MILK SKIMMED
A provocative GLBT Historical Society roundtable about what was left out of Gus Van Sant's movie. February 19, 2009 in San Francisco.

Milk is a powerful fable about human rights, self-invention, and a movement's proud vitality. Critical acclaim, box-office success, and awards underscore the film's relevance. Still, the movie sidelined many prominent activists for gay rights in the 1970s, including lesbians and people of color, who stood with gay hero Harvey Milk. "Milk Skimmed" will explore alternative stories. It will also speculate on what Milk tells us about queer representation in popular culture today.

Featured panelists include:

Dr. Tomás Almaguer, Ethnic Studies Professor and former Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, has authored Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California (UC Press, 1994) and the widely-reprinted article "Chicano Men: A Cartography of Homosexual Identity and Behavior."

Gwenn Craig was one of the co-chairs for No on 6, a key organization working with Harvey Milk for the 1978 defeat of the "Briggs Initiative" to strip educators of their civil rights on the basis of sexual orientation. For the past 30 years, she has continued to fight for the rights of queer people, women, labor, and people of color.

Dr. Joshua Gamson, Sociology Professor at University of San Francisco, authored Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity (Chicago, 1998) and The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music, The Seventies in San Francisco (Holt, 2005).



Ruth Mahaney, White Night Riots veteran, is a pioneer in the teaching of Women's Studies, first in 1972 at Santa Rosa Junior College, and later as Women's Studies Coordinator at Sonoma State University. She has gone on to teach Women's Studies and GLBT Studies for 18 years at San Francisco State University and, since the mid 1990s, at City College.

"Milk Skimmed" is the kickoff event of TALKING BACK: QUEER HISTORY FULLY EXPOSED, an exciting new series at the GLBT Historical Society that will challenge us to appreciate the spectrum of our collective pasts and to actualize a more expansive future for all.

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society collects, preserves, and interprets the history of GLBT people and the communities that support them. For more information, visit www.glbthistory.org. (less info)