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The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
The Mayor of Castro Street is Shilts's acclaimed story of Harvey Milk, the man whose personal life, public career, and tragic assassination mirrored the dramatic and unprecedented emergence of the gay community in America during the 1970s. His is a story of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassination in City Hall and massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
380 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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About the author
Randy Shilts
18 books174 followersRandy Shilts was a highly acclaimed, pioneering gay American journalist and author. He worked as a reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
March 10, 2010
This is a fantastic book. I give it three stars for writing, four for reportage and five for being incredibly inspiring.
There were passages throughout that I wanted to mark and post here, but I didn't. The appendices include several superb speeches by Milk; the man was both a practical and philosophical adherent of making cities human. The book is not just about his on-the-ground life, but his ideas, too. And they were grand ideas, but always with a human face. Milk believed in humans, not just gay humans, but all humans.
Lest you think I treat him blindly as an icon, fret not. Milk was a con man to a degree, or at least a showman. He was a politician, but he was an individualist in a system that molds people into machine parts. He never quite became that cog. And yet, he left a great legacy.
Interestingly, the final third of the book takes place after Milk's death. The outrageous trial of the WASP assassin Dan White zeroes in on the carte blanche open-season on gays that society has managed to justify for so long. This is a book about Milk's "times", after all, as the book's title says, and as such it deeply examines the warped and sad attitudes of hate that did and do continue.
Reading this moved me to tears, but also made me hopping mad with outrage. A great biography about a great American hero.
---------
(earlier comment)
This seemed like a natural after finishing "The Celluloid Closet." So far, early in, it's an ultra-fascinating look at what it was like for an "All American boy" to grow up gay in the 1940s and 1950s in New York City and environs: the furtiveness and danger but also the rare joy of finding monogamous happiness in spite of the incredible obstacles.
I've seen the excellent 1984 documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk" a couple of times; the first time more than 20 years ago. I haven't seen the Hollywood feature ("Milk") with Sean Penn yet; he certainly cuts a remarkable likeness to the real deal. The combination of fascinating topic, character and Shilts as author ("And the Band Played On" is one of my favorite epics of reportage) make this a no-brainer selection.
There were passages throughout that I wanted to mark and post here, but I didn't. The appendices include several superb speeches by Milk; the man was both a practical and philosophical adherent of making cities human. The book is not just about his on-the-ground life, but his ideas, too. And they were grand ideas, but always with a human face. Milk believed in humans, not just gay humans, but all humans.
Lest you think I treat him blindly as an icon, fret not. Milk was a con man to a degree, or at least a showman. He was a politician, but he was an individualist in a system that molds people into machine parts. He never quite became that cog. And yet, he left a great legacy.
Interestingly, the final third of the book takes place after Milk's death. The outrageous trial of the WASP assassin Dan White zeroes in on the carte blanche open-season on gays that society has managed to justify for so long. This is a book about Milk's "times", after all, as the book's title says, and as such it deeply examines the warped and sad attitudes of hate that did and do continue.
Reading this moved me to tears, but also made me hopping mad with outrage. A great biography about a great American hero.
---------
(earlier comment)
This seemed like a natural after finishing "The Celluloid Closet." So far, early in, it's an ultra-fascinating look at what it was like for an "All American boy" to grow up gay in the 1940s and 1950s in New York City and environs: the furtiveness and danger but also the rare joy of finding monogamous happiness in spite of the incredible obstacles.
I've seen the excellent 1984 documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk" a couple of times; the first time more than 20 years ago. I haven't seen the Hollywood feature ("Milk") with Sean Penn yet; he certainly cuts a remarkable likeness to the real deal. The combination of fascinating topic, character and Shilts as author ("And the Band Played On" is one of my favorite epics of reportage) make this a no-brainer selection.
August 17, 2022
"The entire story of the life and death of Harvey Milk rang so true to the experiences of gays throughout the country because it already seemed a part of the homosexual collective unconscious, even before it happened; that it happened to one man in San Francisco was a mere formality. It had been happening for a long time. This is why a politician who had lost three out of four of his elections and served only forty-six weeks in public office ultimately became a legend. His story already existed in the lives and minds of millions of gays; had it not been Harvey Milk in San Francisco, the legend would have settled on someone else, in another city, at another time. Harvey’s sense of staging merely ensured that his legend would also prove good theater. So for years after Harvey’s death, when dull moments fell over a gay demonstration and the old slogans felt thin, someone could shout, “Harvey Milk lives,” and it would not be hollow rhetoric; Harvey Milk did live, as a metaphor for the homosexual experience in America."
