesbian having a baby without male interference.
But why? Why all of a sudden? Just because I'm talking about it now doesn't make it all of a sudden, Roma.
Well, I don't want to be a mom.
Well, that's fine.
Jean doesn't either, right? Woman: Hey, this is a women's space only.
No, no, it's okay.
I'm a feminist, too.
Hey, Roma.
Hi, Cleve.
What are you doing here? I get it.
It's a women's space.
If you could just hand these fliers out, that'd be wonderful.
He wants to put us to work getting a gay white man elected.
If we're gonna support a candidate, it'll be Rita George.
Come on, Roma.
She has no money, and she has no base.
How about I show you right now what a woman can do with no money? [Laughs.]
Seems like the women here aren't interested in being a part of your patriarchal electoral sham! So, is that a yes or a no? That's a no, Cleve.
Milk for leader of the galaxy! [Laughs.]
The problem with a home is, no matter how strong its walls, it can lend a false sense of security leave you unprepared, vulnerable.
Ever since Anita Bryant's campaign for homosexual rights, there has been trouble over that issue.
Now in California, there is Proposition 6 a proposal to let school boards fire teachers who support homosexual rights.
It would call for firing any teachers in California who practice or advocate homosexuality.
Reporter #2: The man who sponsored the initiative, State Senator John Briggs, is waging a one-man campaign.
Reporter #3: The law would empower school boards to fire anyone for advocating, soliciting, imposing, encouraging, or promoting private or public homosexual activity directed at or likely to come to the attention of school children and/or other employees.
I've dedicated my life to helping kids.
If this passes, it'll it'll create witch hunts.
Briggs: And I care about the family.
And I really believe that homosexuality is a real threat to the survival of this country.
Woman: I handle adults and children at the E.
R.
, and everybody knows I'm gay, and don't nobody bother me about it.
But if Briggs passes, they'll come after my job next.
It's not just lesbians.
This thing, it says straight people who support gay-friendly places like this building, they get fired too.
Woman: I'm working on my teaching credential, Roma.
I don't think I can risk running the daycare here anymore.
Any association with a place like this is risky, but I lost a major donor today.
We lose daycare, we all lose all the volunteers who depend on it.
- Attendance is already down by half.
- Yeah, I get it! Enough! Listen! I'm sorry.
You're forgetting, there is another danger here.
When I came out they tried to take my kids.
If they decide that we are a danger to children, what happens to lesbian adoptions or lesbians who want to have children on their own? This is not gonna go away.
No, of course, but the question is, how do we Where do we go? How do we start? I know it's a numbers game, okay? It's more than a numbers game.
It's your damn right.
I'll support you.
I'll fight for your right to be a mother.
You okay? No.
We could lose every volunteer and donor, and none of us knows how to fight a thing like this.
So the least we can do is find a gay man who will shoot in a cup for us.
Hell with Briggs.
She loves a good cause.
You made me feel Mighty real You made me feel Mighty real I wanna live here! Gay beach under our window.
We could afford it if we took on one more job each.
With Scott, maybe.
He's resourceful.
Sounds like you two have a whole lot in common! Stop it.
If anything, I would be the third wheel.
He wants to do hair, not politics.
Oh! Scott: Cleve? Scott! Cleve? Ah! Scott! Scott! Oh, my God! [Both laugh.]
- I missed you! - Oh, my God! Oh, my God, what happened here? This was an old Catholic mess when I left! You have to meet Harvey.
He organized it all.
I'm on his campaign for city supervisor.
- I'm sorry.
This is Marvin.
- Hi.
He thinks that Liza Minnelli is the second coming of Moses.
And this is Scott.
Well, hello, Marvin.
[Chuckles.]
What? What, is it my hair? No, no, no, no, no! No, your hair has potential, okay? This whole place does.
I mean, it's not Amsterdam.
I mean, that's where we really should be.
But I could dig this for a few months.
But let's go dance, my lovely new dancer boy! - What? - Yes, go! - Go, go, go! - Cleve, you coming? You made me feel Mighty real You made me feel [Indistinct conversations.]
Hey, he's with me.
Back off.
You came.
Thank you.
Can I get you a beer? Joint? Mescaline? Acid? Loosen you up? You seem tense.
Don't wanna be loose tonight.
Without objection, I submit that we spend the $200 on additional stands for used records and books.
Fine.
The matter is passed.
I have an objection.
Back here.
You have the largest stage there is outside of New York.
Why not use it for more than just selling used records and beer? 'Cause this year, our lives are at stake.
I nominate Ken Jones to the new diversity board.
Freedom Day's a community party, not a political protest.
And this isn't your community, Tenderloin.
Don't get me wrong.
I like a good party.
But Briggs says you have to be fired if you even walk into a place like this.
When the music stops, there might not be any of your bars left.
I'm here because my partner could lose his job if this bill passes.
Turn your party into a protest, and you could focus our anger.
You could unite us.
You've got that power.
Use it.
I second that this young man join us on this board.
If he's on, then I go.
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye [Crowd murmuring.]
[Scattered applause.]
- This isn't what I wanted.
- Then why are you here? I'm pissed off.
That's all.
Mm-hmm.
Lead with that.
Hey.
Uh, come in, come in.
Sit down.
Our little attempt at electing the first openly gay man to major office.
You really think gay men and women lesbians could win at the ballot box? Together, maybe.
You have to meet Harvey's new campaign manager.
Anne.
