Gus Van Sant’s MILK was my first LGBT film. Just three years earlier, in 2005-06, when Lee Ang’s BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN played in Singapore, I was too young to see. But that was the first time I heard about this topic.

At the time, the peers I knew in school were dismissive, making crass jokes about people who had gone to watch it. One of my teachers mentioned that he saw it and it was a great movie, but a student quickly, if disdainfully, retorted, “Cher, you gay meh?” That was the climate then, and this episode seared into my memory.

When MILK came out in 2008-09, I decided to go see it out of curiosity because I knew so little about the LGBT community, and also, I had finally turned 21. It was one of my first R21 films, together with Darren Aronofsky’s THE WRESTLER. (At the time, the awards narrative was Sean Penn vs. Mickey Rourke for the Best Actor Oscar.)

I thought MILK was a good film, though as a straight person, I was a tad uncomfortable seeing men kiss each other onscreen. I remembered that when I was buying the ticket, I had this fear that, like my teacher, I would be judged by the person at the box office. The climate then was still as dismissive.

Fast forward to 2025, LGBT films are now part of any open-minded Singaporean cinephile’s evolving diet. Festivals, cinemas and distributors hardly think thrice when programming an LGBT film (though I’m sure they would lament the R21 rating, that is, if the film gets passed). And the stigma – that if you watch an LGBT film, you must be gay – is all but dead and buried.

Rewatching MILK today reminded me that this acclimatisation towards love and empathy instead of hate and prejudice, and the belief that everyone should have equal rights, regardless of sexual orientation, didn’t happen overnight in Singapore. It was a long and arduous affair, just like the times of Harvey Milk. And just like then, as it is now, more can still be done.