was Dan White gay?
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CaliCurmudgeon — 15 years ago(September 29, 2010 12:04 PM)
Typical lame commiecrat crap. The facts are that Dan White didn't kill Milk because he was gay; he might have loathed him for that, but ultimately he killed Milk (and Moscone) because they stabbed him in the back politically.
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radrobd — 15 years ago(September 27, 2010 05:38 PM)
After having seen the movie, I did research online about Dan White. I have not read ONE thing that indicates that he was gay or closeted. The only thing that came from is a line from the movie where Harvey intimates he's gay while his fellow gays doubt him. I'm guessing that was just Dustin Lance Black just wrote that in as a posthumous dig at White for killing Milk.
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rrb — 14 years ago(September 09, 2011 10:33 AM)
radrobbdI've never come across any research indicating White may have been gay either. Did Milk ever in fact speculate that he was?
I think you may be right about Black's motivation for putting that comment about White being a closet clase in Harvey's mouth. If that's true, it was very unhelpful. Sadly, there are gays who instantly label all homophobes as repressed gays, which just makes us look guilty of our own bias. -
fidelio1980 — 15 years ago(October 31, 2010 02:34 PM)
I am not referring to Milk thinking White was gay or closeted. White was not trying to kiss Milk. He was drunk. HOW STUPID! This is purely speculation on your part, and on Van Sant's part, which is bull$hit. People want to suggest/fantasize that White was closeted all they want, but there was NOTHING that stated that Dan White was gay, closeted or otherwise.
As far as Harvey going on about White being gay, this, once again, does NOT indicate that White was closeted. This was a fantasy on Milk's part, or the idiot that thought this up for the film.
I stand by my previous post.
I don't know if Dan White was a closeted gay man in real life - and I doubt anyone here does. However, it's pretty much undeniable that the possibility of it is hinted at in the movie.
Notice that I said "hinted at." Did the movie actually SAY that he was gay? No. But it's absolutely suggested - sometimes subtly, and other times not so subtly.
And no one has said that the character's drunkenness in that scene means that he's gay. That scene has been brought up in this thread, because it appeared that he wanted to say something, but couldn't.
If the director, screenwriter, and actor (Josh Brolin) all come forward and say, "No, we never explored that possibility that Dan White was a closet case when we made the movie," then I'll take it all back. But i don't see that happening.
As for real life, Dan White was clearly haunted by something. Was it his sexual orientation? Maybe, but we'll never know. It's certainly a possibility that people have considered over the years, not something that Dustin Lance Black or Gus Van Sant pulled out of thin air for their amusement. -
shewasmyrushmore — 15 years ago(November 19, 2010 03:23 AM)
I am not referring to Milk thinking White was gay or closeted. White was not trying to kiss Milk. He was drunk. HOW STUPID! This is purely speculation on your part, and on Van Sant's part, which is bull$hit. People want to suggest/fantasize that White was closeted all they want, but there was NOTHING that stated that Dan White was gay, closeted or otherwise.
As far as Harvey going on about White being gay, this, once again, does NOT indicate that White was closeted. This was a fantasy on Milk's part, or the idiot that thought this up for the film.
I stand by my previous post.
wow, you really need to distinguish between a film and real life.
the question was regarding this film, which is a piece of art made by gus van sant and his colleagues. it is not a documentary (which even then can never be a truly objective fact finding mission).
in this film, it was definitely suggested that white may be closeted. chill, no-one is referring to the real life dan white. -
Speed-the-plow — 14 years ago(September 07, 2011 06:06 PM)
Yes, I think he might've been gay. He committed suicide two years after he got out. That, combined with the extreme act of murdering Milk in the first place, makes me believe he probably had severe issues that stemmed from the repression/denial of his homosexuality.
It's called projection. -
thatguy_78757 — 14 years ago(September 08, 2011 09:19 AM)
I doubt the real Dan White was gay
Perhaps Milk thought he was gay- he could see the signs of emotional strain in Dan White, and beign gay he read his own strains into it
I know a lot of gay folks like to presume that anti gay straights are closeted queens expressing their conflicts in negative ways -
chatanuga — 14 years ago(September 08, 2011 01:55 PM)
I know that when I first discovered about myself, I was trying everything I could to "turn straight". When I got to college, I turned to religion, and a lot of people thought I was one of the most homophobic people they'd ever met. Only thing was, at the time they didn't know that it was eating me up inside. I was hiding it so well that I was going through major depression as well as feeling physically sick a lot.
So, it is quite possible that a homophobic person is actually hiding the fact that they are gay, although, I don't believe that all homophobes are secretly gay.