Annie? Do you know Roma? - Hi.
- Hi.
I came to the women's building for your Save the Whales night.
Yeah! How's it going? Well, we failed three times, but now we have Annie.
And this time we have to win because if we don't - it sends the wrong message.
- To Briggs.
Exactly.
And Briggs targets us women more than anybody else.
But if we can beat Briggs, imagine the message that sends.
We'd be the first state to ever beat back an anti-gay measure.
Which would mean taking our cooperative model here to a whole new level.
We would need more than just Annie for that.
Our women's building is already gay and straight.
We have the space, resources, and contact lists you don't have for a state-wide fight.
And what about the separatists? The women who are against men will have a choice to make.
It may rip some of our community apart, but I don't see any other way forward now.
Reporter: It looks like New Year's Eve on Market Street.
The first gay supervisor elected in San Francisco.
His name is Harvey Milk.
Roma: The new San Francisco Board of Supervisors was diverse women, racial minorities, and a progressive mayor who painted all the cop's cars powder-blue.
But Dan White had been a cop.
His election to that same board told us there were plenty who'd vote for Prop 6 and against our lives.
And keeping my word, we let men into our home.
But some of our separatist sisters didn't see the wisdom in the collaboration and left, when what we need was unity.
Roma: We have a large network of contacts librarians, nurses across the state.
We need to go door-to-door.
We send out a fund-raising letter to your list.
Take that money to Fresno and Bakersfield.
Find the three gay people there, any clergy or local officials who will support us, and say And say, "This is how you make a flier.
This is how you canvass.
" Right, but they're too afraid to canvass alone.
I agree with Roma.
We need to go door-to-door alongside them.
Hey, he was in our bathroom! Well, there's not a frickin' men's room! So, make new signs.
Oh, he's cute, but dumb.
- Really? - Yeah.
- That one went to Princeton.
- Which one? He's a total narcissist.
Look at him.
You think that's hereditary? - That's true.
- Probably.
What about that guy? The one in the back? You can't just pick him out of a lineup.
Anonymity is key.
- We know.
We need a go-between.
- Yeah.
Where's Shoshanna? She's the only Dyke I know who can keep a secret.
Shoshanna: A chain of secret-keepers.
Look, I'll ask a friend to ask a friend until we find a donor.
That way, I won't even know who the jerk is.
Good.
Thank you, Shoshanna.
Thank you, Roma.
Refocusing Freedom Day to a political protest means groups from Redding to Fresno want to march.
That's thousands more So, we need a flag to unite us.
Man: And we already have a pink triangle.
Excuse me? The pink triangle was designed by Nazis for a holocaust.
You know what's wrong with the pink triangle? Hitler.
- He has a point.
- I know I do.
We need something from nature provocative, political eight colors, because eight is a natural number! Gilbert, how much? Well, um, at least $1,000, I'd guess.
[Crowd murmuring.]
Gilbert, we do need someone to decorate the main stage.
How about we nominate Gilbert to lead that committee? Dr.
Jones: What about school, son? Harvey asked me to be an intern for him.
That'll earn me eight credits in San Francisco State's political science department.
I see.
And I got an apartment.
Uh, an application for an apartment.
It's in a good old Irish Catholic neighborhood.
It's hard for me to believe that you found something of that sort in San Francisco, son.
Um, we just don't have any credit.
But the landlord said that if I got my dad to cosign, then we'd be good.
I just It'd be nice to have a home again.
Come back to your real home, get treatment.
Then I'll support you.
[Vehicle door opens.]
Man: Hey, welcome home, Harvey! [Vehicle door closes.]
[Receiver hangs up.]
My new clothes look fabulous.
I don't know who the name is.
I just found it.
And it looks good on me.
That's all that matters.
- He's still talking to him.
- No, he's not.
Oh! So, Harvey's talked to the landlord for us.
He's a part of Harvey's business association.
And he gave us a lease! A lease sounds like a commitment.
It's six months, honey.
It's not wedding bells.
Cleve! Cleve! Cleve? Hey! This is pretty! - How are you? - I'm good.
I know who that is.
You know who that is.
- That one? - That one, with the pink.
I thought you Scott! Someone wants to meet you! Hi.
Oh God, please don't tell me you have a crush on Scott.
Listen, two bottoms don't make an outfit, but three make a sisterhood.
Sylvester will forget about Scott quick enough.
We're family now.
Okay? Get your party down Get your pigtail down Get your heart beating, baby I got my timing right I got my act all tight You know it's got to be tonight, my little babe Your mama says you don't, your daddy says you won't The perfect trick.
Leaves right away and turns into a pizza.
[Laughs.]
Tie your mother down, tie your mother down Lock your daddy out of doors I don't need him nosing around First day at work, and I look just like my father.
[Laughter.]
Give me all your love tonight As citizens, the police ought to support our effort to parade up Market, which can safely accommodate our growing numbers, and on that day, provide us with the protection that they promise but far too rarely deliver to our community.
[Applause.]
It's not enough that we don't throw them in jail, but now we have to protect them.
And whose whose budget does that come out of? I mean, it's gotta make your blood boil.
He has homos over kids.
Listen, my top priority right now is the children's portion of the mental health center in your district.
Well, I did campaign on the promise of getting that out of my district, and I do have the votes.
And I admire you're a man of your word.
But let's put a plan in place for where these kids might go so that no one suffers.
We can work on this together, Dan, right? Yeah.
Hey, uh, you got time for lunch, buddy? Yeah.
Yeah, lunch sounds great.
How could you even talk to that son of a bitch? Talking to that son of a bitch is part of my job.
It's what pays for this house.
Not that any of that seemed to matter to you today.
If anyone even suspects that we have a relationship of any kind Why Why would they, Richard? Thanks to you, nobody anywhere knows we mean a damn thing to each other.
Is that what you want, Ken? You want everyone to find out about us? Richard and I stayed married for a reason.
It's afforded us this home, our stability.
We need more discretion now, Ken, not less.
This is not just about us anymore.
If you could hear the phone calls coming in to the committee from all over from people putting their fears in my hands counting on California for their last hope.
Prop 6 is the enemy here.
Dan White, not me.
Shoshanna: Okay, it's some basic questions.
There's height, weight, medical history, family background This person has red hair.
My family has red hair.
And do looks matter? Not over intellect or personality.
I don't support that.
It's your kid, not your dentist.
Sense of humor's important.
Hey, got a bus for Fresno canvassing.
It seats 75.
Can I count you all in? Roma, you know I get carsick on buses.
Do you remember the buses in, Toko, Roma? Do you remember the goat? [Laughs.]
Crapped at every bump in the road.
So disgusting.
[Laughs.]
Italian.
Hair type oily.
Skin type dark white.
He His goal is to be a stand-up comic, and he has a degree.
If you want smart and funny over looks, that might be your guy.
He has nice handwriting.
Cleve: Harvey asked me to bring up an idea.
If everyone marching writes their name and hometown on a poster board and carries it for the news cameras, then it'll be the largest coming-out event in history.
It's one thing to come out to friends in the city another to national-news cameras.
And when gay America stops hiding, then straight America's gonna see how many of us they already know and love.
Cleve? You work for a gay politician.
You're free to lead the charge if you so please.
But if I'm too out, my partner loses his job.
[Siren chirps.]
What are they doing in our neighborhood? They think they're winning again.
Ken, this is an all-in strategy.
If everyone comes out, then we might win.
If not, if straight America doesn't know that they already know at least one of us, then they're going to vote against us.
We loaded into buses, gays and lesbians together, and knocked on doors in cities and small towns.
Some slammed doors.
But many others listened.
Roma: I was afraid of knocking on strangers' doors.
But really, the truth is I think they're even more afraid of us than we are of them.
That's what Tembe used to say about the snakes in Africa.
[Laughs.]
I miss it there.
What else do you miss about Africa? We skipped the light fandango [Keys clatter.]
Huh.
I got breakfast! I was feeling kind of seasick Oh.
Looks like we have a top in the house after all.
But the crowd called out for more [Both laughing.]
Morning! Great news Mr.
Curly Oily Sperm Donor said yes! [Laughing.]
I'm making waffles! Well, wheat germ promotes ovulation.
I'm not hungry.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go out.
You've had him here three nights this week.
Is he paying rent? This isn't about rent.
We agreed the perfect boyfriend is one who turns into a pizza.
Pizzas don't spend the night every night.
Pizzas don't smoke all of my weed.
I missed watching the season finale of "Dallas" with him, so he's a little bit pissy.
I waited all week for that! Marvin, we don't own our sisters.
But, Scott, it's 1978.
We don't have to couple up like our parents did.
The fact is, it's 1978 and we are not our parents.
It's unrealistic and probably a good bit selfish to want one person all to oneself.
- Jean - Let me finish! I love you, Roma.
I guess what I need to know now is Roma, do you still love me? You know I do.
So, maybe it is possible.
You mean the three of us? Truth is, we're young and we live in the Castro.
Harvey told me each of us are gonna fall in love a thousand times here, have our hearts broken a thousand times.
Now, what we can't do is let a man get between our sisterhood or whatever you are now, Scott.
We have to make this home our priority because I might seem like I've got it all together, but it's you two that really give me strength.
Hiding, suicide, prison, drugs, alcohol those were the old solutions for who we were.
Now, every single thing we did to try to build a home, it was all landing on the moon, every bit of it brave, untested, brand new.
This spermy nightmare has a 60-minute shelf life.
You got 20 left.
You You want me to get you anyone? No.
Just some privacy.
[David Bowie's "Changes" plays.]
Coming out isn't something you do once.
It's often in stages that grow in risk to your friends and your community, your family, an ever-expanding, never-ending act of bravery.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Turn and face the strange - Ch-Ch-Changes - The rainbow.
A promise.
- Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes - A thing of nature.
- Turn and face the strange - Just like all of us.
Where's your shame? You've left us up to our necks in it And if we ever want be free we have to stop hiding.
No matter the repercussions.
Strange fascination fascinating me Ah, changes are taking the pace I'm going through Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Turn and face the strange Ch-Ch-Changes Ooh, look out, you rock 'n' rollers Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Turn and face the strange Ch-Ch-Changes Pretty soon now you're gonna get older Time may change me But I can't trace time On November, there should not be one citizen, conservative or liberal, radical or reactionary, who has not met face-to-face with a gay person! [Cheers and applause.]
There are enough of us to do it! But the real question is Cleve: Sally's organized women in this city for decades, right? Yes! She should debate Briggs with Harvey on television.
Would she? We could dress them up like Mom and Pop U.
S.
A.
Briggs: We are not talking about So, you're saying that the percentage of population is equal to the percentage of child molestation.
- There's no difference.
