Milk Closing Credits

Over the weekend, I saw and enjoyed the film Milk, the story about the country’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk. The acting was terrific especially by Sean Penn (although he was better in Mystic River), but I am not going to provide a full movie review. Instead, I want to point out something that has little to do with the movie: the closing credits.

The credits start with Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones, and Josh Brolin as Dan White and continues through the characters with less screen time. Near the end of the cast credits, Brian Yates Sharber is listed as Gay Man.* To state the obvious, Milk features many gay characters. I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying that Harvey Milk was gay as was the characters played by Hirsch, James Franco, and, well, nearly everyone else. So why do the credits distinguish "Gay Man" from the other gay men?


* No, I didn’t write the name Brian Yates Sharber down in the theatre. IMDB comes through again!