Harvey Milk family plea on eve of play about gay rights activist

13 April 2012

The nephew of the murdered American gay rights activist Harvey Milk has appealed for greater understanding of homosexuals in the face of continuing hate crimes and discrimination.

Stuart Milk, 50, spoke out as a play about his uncle receives its British premiere at the Southwark Playhouse in London tonight, in the wake of the Oscar-winning film starring Sean Penn, right.

Emily Mann's Execution of Justice uses verbatim trial transcripts, interviews and reportage to recount the prejudices of 1978 when Dan White was found not guilty of murdering Harvey Milk, the first openly-gay American to hold elected office, despite admitting the shooting.

Mr Milk said: "Every community that has a history of being either marginalised or disenfranchised needs to remember and teach that history. Emily Mann's play points to a time 35 years ago where a lot of people thought that killing someone who was gay or who supports someone who was gay was not such a horrible thing." The play runs until February 4.

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