- No, I'm not saying that at all.
- Well, that's what you just said.
- No, no, I was saying that we cannot prevent child molestation, so let cut our odds down and take out the homosexual group and keep in the heterosexuals.
Why take out the homosexual group if it's more than You know, overwhelmingly it is true that it's the heterosexual men, I might add - who are the child molesters.
- I believe that's a myth - I've never seen - Oh, Senator.
The FBI, the National Council on Family Relations, the Santa Clara County Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Center.
Roma: We put our safety on the line and came out in every city.
But come election night, we had few clues if we'd be safe in California come morning.
Santa Clara's latest 48% yes, 48% no, 68% reported.
[Indistinct conversations.]
Roma, I did it myself and it took.
I'm gonna have a baby, Roma.
And I want to raise it with you.
What about Jean? And all the others? I don't want that.
I want you.
And Fresno reminded me of what I want why I came here.
We got L.
A.
! L.
A.
! Prop 6 is dead! [Cheering.]
Jean and I we still have a lot of work to do.
How can you not see it? Allow yourself this work, Roma, but recognize the value of love, too.
It's okay.
I can do it.
What I can't do is be with you and Jean.
Not after Fresno.
So, congratulations, Roma.
You did it.
Briggs is done.
[Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" plays.]
[Confetti cannon fires.]
It may be time for you to shave your beard.
Yeah Bad girls Bad girls Talking 'bout the sad girls, yeah Sad girls Sad girls Talking 'bout bad, bad, girls, yeah Friday night and the strip is hot Hot Sun's gone down and they're out to trot Out trottin' Spirit's high and legs look hot [Confetti cannon fires.]
Do you wanna get down? [Sighs.]
So, this is what winning looks like.
Diane's leaving us.
I just can't see myself ever being a mother.
[Sniffles.]
Or having a family.
[Sighs.]
Maybe we're here for something bigger than ourselves.
Maybe we were put here to fight.
[Chuckles.]
Aw, come here.
[Confetti cannon fires.]
And for 20 days, we almost believed it that we'd won, that we were equal.
But they snatched it back faster and with more brutality - than any of us could have imagined.
- [Gunshots.]
[Police radio chatter.]
Dianne Feinstein: As president of the Board of Supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement.
Both Mayor Mascone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.
The the suspect is Supervisor Dan White.
Roma: We defeated Briggs, but it only took days before a city supervisor, a former cop, turned his gun on us, as if to show us loud and clear we had no power.
And when Dan White's defense argued it was a diet of Twinkies that had fueled the murders, his all-white, straight jury nodded along.
Woman: Mr.
Jones, do you have a comment on this verdict? [Vomiting.]
Mr.
Jones? [Coughing.]
They let him off with manslaughter.
They let him get away with murder.
Take Harvey's bullhorn.
Do what he taught you to do.
Reporter: When news of the verdict was announced, the city's gays began to march.
[Chanting.]
Remember Harvey Milk! They started marching just two hours after the verdicts came in in the Dan White trial.
From Castro Street, marching east on Market towards San Francisco City Hall.
[Chanting.]
Dan White was a cop.
Out for blood and in the streets! Steer them up Hope Street, so they don't burn City Hall down.
We remember Harvey! We remember Harvey! We remember Harvey! We remember Harvey! [Crowd yelling.]
No violence! No violence! No violence! No violence! Fight back! Fight back! [Chanting.]
Fight back! Fight back! Fight back! Fight back! Slow down! Don't run! Slow down! Don't run! The cops are in the Castro.
They're tearing it apart.
I'm not sure this is the way to build it, Cleve.
We won at the ballot box when they said we couldn't, and they resorted to murder.
So we turn to their courts for justice, and they told us it's okay to kill fags! Now they want us to retreat to our ghetto! I won't! We fight them here, tonight, until they realize this is our home and we're fighting for it with our lives! Slow down! Turn around! Fight back! Slow down, turn around, fight back! [Chanting.]
Slow down, turn around, fight back! Slow down, turn around, fight back! Slow down, turn around, fight back! You should go now! No more! So, Mom, I'm writing you this letter to try and answer the question I couldn't last year.
The truth is, I don't know if I can be happy with this.
Not yet.
Not until we have a place to call home, where we're safe.
And that fight is far from over.
From tragedy sprung new political power.
[Reporters clamoring.]
I promised Harvey Milk that I would make state assembly members take a public vote every session on a gay anti-discrimination bill.
It was working all right.
It maybe even good again.
No further questions for the assemblyman, thank you.
We were making headroom, using the machine to build and rebuild our dream.
But that's the thing about equality a little taste leaves you wanting more.
Hundreds of teens gay, straight, black, white run here every year because our city has a reputation of acceptance.
But we're not equipped to receive them.
They end up on the streets, turning to drugs and crime to survive.
At our Haight Street drop-in, we offer support and a path off the streets.
But we need more funding to get to more youth while their dreams are still intact.
[Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" plays.]
When routine bites hard And ambitions are low And resentment rides high Cleve: Bobby! The eagle has landed, and she's thirsty.
You know, a gay character comes out in "Fame," but they cast a straight guy to play him.
You think we'll ever have a gay movie star? We already do Cary Grant, Anthony Perkins, Montgomery Clift.
It is good to be home.
I'm two days into a four-day weekend, and all I have to show for it is a rash on my feet.
Well, maybe if you wore shoes in the bathhouses? I went hiking, and it was rotten.
Mm-hmm.
Any of those your thing? The blond.
I don't know how it's done in Seattle, but here's how it's done in the Castro.
Watch and learn.
Make eye contact as they walk past.
You count to three One, two And if they look back, that means they're interested.
Then you have a quick chat, nothing too personal, take him home fish in a barrel.
Love, love will tear us apart again Hi! Auntie Jean loves you so much! I'll come back to check on you on Tuesday.
I'll meet you out front.
Roma: She's amazing.
Yes, she is.
I told Jean you wouldn't want me here.
But she said, "We're lesbians.
We show up.
That's what we do.
" Roma, the circle, all your friends I love the help.
But with Annie and my new job, I need to protect myself.
When they come, you come.
It's not good for me, and I know it's not gonna be good for Annie.
So no more just showing up, okay? Oh.
Okay.
Good? Hey, Daniel.
- What's up, man.
- Where you been? I been around Bay Shore area, you know.
I got a work gig now, man.
I'm restocking.
Restocking what? Well, we got alarm clocks, we even got bird cages.
We even got stuff from all over, man.
Why? What's the matter? You disappear, it usually means you're using.
I'm just hungry.
So if you ain't gonna feed me, I'll go.
Christopher: Hey.
Hey! Hey! I'm sorry, but if something's called chili, it must have spice.
Christopher.
Christopher! I got it.
You know better than to come in here high.
My mom, she says everything is better spicy.
I want something tastes more like home, okay? You talking to your mom again? You see we're, uh, starting a social group for the gay kids in the Tenderloin? Thursday nights.
I'm not a gay man.
Okay.
I'll invite a few young ladies like yourself.
Okay? [Silverware clatters.]
Daniel? Daniel, Daniel, Daniel! Excuse me.
Guys? Excuse me.
Only family can be back here.
He doesn't talk to his family.
Pneumocystis pneumonia is typically seen in cancer patients, the elderly not young, healthy He is a heroin user.
Well, heroin shouldn't impact his T-cells like this.
Daniel: What's happening? We're gonna figure it out.
I'm not going anywhere.
It's not poison oak.
It's not bruises.
Bruises are normally isolated and not symmetrical.
But I have seen a few cases like it as of late.
We'll have pathology back in a few days.
How's Sacramento, Cleve? Well, we got the gay rights bill out of the labor committee, finally.
Makes wearing those disgusting ties almost worth it.
I, uh I saw a spot like it on a guy's back who I was with.
Tell him to come see me too, then.
It's not like I got his name.
Well, if you see him again.
Why? If it's what I think it is, it's something I'd normally only see on old farts.
Are we done here? I don't wanna waste another moment of this weekend.
I called my guy in Jersey, and he said he's seen cases like this too, in homeless drug addicts.
They all died, Pat.
What if we've got what they have on their streets on ours now, too? Is this kid gay? What's that got to do with anything? The CDC just put out a new Morbidity and Mortality report.
In it, they talk about immune issues in New York and California in gay men.
If this is real, what is it? It's one report very dry.
Now, do me a favor.
Find out if the kid is gay, and then let's keep it amongst ourselves, okay? Don't let me go back to Sacramento! [Laughs.]
While you're in Sacramento fighting for our freedom, they're all landing here to get their first taste of it.
Hundred new ones a day.
And I'm gonna screw every one last one of them.
These are the good times Daniel's smart.
He convinced a whole block on Geary to let him wash their windows for five bucks each.
Ah.
But as soon as he gets enough to score, he disappears.
When he comes back, I think, "All right, this time I'll get through.
" Yeah, I get that.
Want me to go with you to see him? I went to see Pat Norman about him.
But, yeah you have more experience with kids like that, so, yeah, I'd love you to come.
[Laughs.]
It's Tuesday night.
The boys await.
- And you are ruining our floors.
- Ah, come on.
Man: The Gay Liberation Front was the name first chosen to describe the organization of homosexuals coming together to assert their pride, their feeling that they had been denied their rights and that they were very angry.
We want the freedoms the freedoms to love, and sometimes even to love a bit in public, that belong to the heterosexuals in this country.
Lost inside Adorable illusion and I cannot hide I'm the one you're using Please don't push me aside We could've made it cruising, yeah You know, now that I'm a public official, I really should stop coming here.
Don't you think? You're more an assistant to a public official.
Aren't you? [Laughs.]
Oh, the thing about Ken is he has a lover, but they're emotionally monogamous.
But only emotionally.
You see, he doesn't like this place.
It's not Oakland enough for him.
Too many white boys here.
Which I don't mind one bit.
Your plan for day one is take vitals, Q4, you say hello, clear some meal trays, change beds, PRN, and make a written report.
Got it? Phlebotomy order has to be in by 6:00 or you're gonna get stuck with an intern who doesn't know the difference between an artery and an artichoke.
[Chuckles.]
[Coughing.]
No, no, Diana, I I don't want you going in there.
That's an isolation room.
Let's go get you a hospital I.
D.
Come on.
You know, sometimes teenagers I work with trade sex for things they need money, food.
Have you ever done that? I think what Ken is asking is if you've ever had sex with men.
You can tell us.
We'll be discreet.
Get away from me.
Both of you.
Is that what you do to all your kids? You give them things, and you try to turn them into your little bitch? - Daniel - I'm not a queer! You ain't doing me, and I ain't doing you.
I'm sorry.
We're We're sorry.
We don't want anything from you.
