Young, Black, Gay and Running for Congress

Earlier this year, Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black received Academy Awards honoring their work in the film Milk. The film chronicled the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California.

Many looked to this as a testament to the legacy of Harvey Milk, and suggested the film’s success points to yet another crack in this country’s collective homophobia.

While there’s no denying that Harvey Milk’s political career advanced the gay rights movement, for those with complexions filled with more melanin than milk, does his biopic mean anything more than the next film on their Netflix queue?

Chances are the answer leans towards no, which makes the candidacy of another gay California candidate all the more significant.

In April, Anthony Woods, a 28-year-old West Point graduate who recently earned his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, announced his candidacy for a soon-to-be vacant seat in California’s 10th Congressional District.

Woods was an Army veteran in Iraq, but subsequently discharged for being gay under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Read the entire post at: Racewire – The Colorlines Blog