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As Hollywood prepares for next year's Oscars, one of the hottest candidates is Gus Van Sant's biopic, Milk.
It stars Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the flamboyant San Francisco supervisor and gay rights crusader who was murdered, with Mayor George Moscone, by Dan White, a disgruntled colleague and
family values conservative, in 1978.
Milk won his spurs battling Proposition 6, a citizen-driven state measure that tried to ban gay schoolteachers. It failed.
When it was released in the US last month, the movie was given unexpected weight by Proposition 8, another California measure that sought to ban same-sex marriage, which was recognised by the state's highest court in May. It succeeded.
The proposition's wording echoes Proposition 22, an earlier measure that failed. Both said: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised in California."
These are fighting words in what is probably the most liberal state in the union.
Ironically, the measure Californians passed on November 4 was part of a presidential election that righted a historic wrong - the subjugation of African Americans - by putting a black man in the White House.
Barack Obama's victory unleashed a new civil rights struggle, in which conservatives tried to create a form of apartheid between straights and gays. Three states, including California, passed propositions that ban gay marriage, setting off a storm of protest from America's homosexual community.
Even more ironically, one exit poll showed 70 per cent of African Americans favoured Proposition 8, a statistic that stoked tension between gays and blacks, even though the latter were only a small proportion of the 52 per cent who supported it.
However, minorities, concerned about the survival of the "traditional family", are thought to have been decisive.
Financed by Catholics, evangelicals, conservative Latino and black pastors, and the Mormon church, Proposition 8 was organised by Protect Marriage, a group whose campaign emphasised: "We are pro-marriage, not anti-gay."
The response from gays was immediate. Even as Americans celebrated Obama's win, thousands of gay men and women vented their rage in New York, San Francisco, Boston and other cities.
In Los Angeles, angry protesters gathered outside the Mormon Temple. Thousands marched throughout the city, including a rally from the Black Cat bar, where gay protests against a police raid in 1967 predated New York's Stonewall riots, usually seen as the flashpoint that started the US gay rights movement.
Almost overnight, the backlash against Proposition 8 migrated online, in an echo of the viral network that helped propel Obama into the presidency, as young gay activists mobilised support via Facebook and MySpace.
Within days two Facebook groups - Californians Ready to Repeal Prop 8 and Repeal the California Ban on Marriage Equality 2010 - had each attracted more than 200,000 members.
"There is an incredible outpouring of energy, of people wanting to do something," Trent Thornley, a lawyer who created the first site, told the Los Angeles Times.
Protesters threatened to boycott business donors - a potent weapon as the US flails in the maws of a ferocious recession - and individuals who gave more than US$5000 ($9032) were outed by a "dishonour roll" on The Californians Against Hate website.
"There are going to be consequences," Chad Griffin, a political consultant, told the Times. Protect Marriage estimated that Mormons contributed US$20 million - more than half of the total Proposition 8 budget - fuelling gay protests outside temples across the US.
Mormons had been considered more tolerant of gays than other religious groups because they refused to classify homosexuality as a lifestyle "choice".
"It is a travesty that the Mormon Church bought this election and used a campaign of lies and deception to manipulate voters," said the LA Gay and Lesbian Centre's Lorri Jean.
Even as California said it would investigate if the Mormon Church had crossed the line that forbids churches from directly participating in political issues, Proposition 8's supporters decried "Mormon bashing".
"Attacks on churches and intimidation of people of faith have no place in civil discourse over controversial issues," said the Mormon Church, complaining that its members had been intimidated for "simply exercising their democratic rights". Critics countered that Mormons had sought to curb the democratic rights of gays.
While the grassroots seethed, politicians pondered their response.
The proposition had targeted a ruling by the California Supreme Court in May that legalised same-sex marriage. By November, 18,000 gay couples had tied the knot.
Six lawsuits, including one from the California Council of Churches and other religious groups, argue that the measure revises the state constitution, a role reserved for the legislature, and denies a minority of their "equal protection" rights. The suits have support from Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and 44 legislators.
Two weeks after the election, in a six-to-one vote, the court said it would hear three legal challenges next year. Attorney-General Jerry Brown, caught in the tricky position of having to defend a law he publicly opposed, said this was "welcome news". Meanwhile, the state will issue no more gay marriage licences. The legality of existing gay marriages is also in question.
While Proposition 8 made the biggest splash, Arizona and Florida also voted on November 4 to impose bans, making a total of 30 states banning gay marriage. This was almost the only election win victory for conservatives.
The issue may go to the US Supreme Court, which in a 1996 "equal protection" ruling said every citizen was guaranteed basic civil rights.
In many ways Proposition 8 is an anomaly, a flashback to the "culture wars" over incendiary issues such as abortion, guns and the US flag, that dominated political discourse for 30 years, and which many hoped had been laid to rest by Obama's decisive victory.
But it would be unwise to assume the wars are over. Besides passionate denunciations of gay marriage and parenting by conservatives, homosexuality has split the Episcopal Church, with dissidents forming the Anglican Church in North America.
Inevitably, in an industry sensitive to anything that can affect the bottom line, Hollywood is uncertain how to respond to Proposition 8. The measure was not on the ballot when Van Sant began shooting his film. Now gay activists are responding to Milk's rallying cry against Proposition 6 in 1978: "If this thing passes, fight the hell back!"
The movie industry also feels angst that it failed to focus on Proposition 8, even as it pulled out the stops for Obama. One San Francisco Chronicle columnist urged Obama to support gay rights, including same-sex marriage.
This may be a long shot, give the economic situation. As well, Obama - who opposes same-sex marriage but supports equal legal rights for gay partners and married couples - will not have forgotten how Bill Clinton almost sank his legislation programme in 1993 by championing gays in the military.
The main worry was whether taking a hard line against Proposition 8, on the grounds that it sullied civil liberties, would develop into a witch hunt, an obsession in Hollywood since the McCarthy era, when leftists were blacklisted.
Much of the angst focused on Richard Radden, director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, which is supposed to promote tolerance and diversity.
Radden, a Mormon, contributed US$1500 towards the measure. Angry activists wanted his head. Others, like gay director Gregg Araki, felt he should resign.
"The bottom line is that if he contributed money to a hateful campaign against black people or against Jewish people, or any other minority, there would be much less excusing of him," Araki told the Los Angeles Times. Others felt Radden had a right to free speech, even if his views offended gays. A fortnight after the vote, Radden quit.
There were also calls, via NoMilkforCine mark.com, to boycott the Cinemark theatre chain whose CEO, Alan Stock, donated US$9999 to supporting Proposition 8. Milk is playing in Cinemark cinemas, which put Milk's producers in a bind.
And some activists want to boycott the Sundance Institute - famous for its film festival and support to gay film-makers - because it uses a Park City, Utah, Cinemark cinema.
Meanwhile, polls suggest time is on the side of activists for same sex-marriage. According to USA Today, 63 per cent of Americans say government should not stop same-sex marriage. Ironically, even as same-sex couples are denied federal benefits and straight marriage continues on its long US decline, more and more couples are opting for de facto unions, which have no legitimacy in the US.