[Coughing.]
I do have experience with this, you know.
Being gay and black? Those ideas don't exist side by side for most.
You gotta get to that truth sideways, Richard.
Okay, here we go.
Wouldn't expect you to understand.
I'm taking a walk.
Ken? - Hey! - Hey.
- What are you doing here? - Hey.
Mm.
Do me a favor? Keep an eye on the patient in 220 for me.
In isolation? His name's Daniel.
I got to go, and I don't want to leave him alone.
He's just a kid.
Okay.
Thank you.
[Daniel coughing.]
Ken: My mother used to say, "Everybody's got a second brain in their belly.
They got instinct that tells you the things your head can't handle.
" I knew it in my gut.
My instincts were tripping the alarms at every turn.
Man: Cleve, a third of those men have already died.
The CDC wants to call it gay-related immune deficiency, or GRID.
So, it is a gay disease.
Gay people have been around forever, so I can't see how it is, but that's what they call it.
These lesions I'm seeing are called Kaposi sarcoma, or KS.
It indicates the immune system is failing.
Is that KS on Bobby's feet? You know I can't tell you that.
The big question is, what's causing it? What things set gay men apart clothing, plants, our bars, or is it is it gay sex? I've helped start a KS education research foundation.
With research, we pressure the government for funding.
We have legal support, the Bay Area Reporter, but politically we don't have anyone.
I know you've got Sacramento, but this community trusts you.
We need you.
We work together, maybe we can get some answers before this gets out of hand.
If sex is the problem and it is fatal then we're all dead.
Ken: Labelling this a gay disease is part of the problem.
The kid from our teen center said he's straight.
- You believe him? - Maybe, maybe not.
But isn't it possible that kids here and Jersey and New York and L.
A.
are getting sick another way? A gay disease is a gift to the moral majority.
And I don't wanna sit back and watch years of political progress roll back because of some mythology they've created and labelled "the gay plague.
" So, your silence, the silence of City Hall, is about politics? About the community your community not panicking.
And, yeah, a little bit is to try to stem the tide of more anti-gay backlash.
Why would we panic? Listen, man, I work for the Department of Health.
And nobody wants to get this more right than I do.
You represent our community in City Hall now.
I'm not going to say anything until I know that we have a treatment and a cure.
But we don't know how long that's gonna take.
I won't be quiet anymore.
Our friends are dying.
If you know anything anything Pat, you have to share it.
Man: Okay, let's ventilate the patient.
Do you have I.
V.
? Here, I'm getting it now.
Woman: Line in.
Standing by.
Keep bagging him.
Taking it now.
[Monitor beeping.]
Right away, Doctor.
BP's dropping.
You have a child, Diane.
No one would blame you if you wanted to stop.
This is unlike anything we've ever seen.
You don't have to be a saint.
Polio, influenza, cholera Those are all deadly.
The only difference here is it's affecting gay people.
If straight people were dropping dead, the world would have redirected it's resources right to us.
We'd be swimming in volunteers.
Instead, you and I are working double shifts 'cause the hospital's understaffed, and GRID patients are being sent here from everywhere.
That pullback, that avoidance, that neglect That's homophobia disguised as caution.
And if it continues, you could call this a genocide.
So, no, I don't I don't think it takes a saint to not participate in that.
Men are dying in hallways in New York City.
We can't let that happen here.
We could build a San Francisco standard of care.
I'm saying if it's a gay male issue, is it any surprise? Seriously, come on.
I mean, they go out at night, they do tons of drugs, they drink all the time, and they have sex with strangers.
Is it a shock that they catch something? This is not herpes, though.
People are actually dying here.
Yeah, well, women are dying of breast cancer.
I don't see many gay men up in arms about that.
You've got that right.
Okay, let me just put it to you this way.
Okay, go.
If this thing turns out to be sexual, that means women are at risk as well.
The invisible women the housewives, the prostitutes.
Then of course, there are the children.
I just wanna have a forum here so I can maybe quell the gay men's hysteria.
[Crowd clamoring.]
[Gavel banging.]
Woman: Keep it down! Pat: I do not have definitive information on how GRID is spread.
So then, what is the city's prevention strategy? As soon as I have the appropriate data At this point, I'm more interested in inappropriate data.
Roma: This isn't a joke, people.
No, it's not a joke.
There's a thousand theories and a million rumors and absolutely no information.
It's the lack of information that creates panic, Pat, not the other way around.
Incomplete information does not help, either.
There, she just said it.
Incomplete information implies that you know something! - What do you know? - Yes, please.
Stop talking in circles and answer our questions.
Should we stop having sex? Yeah, I think that would be a good idea.
[Crowd murmuring.]
- Do you have proof? - Based on what? - One at a time! - What do you know? One at a time! What do you know? Just tell us! What do you know? Give it a rest, Cleve.
Raise your hands.
Maybe until we know what this is for sure, no more bathhouses? No more roller rink Tuesdays? Just us.
Like a boring old straight couple.
I don't want to die.
And I don't ever want to hurt you.
Yeah.
Reporter: Many religious groups have far less trouble defining homosexuality.
When you break the moral laws of God, you mentally, physically, and spiritually pay the price.
You're saying that this is a result of lifestyle - Absolutely.
- and immorality.
You know that's true in your heart.
Thank you.
That is That is very helpful.
[Sighs.]
That was a community health liaison from Miami.
They've got a cluster of new cases in Haitian immigrants mostly women.
