On film and in exhibits, a full picture of Harvey Milk

In conjunction with a new film about slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, items belonging to the gay rights pioneer — including the suit he was wearing when he was killed — are being exhibited.

Reporting from San Francisco — The sight may be a little shocking, Paul Boneberg warned a visitor. And it was.

There, removed from tissue-paper wrappings in a storage box, were the wingtip shoes, striped suit and white shirt that gay activist and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk wore Nov. 27, 1978, the day he was assassinated. Dark bloodstains remained visible around the shirt collar, and small holes — from bullets — could be seen in the suit’s blue and gray material.

The suit has been preserved 30 years for a purpose, explained Boneberg, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society in San Francisco, which owns it. “It’s an iconic reference to what occurred, that this was a real man who bled real blood,” he said.

Now the clothing and many other Milk-related items in scholarly and library archives in San Francisco are about to get more attention — as are re-creations of them in the new film biography “Milk,” which stars Sean Penn as the nation’s first openly gay man elected to a major political office.

The movie’s director, Gus Van Sant, and his team did extensive research at the historical society to accurately portray Milk’s life, his possessions, his political career and his slaying at age 48. In addition to the evocative suit, they studied Milk’s campaign posters, his round dining room table — a replica of which is featured in the film — and photos of the early days of gay liberation in the city’s Castro district.

The filmmakers also dug into a large trove of Milk’s papers, love letters and photos at the San Francisco Public Library. In addition, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black interviewed surviving friends and examined their memorabilia.

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Los Angeles Times, CA