Gays, like blacks, won their rights the hard way: by petitioning in the streets and the courts. For inspiration and public persuasion, each group needed an urgent spokesman. Blacks had MLK (Martin Luther King Jr.) and gays had MILK — Harvey Milk. This bustling, poignant biopic, written by Dustin Lance Black and directed by Gus Van Sant, tells the story of the New Yorker who moved to San Francisco in 1972 and organized gay society, high and low, into a politically effective movement. Milk (Sean Penn) was one of the first open homosexuals elected to public office and paid dearly for the privilege when he was assassinated in 1978 by fellow city supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). Penn is a surprising choice for the role, but he reins in his Method bluster to create a complex, manipulative yet gentle man. Meticulously researched and admirably fair, the movie details its hero's natural political gift for convincing people that the public interest is also theirs. The election of Barack Obama proved what a band of outsiders could achieve in support of an unlikely, charismatic candidate just as the recent passage of referendums against gay marriage in three states shows that charming agitators are still needed. The film is a cinematic pamphlet about a civil rights issue that's far from resolved. So go see Milk: it's good for you. 11/26