This could be the proof we need to rip off the "gay" label and get federal action.
Proof of what? That it's not just a gay thing.
I.
V.
drug users, black folks, poor folks, immigrants, women.
You think any of those groups are gonna get Reagan to give a damn? If I didn't know any better, I'd say it's a government plot.
[Laughs.]
Yeah.
I work for the government.
They couldn't pull something this intricate off.
Willfully letting it spread that's another story.
Marvin: When did they start installing those ionizers in all the bars? Last year or two.
What if it's the ionizers? Who'd go through all that trouble? The cops, the pope, Jerry Falwell.
This isn't a conspiracy to kill us.
Maybe just to knock us back down to size, take our political power.
Marvin, go on, tell them.
I got an audition with the Prince Street Players to play the White Rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland.
" Back in New York? They're getting sick in New York, too.
Not running away.
This has always been my dream.
Okay.
Would you stand up? I need you to open your robe.
If you take me to dinner first, maybe.
[Chuckles.]
I said I need you to open your robe or leave.
- What are you doing? - Hey! - Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! - Sir! Sir! Stop it! Take your hands off of him! Hey! Come on! Sir! You can't be in here like that.
I'm sorry.
Do you ever share towels with anyone else? No.
Perfect.
Who are you? Oh, are you Cleve? I asked you first.
Mike Mike Gorman.
Well, Mike, the last thing I need right now is some straight government suit hanging around here screwing with my head.
I don't I don't represent any government interest.
I'm part of a UCSF research study on KS that may help determine risk factors for what the CDC is calling GRID.
Glad to see our little plague here is so exciting for you.
Now, how do you know my name? You're what we call a-a key informant.
Your your profile in the community could lend credibility to help encourage participants.
I delayed talking to you because I'm not a Castro clone, but that doesn't mean I'm not attracted to men, and you're you're out of my league, so I I got nervous.
[Chuckles.]
[Laughs.]
You need these men to tell you their dirty secrets? Yeah.
Well, that just might be my superpower.
Have you ever had any of the following diseases or conditions syphilis? Nope.
Do you have multiple sexual partners? - Yes.
- In a good week.
Yes.
Do you have an open relationship? - Openish.
- Yeah, "ish.
" Do you have unprotected sex? - Yes.
- Depends on the day.
Do you frequent bathhouses? - Occasionally.
- Together? - Sometimes.
- Yes.
- Do you own a Ficus plant? - Yes.
I'm sorry.
I'm not sure I don't actually know what a F - What it is.
- what that is.
Have you travelled abroad in the last six months? I travelled with a broad, but only to New York.
Is there anything else you'd like to tell us or you want us to add to this? - I saw some bumps once.
- It's not really a big deal.
When did they first appear? - Three Maybe a month? - Maybe a month.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Do you have KS or think you might? - I don't know.
What sort of symptoms are you experiencing? I'm seeing the spots.
- Have you seen a physician? - No.
- Do you have health insurance? - No.
You guys are gonna figure this out, right? We're going to try.
I spend all day making vegetable soup, and you bring him chocolate pudding? - It's what he asked for.
- It's all sugar! He's still got a metabolism.
He can handle it.
Unlike some people.
[Chuckles.]
Ken: I'm not a god or a healer.
I thought the way to help was to look for the truth.
The truth shall set you free.
But he died on a Tuesday night all alone.
I'm so sorry about Daniel.
- I was doing the best I can.
- It's not enough.
Where are the rest of the women? Or is it just when it's politically helpful that we act like a family? Diane: Every traditional support system has turned it's back on these men, and nobody knows better how to work outside the system than us.
What are you asking for, Diane? This institution, and all the things that we know how to do because we're used to being left out.
[Chuckles.]
Which programs do we sacrifice? - Rape crisis? - Right.
Battered women? Childcare? The Roma I knew years ago wouldn't be so easily deterred in a crisis.
We don't have endless funds.
What gets cut? What I'm saying is this isn't something nice we can do This is a necessity.
And it's gonna take vision for us to step up.
So I'm asking you to dig deep for our brothers, Ms.
Visionary Roma Guy.
They are dying.
I heard about Daniel.
He didn't have anyone.
He had more than I would've.
It's nice to see you.
You gave him more than any of us here will ever get.
He got family from you.
What do you think about a job here so I can keep an eye on you? Hey.
Do you have a minute? No, I don't.
The other night, I sensed some unresolved crap towards me.
I understand, but I was at work.
It wasn't the place for that.
You do realize that now you're at my work.
You wouldn't return any of my calls.
I wrote you letters after Toko, Diane love letters.
And you never responded.
I took that to mean you moved on, so I moved on too.
Love letters? They were weird detailed updates about your professional status.
"Hey, Diane, I had an interview with N.
O.
W.
today.
They bought me a Caesar salad!" Well, clearly we are just in two very different places now.
Yeah, I'm in hell.
You're on planet narcissism.
I'm trying to clear the air.
Then maybe we can truly be done.
Take a lap around this ward.
If at the end of it you still think that my bid for volunteers is some excuse to work out unresolved feelings, then, yes, Roma, we can be done.
[Coughing.]
Man: And it was the Kaposi sarcoma that triggered everything.
It's such a rare malignancy, and yet now, we're seeing apparently about 10 to 15 new cases per day in the country, with a doubling rate every six months.
Come on in.
I think there's some room back there.
Hi.
Hi.
Happy birthday.
My journal from the Peace Corps days.
I thought you might want to know what a love letter looks like.
This map was used by Harvey Milk in his last election.
It marks the population of gay men in the city, the red areas indicating where the gay men live.
[Crowd murmuring.]
These blue points indicate opportunistic infections associated with GRID, and as you can see, they line up perfectly.
The geographic pattern combined with the behavioral surveys support that this is likely a sexually-transmitted disease being contracted almost exclusively by men from other men.
No, how do we know this isn't just you - feeding the media storm? - Yeah! All these cameras to beat us down? No, I'm not one of them! I'm one of us! And this is happening in our neighborhood, our homes.
This is what the beginning of an epidemic looks like.
It's a shape seen in other large-scale outbreaks, such as hepatitis.
Does it have a long latency period, like hepatitis? Latency is a period of time one is infected and contagious before showing any symptoms.
In hepatitis, this period is several years.
Could this be the same? Yes.
So you're saying many of us in this room already have it? It's possible.
Maybe even likely.
Please, everyone, look at the map.
Look at our neighborhood.
This is ours This is our truth.
Each one of us must own who we are and start to demand the same health and protection straight people would demand in a plague! Ken: That night, things became clear that whatever it was standing between each of us and our truth, be it fear, denial, shame that those forces would hold us back and steal our lives away just as quick as any infection would.
All my life, I was told I had to choose gay or black.
We make this a gay fight, a lot of black people are going to die.
Have you ever thought instead of taking the "gay" out of GRID, what if you take "gay" to the black community? You know? I don't think you realize how long that road would be.
I can't go back to Sacramento, not for a while.
Man: I understand.
What use is a gay rights bill if there's no lives to protect? Stay there for now.
Thank you, sir.
Please, your job is safe here, all right? But be careful.
Your people need you alive.
We'll figure this out quickly, sir.
Make eye contact as they walk past.
And then you count to three One, two GRID is God's gift to fags.
[Coughing.]
Cleve: Somebody call Randy Shilts at the Chronicle.
If I'm gonna be assassinated, I sure as hell want to get some good press out of it.
What? Marvin had a seizure at the airport on his way to New York.
It's meningitis.
His immune system is gone.
No.
No, he's a dancer.
He's strong.
- Hey! Whoa, Cleve? - Where are my glasses? What are you doing? Put that back.
[Groans.]
You're all sweaty.
Shh.
It's okay.
It's okay.
I'm right here.
Shh.
Now, you're gonna go to New York and you're gonna you're gonna play the White Rabbit.
You're gonna be so good.
Everybody Loves a winner So nobody loved me Lady Peaceful Lady Happy That's what I long to be Reporter: AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, kills four out of 10 people who acquire it, and that mortality rate might climb.
Ken: It wasn't until women started dying and babies were born with it that the CDC changed GRID to AIDS.
But it didn't matter that the word "gay" was gone.
To straight America, it was still that disease that kills fags.
My proposal is for a mobile needle exchange aimed at our neighborhoods dispersing condoms - and clean needles - You want to encourage our children into a life of homosexuality? Or you just want to turn them into drug addicts? These are measures aimed at members of our community who are already participating in risky behaviors.
Startup cost is $2,000.
To encourage our children to embrace sin? I say this as someone who served three tours in Vietnam This is a war.
And it is going to come to our community the black community.
There is no gay in a real black man.
No real black man is a homosexual.
I am standing in front of you as a proud gay black man telling you that if you continue to force gay black men to live closeted double lives, a decade from now you will be burying their wives, their children, our children.
We cannot allow fear and bigotry and ignorance to allow - this to happen to our own! - Mr.
Jones.
Mr.
Jones.
Next is the Ellis Street playground.
Diane? We're with the women's building.
Roma said you could use some help.
She did? Uh, yeah, thank you.
Follow me.
Hi.
I'm here with the women's building.
Is there anything you need? No.
No, I'm, um, I'm up in trauma.
He's my best friend.
Why don't you take a break? I'll stay here with him.
Ouch.
Visiting a friend? Yeah.
Are you on this ward? No, no I'm up in trauma.
Just visiting a friend.
Up or down? Oh.
[Chuckles.]
Down.
Ground floor.
Funny.
That's exactly where I was headed.
I read your journal.
We were in love.
The kind of love that makes people cross oceans, have babies, and grow old together.
And if we were straight, we would've designed our whole lives around that.
But two women then.
We had no words for it.
No paradigm, nothing.
And you're right.
It's my lack of vision that's kept me from having this a family.
- Roma - I know I've hurt you.
I know I've made a big mess of it all.
And the world's falling apart around us and untangling.
It may be impossible.
But the truth is, we're not done yet.
To most of America to white people, black people, straight people, people of God, we were invisible untouchable pariahs to anybody but our own.
Cleve: We send this message to America.
We are the lesbians and gay men of San Francisco.
We are survivors.
We shall survive again, and we shall be the strongest, most gentle people on this Earth.
How many of you have lost a friend coworker or a lover? If we are to survive, we cannot die in silence.
We must make their names known.
Write their names.
Write their names, and put them on this federal building.
Write their names so they know we are their sons and we are their daughters.
Write their names.
Write their names.
It's a quilt.
Ken: Richard and I knew that the truth might be frightening that we know that we're both positive.
Some people say we're all gonna die.
I say they're wrong.
We're gonna fight this together.
And we're going to live.
We are going to live.