"I think people are dead because he died too soon," Penn said. "[Milk] wouldn't have stood quietly. He was a leader and he happened to be focused on the gay movement." Because AIDS was a "gay disease," he said, Milk would have been active in forcing President Reagan to address the crisis.

Harvey Milk, dubbed the "Mayor of Castro Street," became active in San Francisco politics when he moved to the city's Castro neighborhood from New York in the early 1970s. After repeated runs, Milk was elected City Supervisor in 1977. During his term he helped pass an anti-discrimination ordinance and railed against the "Briggs Initiative," which would have barred gays and lesbians from teaching in California's public schools. Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated on November 27, 1978 by former colleague and City Supervisor Dan White.

Milk opens nationwide on November 26.