Pioneering gay rights activist Harvey Milk was shot to death in his office 30 years ago today.

Last night, I went to see the new movie based on his life and laughed and cried. 'Milk' is a solid, spendid film -- oddly not quite as powerful as the Oscar-winning documentary that inspired it but anchored by a staggering performance from Sean Penn.

In his review, Roger Ebert made me smile:

"I have become so weary of the phrase 'openly gay.' I am openly heterosexual, but this is the first time I have ever said so. Why can't we all be what we prefer?"

Well Rog, partially because of things like the Mormon funding of anti-gay legislation. They seem surprised by the anger they've stirred up but, as always, Dan Savage gets right to the point:

"In the wake of Prop 8 millions of gays and lesbians all over the country have decided that we're no longer going to play by the old rules. We're not going to let people kick our teeth down our throats and then run and hide behind 'Nothing personal—just my private religious beliefs!' That game's over."

Someone should tell that to Donny Osmond, whose views on marriage are sadly predictable:

"I do support our Church leaders who say that we can accept those with gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their temptations."

Osmond even plays the tired "some of my best friends" card. Boy, for a guy who does a lot of musical theatre, he really seems out to piss off his gay fan.

Oh, for a voice of reason!  Wait, here's two!  Keith Olbermann and Candace Gingrich explain it all for us. Harvey Milk would be proud:

A decade in the making, Gus Van Sant's biopic of legendary gay rights activist Harvey Milk opens today in Toronto and Vancouver. Here's the glorious trailer, followed by some words from the man himself:

Even the straight-and-certainly-narrow David Letterman liked the movie enough to kiss James Franco -- get your tickets here!

There's signs of hope everywhere:

-- a Florida judge has declared the state's 30-year-old ban on gay adoption unconstitutional, finding "no rational reason" to keep orphaned children out of caring homes. The judge wrote, "The most important factor in ensuring a well-adjusted child is the quality of parenting." That's what we've been saying!

-- California's Fair Political Practices Commission is going to investigate the Mormon church's $22 million in contributions to ban gay marriage. How can they say they're a humble little faith group when they're throwing around more money than Elton John in a Versace store?

-- 'The Advocate' magazine insists that the California marriage vote didn't fail because of rampant bigotry but in large part because of lazy, useless gay leadership. Umm, that's sort of good news, I guess...

-- a university in redneck Kentucky held "live homosexual acts" right on the campus lawn!

-- on a purely malicious note, rumour has it that rightwing harpy Ann Coulter has broken her jaw and had her mouth wired shut, making it hard for her to plug her upcoming anti-Obama book, "Guilty." Until I heard this news, I was an atheist!

Of course, Harvey Milk's crusade hasn't been won yet: a man in Iowa was arrested for owning gay sex comic books while the government of Indonesia wants to implant microchips in HIV-positive people!

Yes, the future could be scary if we let it: for instance, if you believe the year's coolest movie poster, the city of Los Angeles will look pretty ugly in ten years but, in other geek news, we'll soon have a gay couple joining in on the apocalyptic drama of 'Battlestar Galactica':

-- a man in Arkansas is suing McDonalds for taking the nude photos of his wife he had in his mobile phone and posting them on the internet

-- how did all the right-wing guardians of the "sanctity of marriage" let this happen:

These two can get married but gay Americans can't? Fortunately, there's at least one Christian group sorry for their part in this saga. Too little, too late but still appreciated!

In other news, Conrad Black has learned that the justice system is unfair in regards to drug charges. Next thing you know, he'll be joining the Prop 8 protests on behalf of his prison bitch.

Australia has just passed new gay-rights legislation while Burundi officially criminalized homosexuality.  This is a massive blow to the giant gay Burundi tourism market!

And finally, here's the strangest hetero love story ever: the Spanish-told, Aerosmith-scored saga of Toby the dog and Sheila the duck! Not even death and accidental dismemberment could keep them apart:

Setting aside for now the intriguing argument that "Facebook succeeds into making friendship a consumption product," the social networking site showed its dark side this week when plans for a gay pride parade in Abbotsford, BC were called off due to online hatred and then fans of the "Kick a Ginger" event (based on an infamous Eric Cartman rant on 'South Park') actually went out and kicked gingers! 

Now normally, my job here is to provide gay factoids and eye candy but, in the face of such hate crime, I feel I must stand up for my people!  Fortunately, I can kill two birds with one stone -- here's just a small gallery of hot redheaded guys you won't want to kick:

Ewan McGregor was in 'The Pillow Book.' 'Nuff said. 

Simon Woods' sex scene heated up HBO's 'Rome' 

Damian Lewis' 'Life' is the coolest cop show on TV

Hot nerd Seth Green created 'Robot Chicken' 

Porn star Will Clark proves there are red-haired bears 

Prince Harry got everyone curious with this infamous shot

Toby Stephens was the hottest Bond villain since Pussy Galore

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.  Now save a little ginger love for me!

Speaking of juries, the California Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage will be heading back to the state Supreme Court this spring. Until a ruling comes down, there'll be a lot more debate like this:

-- Newt "gay fascism!!!" Gingrich gets a public scolding from his lesbian sister Candace: "Stop being a hater, big bro."

-- The religious arguments against gay marriage don't hold up when religion is actually bad for society

-- Students at Princeton University passed their own Prop 8, banning freshmen from walking on the campus sidewalks. Organizers say it's not about hating frosh but protecting the sanctity of sidewalks: