Media censorship in Singapore Movies with "strong homosexual themes" are typically given R21 ratings regardless of other content in the film. The American films "Milk", a 2008 biopic starring Sean Penn as gay rights activist Harvey Milk, and "Brokeback Mountain", a 2005 romantic drama about two homosexual cowboys played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, both received R21 rating for depictions of homosexual sexual activities. However, the 2018 film "Love, Simon" about a gay teenager coming to terms with his identity and finding out which of his classmates is his anonymous online pen pal was given an R21 classification despite having no depictions of
Milk (film) gives a valiant, empathetic go of it." It also stated that the portrayal of Dan White was very fair and humanized and portrayed as more of a tragically flawed character, rather than a "typical 'crazy Christian villain' stereotype". In contrast, John Podhoretz of the conservative magazine "Weekly Standard" blasted the portrayal of Harvey Milk, saying that it treated the "smart, aggressive, purposefully offensive, press-savvy" activist like a "teddy bear". Podhoretz also argued that the film glosses over Milk's polyamorous relationships; he opined that this contrasts Milk with present-day gay rights activists fighting over monogamous same-sex marriage. Podhoretz mentioned as well