I was just telling my roommate this morning how mad I was when Brokeback Mountain lost the Best Picture Oscar in 2006. When Jack Nicholson announced Crash as the winner, I jumped from my chair with such disappointment that it actually surprised me to feel such raw emotion from a telecast.

I guess Brokeback gave me hope that finally gay themes were coming into mainstream films. The Oscar snub only slapped me back into reality.

However Sunday night, the Academy Awards renewed my hope in gay Hollywood.

Not only did Sean Penn’s portrayal of Harvey Milk win the golden man for Best Actor but the motion picture Milk took home Best Original Screenplay. Could Hollywood finally be embracing gay stories?

Penn’s acceptance speech was brilliant; mocking anti-gays reaction to his win by starting with “”Commie, homo loving sons of guns,” then launching into a full intellectual assault of supporters of Prop 8 and other measures banning same sex marriage and telling them they will bring “shame” on their children and grandchildren, “”We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.”

Before the Best Actor statuette was handed out, San Antonio native Dustin Lance Black accepted Best Original Screenplay with such emotion, that I couldn’t help but tear up myself. “When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married.

I wanna thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to. But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he’d want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights federally, across this great nation of ours.

Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk.”

Thank you Hollywood for making at least one gay man believe that maybe you like us, you really, really like us.

Dustin Lance Black’s moving Oscar Acceptance Speech
by ohlalaparis