~~ Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
The Mayor of Castro Street presents a fairly definitive account of the life and career of Harvey Milk, a pioneering gay politician whose legend has taken on a life of its own in the decades since his 1978 assassination at the hands of Dan White. In pursuit of the man behind the myth, Randy Shilts' book reveals the scale of Milk's character, influence and humanity without resorting to hagiography, wrapping Milk's life story around a narrative that palpably conveys the toxic climate he found himself in at the forefront of the San Francisco LGBTQ+ community's fight for their rights and lives in the face of resistance from police, politicians and the religious right. In his brilliant book, Shilts doesn't just capture the aura of a single man but that of a sad, tumultuous time. The detailed breakdown of the aftermath of Milk and mayor George Moscone's assassinations, rage-inducing as it is with the mock trial of Dan White and the cynical centrism of incoming mayor Dianne Feinstein, only cements the author's masterful accomplishment. This is a deeply affecting book which becomes a double-whammy of tragedy in light of Shilts' own death from AIDS-related illness just twelve years after The Mayor of Castro Street was published. Like Milk, he left a worthy legacy.
January 10, 2017
Living as an educated American in 2012, stories about the violence and ostracism meted out to gay people just a few decades ago seem unreal. Harvey Milk, sensibly, spent most of his life being discreet and maintaining a "respectable" facade. His sense of moral outrage, as well as his sense of theater, however, eventually got the better of him. Shortly after moving to San Francisco in 1973, he took up politics. The Mayor of Castro Street is both a biography of Milk and a history of gay life in mid-twentieth century America, one which I enjoyed reading.
Shilts takes care to highlight the disgust Milk felt for what amounted to a "gay establishment" in the 1970s. A gay man, Jim Foster, gave a speech at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, but gays remained in a far corner of civil discourse. Foster and others like him preferred to cultivate the support of "liberal friends" rather than directly seek political office for themselves. Milk fumed at this modest approach. He preferred to work directly, on the streets, to change the hearts and minds of straight citizens while also organizing gays to campaign for office. Only by taking power for themselves would gays win equal treatment under the law.
Despite his success, whether Milk's strategy was correct is something the gay movement as a whole has yet to agree about, I think. Milk's comments about 1970s "gay moderates" could easily apply to the Human Rights Campaign of today. I do not understand political lobbying, I admit, but HRC seem to me more like lapdogs of the Democratic Party than potent advocates for gay equality. That HRC today occupy Milk's former camera store on Castro Street is annoying, to put it mildly.
Fighting against the "Briggs Initiative", a ban on gay school teachers which appeared on the November 1978 California ballot as Proposition 6, is a central plot element of the film Milk, although it's just one event among many in the book. Like other events around Milk's life, it parallels events in the 2000s and after. Then, as now, a gay bogeyman was evoked for political gain; state senator John Briggs made little secret that his initiative was a platform from which to launch a campaign for higher office. Then, as now, the arguments in favor of institutional prejudice against gays were flimsy, when they weren't based on outright lies. Then, as now, anti-gay campaigners were largely driven by religious notions, upon which secular interlocutors can find little purchase, and ignorant prejudice, to which I can find within myself no response other than bafflement and anger. This exchange from page 241 is a good example of the kind of twisted thinking that tends to leave me speechless:
Shiltz's writing is engaging and emotionally powerful. However, his imagery can be overly dramatic, and he sometimes reaches too far in ascribing significance to chance events. He was a San Francisco reporter both during and after Milk's life, and he also lived in the Castro neighborhood. To the extent he was caught up in the passion of the the time, I can't really fault him. However, I sometimes wondered to what extent his passion came at the expense of veracity, particularly when a powerful passage seemed short on detail. For instance, the brutal murder of a gay man in 1977 is followed by the revelation that the murderer secretly engaged in trysts with other men. Shilts clearly means for the reader to infer cause and effect here, but he doesn't supply the necessary proof. It seems to fit too neatly into the trope of "self-hating, closeted gay man expresses his inner turmoil through violence against other gays". I was suspicious at this and other wink-nudge passages.
Explanatory details are missing in a few other places, perhaps because a reader in the 1980s would be expected not to need them. For instance, Milk's association with drag queens is cited as an explanation for his relatively weak rapport with lesbians, but Shilts doesn't explain how the one causes the other. The book is also marred by several errors of word choice, including a ridiculous mix-up of "de facto" and "de jure" in a sentence describing a 1975 California Senate vote as "abolish[ing] the law that had for over a century made homosexuals de facto felons in California". (p. 106)
For a figure who inspires hope and admiration, the aftermath of Milk's death is depressing at best. (Shilts calls it "ambiguous"). The police, essentially unchanged by the shifting sentiment in city government, start a new wave of harrassment and beatings of gays. Dianne Feinstein hems and haws over whom to appoint to replace Milk on the Board of Supervisors, being fair-minded at some times and voicing odd prejudices at others. The prosecution of Dan White is appallingly feeble, and in another wink-nudge passage Shilts all but accuses the District Attorney's office of deliberately concealing vital but embarrassing evidence: the political machinations that culminated in the loss of White's supervisor seat, i.e., his motive for the assassinations. The reader is hardly surprised at the outcome: White was convicted only of voluntary manslaughter and served less than six years in jail for the premeditated slayings of two men. At the verdict's announcement, a dispatcher sings "Danny Boy" over the police radio, the least of many overt examples of police approval of White's actions.
Milk's dream of gays and straights living side by side is tarnished in general by the riots following White's trial, and wrecked specifically by the continued straight evacuation of the Castro neighborhood. Even in the 1980s Shilts saw the Castro gays become apathetic about politics and civil rights. Gays living in the cities had the dream of equality already realized for them in many ways, while those living in the rest of America were too few and too isolated to band together to help themselves. This apathy arguably persists today; young people have too much on their minds for abstract notions of equality and progress to warrant more than an occasional monetary donation or an article shared on Facebook.
Milk was a rare man at a rare time. We haven't seen his like since.
Shilts takes care to highlight the disgust Milk felt for what amounted to a "gay establishment" in the 1970s. A gay man, Jim Foster, gave a speech at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, but gays remained in a far corner of civil discourse. Foster and others like him preferred to cultivate the support of "liberal friends" rather than directly seek political office for themselves. Milk fumed at this modest approach. He preferred to work directly, on the streets, to change the hearts and minds of straight citizens while also organizing gays to campaign for office. Only by taking power for themselves would gays win equal treatment under the law.
Despite his success, whether Milk's strategy was correct is something the gay movement as a whole has yet to agree about, I think. Milk's comments about 1970s "gay moderates" could easily apply to the Human Rights Campaign of today. I do not understand political lobbying, I admit, but HRC seem to me more like lapdogs of the Democratic Party than potent advocates for gay equality. That HRC today occupy Milk's former camera store on Castro Street is annoying, to put it mildly.
Fighting against the "Briggs Initiative", a ban on gay school teachers which appeared on the November 1978 California ballot as Proposition 6, is a central plot element of the film Milk, although it's just one event among many in the book. Like other events around Milk's life, it parallels events in the 2000s and after. Then, as now, a gay bogeyman was evoked for political gain; state senator John Briggs made little secret that his initiative was a platform from which to launch a campaign for higher office. Then, as now, the arguments in favor of institutional prejudice against gays were flimsy, when they weren't based on outright lies. Then, as now, anti-gay campaigners were largely driven by religious notions, upon which secular interlocutors can find little purchase, and ignorant prejudice, to which I can find within myself no response other than bafflement and anger. This exchange from page 241 is a good example of the kind of twisted thinking that tends to leave me speechless:
Briggs counted gays lucky that this public crusade was not led by a zealot but a pragmatic politician.
“Aren’t you guys glad I’m leading this and not one of those people from way out in left field?” he asked one gay reporter with whom he had struck a rapport.
The reporter wasn’t sure what Briggs meant.
“I mean, I don’t want to put you people in prison or anything. It could be a lot worse.” Briggs leaned across his desk and asked sincerely, “Aren’t you guys glad this isn’t being led by some crazy?”
Shiltz's writing is engaging and emotionally powerful. However, his imagery can be overly dramatic, and he sometimes reaches too far in ascribing significance to chance events. He was a San Francisco reporter both during and after Milk's life, and he also lived in the Castro neighborhood. To the extent he was caught up in the passion of the the time, I can't really fault him. However, I sometimes wondered to what extent his passion came at the expense of veracity, particularly when a powerful passage seemed short on detail. For instance, the brutal murder of a gay man in 1977 is followed by the revelation that the murderer secretly engaged in trysts with other men. Shilts clearly means for the reader to infer cause and effect here, but he doesn't supply the necessary proof. It seems to fit too neatly into the trope of "self-hating, closeted gay man expresses his inner turmoil through violence against other gays". I was suspicious at this and other wink-nudge passages.
Explanatory details are missing in a few other places, perhaps because a reader in the 1980s would be expected not to need them. For instance, Milk's association with drag queens is cited as an explanation for his relatively weak rapport with lesbians, but Shilts doesn't explain how the one causes the other. The book is also marred by several errors of word choice, including a ridiculous mix-up of "de facto" and "de jure" in a sentence describing a 1975 California Senate vote as "abolish[ing] the law that had for over a century made homosexuals de facto felons in California". (p. 106)
For a figure who inspires hope and admiration, the aftermath of Milk's death is depressing at best. (Shilts calls it "ambiguous"). The police, essentially unchanged by the shifting sentiment in city government, start a new wave of harrassment and beatings of gays. Dianne Feinstein hems and haws over whom to appoint to replace Milk on the Board of Supervisors, being fair-minded at some times and voicing odd prejudices at others. The prosecution of Dan White is appallingly feeble, and in another wink-nudge passage Shilts all but accuses the District Attorney's office of deliberately concealing vital but embarrassing evidence: the political machinations that culminated in the loss of White's supervisor seat, i.e., his motive for the assassinations. The reader is hardly surprised at the outcome: White was convicted only of voluntary manslaughter and served less than six years in jail for the premeditated slayings of two men. At the verdict's announcement, a dispatcher sings "Danny Boy" over the police radio, the least of many overt examples of police approval of White's actions.
Milk's dream of gays and straights living side by side is tarnished in general by the riots following White's trial, and wrecked specifically by the continued straight evacuation of the Castro neighborhood. Even in the 1980s Shilts saw the Castro gays become apathetic about politics and civil rights. Gays living in the cities had the dream of equality already realized for them in many ways, while those living in the rest of America were too few and too isolated to band together to help themselves. This apathy arguably persists today; young people have too much on their minds for abstract notions of equality and progress to warrant more than an occasional monetary donation or an article shared on Facebook.
Milk was a rare man at a rare time. We haven't seen his like since.
February 5, 2022
I’ve been familiar with Harvey Milk’s story for years. I’ve read about him in books covering LGBTQ+ history and seen the biopic Milk, but I always knew that I wanted to delve more deeply into his life. And that is totally what Randy Shilts delivers here.
You get to know about Harvey before he moved to San Francisco, his friends and lovers, and how he came to care about politics. Something that was included here that I wasn’t expecting was the history of gay rights and politics in San Francisco before Harvey was involved. It provided a great background to understand the context of what was happening once Harvey started running for office. Also, there was significant time spent on what happened after the assassination, how his friends and lovers coped, how his successor was appointed, the awful outcome of the Dan White trial, and his legacy as an advocate for gay rights.
At times the book could get a little bit confusing because there were so many names to keep straight. Occasionally I would get lost and not be able to remember how a specific person was connected to Harvey. But overall I thought this was a great read. It’s interesting to see a snapshot of the gay rights movement before the complete upheaval of the AIDS epidemic.
You get to know about Harvey before he moved to San Francisco, his friends and lovers, and how he came to care about politics. Something that was included here that I wasn’t expecting was the history of gay rights and politics in San Francisco before Harvey was involved. It provided a great background to understand the context of what was happening once Harvey started running for office. Also, there was significant time spent on what happened after the assassination, how his friends and lovers coped, how his successor was appointed, the awful outcome of the Dan White trial, and his legacy as an advocate for gay rights.
At times the book could get a little bit confusing because there were so many names to keep straight. Occasionally I would get lost and not be able to remember how a specific person was connected to Harvey. But overall I thought this was a great read. It’s interesting to see a snapshot of the gay rights movement before the complete upheaval of the AIDS epidemic.
January 16, 2009
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts is by far one of the most remarkable books I have ever read. For those of you who have seen Sean Penn in Milk, the movie only provided glimpse into the complex man and the times he lived in. Randy Shilts goes beyond and tells not only of story of Harvey Milk but the rich history of the modern day GLBT movement.
The details of early homosexuality of how gay and lesbians were treated in San Francisco offer insight on a subject, which sadly I knew little about. Shilts attention to detail helps create a historical map of how things were, how they changed when Harvey arrived in San Francisco and the legacy he left behind after his murder. Harvey’s impact on society reached across this country and created a new found awareness for everyone in the GLBT movement.
As so many people have recently stated, it is an ironic twist that timing of the movie about Harvey’s life came out when it did. Reading The Mayor of Castro Street further reinforces this same notion. We live in society which just fought a major battle over Prop 8 in California, which banned homosexuals the equal right to marry. Harvey fought against Prop 6, which banned teachers, doctors and others, professionals if they were openly gay. Harvey preached of hope, as a nation we just elected a President who preached of change, hopefully this time around we get the message and it sticks.
There are so many things I could say about this incredible book but I will leave it on these two thoughts. It is rare that a book makes me cry. Like the movie, the section detailing the murder of Milk made me cry. It was one of those few instances, when you even though you know the outcome, you are compelled to pay attention to every detail as Shilts recreates them.
Finally, I think this an important book for everyone to read. Even if you don’t feel you are part of the GLBT community, like Harvey said, you got to give people hope. This book offers hope and hope that as a society we can better ourselves and the society we live in.
The details of early homosexuality of how gay and lesbians were treated in San Francisco offer insight on a subject, which sadly I knew little about. Shilts attention to detail helps create a historical map of how things were, how they changed when Harvey arrived in San Francisco and the legacy he left behind after his murder. Harvey’s impact on society reached across this country and created a new found awareness for everyone in the GLBT movement.
As so many people have recently stated, it is an ironic twist that timing of the movie about Harvey’s life came out when it did. Reading The Mayor of Castro Street further reinforces this same notion. We live in society which just fought a major battle over Prop 8 in California, which banned homosexuals the equal right to marry. Harvey fought against Prop 6, which banned teachers, doctors and others, professionals if they were openly gay. Harvey preached of hope, as a nation we just elected a President who preached of change, hopefully this time around we get the message and it sticks.
There are so many things I could say about this incredible book but I will leave it on these two thoughts. It is rare that a book makes me cry. Like the movie, the section detailing the murder of Milk made me cry. It was one of those few instances, when you even though you know the outcome, you are compelled to pay attention to every detail as Shilts recreates them.
Finally, I think this an important book for everyone to read. Even if you don’t feel you are part of the GLBT community, like Harvey said, you got to give people hope. This book offers hope and hope that as a society we can better ourselves and the society we live in.
March 3, 2014
While this book wasn't technically perfect, it did fire up a range of emotions in me especially toward the end rocketing it from the 4 star category to 5 star category. It was amazing how sad and angry I could get when I already knew the general outline of how things turned out.
Some thoughts:
(1) I had never really understood the rioting that happens after many heinous legal verdicts
before excepts perhaps in a abstract way. Reading about the White Night riots (after the Dan White trial and verdict), I could viscerally understand them.
(2) It was great to see the things the movie (understandably for time and narrative reasons) left out. This included the White Night riots and the minutia of politics in California in the 60s and 70s (among others).
(3) The book provoked some great food for thought in my head about politics and queer strategy.
(4) There should be an alternative history novel in which Harvey Milk isn't assassinated.
(5) Listening to the audiobook in tandem with reading the physical book enhanced my enjoyment of the book.
(6) Harvey Milk was a great speech maker and jokester.
Some thoughts:
(1) I had never really understood the rioting that happens after many heinous legal verdicts
before excepts perhaps in a abstract way. Reading about the White Night riots (after the Dan White trial and verdict), I could viscerally understand them.
(2) It was great to see the things the movie (understandably for time and narrative reasons) left out. This included the White Night riots and the minutia of politics in California in the 60s and 70s (among others).
(3) The book provoked some great food for thought in my head about politics and queer strategy.
(4) There should be an alternative history novel in which Harvey Milk isn't assassinated.
(5) Listening to the audiobook in tandem with reading the physical book enhanced my enjoyment of the book.
(6) Harvey Milk was a great speech maker and jokester.
March 15, 2014
Previously having read And The Band Played On, I knew I would enjoy this book before I read it.
Since Shilts was a journalist and an author, his narration is gripping. For many years, I have attempted to understand the experiences of my gay brothers and sisters so I can be a better ally. And books like these are a good way to begin.
I had seen Milk, but I liked learning more about him as a person, as opposed to the skin-deep version we got in the movie.
If you have any interest in GLBT Studies, The Mayor of Castro Street definitely needs to be on your must-read list.
Since Shilts was a journalist and an author, his narration is gripping. For many years, I have attempted to understand the experiences of my gay brothers and sisters so I can be a better ally. And books like these are a good way to begin.
I had seen Milk, but I liked learning more about him as a person, as opposed to the skin-deep version we got in the movie.
If you have any interest in GLBT Studies, The Mayor of Castro Street definitely needs to be on your must-read list.
February 8, 2014
This is a great story about a tremendous personality, but unfortunately, not a very good book.
Harvey Milk is a legend, and the best thing that the author did here was to bring his personality to life in these pages. As the book went on, I liked him more and more, I was in his corner, I wanted him to succeed and I was deeply sad at his end, though I knew it was coming. Unfortunately, however, his charisma wasn't enough to hold my attention through the book. And the focus on his life faltered and become more and more sporadic as the book went on.
Perhaps this is because Randy Shilts was well-intentioned but overly ambitious in everything he wanted to cover. I feel like he couldn't decide whether the focus of his book was Harvey or the gay rights movement. Granted, the two were certainly interlinked, but as a reader, it felt like he couldn't decide, shifting the narrative from Harvey's perspective to suddenly including wide-ranging events that occurred elsewhere, without providing adequate context or linkage. As a result, the book wandered tremendously, more so as it went on, with new characters introduced virtually every three pages. As a reader, I found it hard to keep up, and was left confused and eventually bored.
Another problem I had was that Shilts assumed I knew a lot more about American state-level politics than I actually did. I don't know whether it's because I'm not American or not politically minded – either way, it added to the confusion.
I end the way I begun: In these pages was outlined the life of a great man, for whom we should all have tremendous respect. That, however, didn't save this from being a very scattered, overly ambitious and somewhat boring book. I would strongly recommend you google and learn more about Harvey Milk: His was an inspirational and important life, and we could all learn something from it. But reading this book is not the best way to do that, in my opinion.
Harvey Milk is a legend, and the best thing that the author did here was to bring his personality to life in these pages. As the book went on, I liked him more and more, I was in his corner, I wanted him to succeed and I was deeply sad at his end, though I knew it was coming. Unfortunately, however, his charisma wasn't enough to hold my attention through the book. And the focus on his life faltered and become more and more sporadic as the book went on.
Perhaps this is because Randy Shilts was well-intentioned but overly ambitious in everything he wanted to cover. I feel like he couldn't decide whether the focus of his book was Harvey or the gay rights movement. Granted, the two were certainly interlinked, but as a reader, it felt like he couldn't decide, shifting the narrative from Harvey's perspective to suddenly including wide-ranging events that occurred elsewhere, without providing adequate context or linkage. As a result, the book wandered tremendously, more so as it went on, with new characters introduced virtually every three pages. As a reader, I found it hard to keep up, and was left confused and eventually bored.
Another problem I had was that Shilts assumed I knew a lot more about American state-level politics than I actually did. I don't know whether it's because I'm not American or not politically minded – either way, it added to the confusion.
I end the way I begun: In these pages was outlined the life of a great man, for whom we should all have tremendous respect. That, however, didn't save this from being a very scattered, overly ambitious and somewhat boring book. I would strongly recommend you google and learn more about Harvey Milk: His was an inspirational and important life, and we could all learn something from it. But reading this book is not the best way to do that, in my opinion.
June 29, 2020
In an effort to continue my education this year in history that is not straight, white, cis, etc., I wanted to begin a journey in adding more LGBTQ histories/stories/media to my library with a look at Harvey Milk. When I found that Randy Shilts had a biography of him, I immediately chose this. "And the Band Played On" is one of my all-time favorite non-fiction works, and this book -- which is Shilts first work, but the second of his I've read -- did not disappoint.
I had a steep learning curve for most of the content of this. Having been public school educated in the bible belt, I have almost no foundational background for LGBTQ history. I also did not get much in college, though that is due more to my own lopsided pursuits in my electives, which is regrettable, as I minored in history (I gleefully bogged myself down in Tudor England...). The first time I heard of Harvey Milk was when the Sean Penn movie came out, and I vaguely remember thinking he was a fictional character, which is appalling. I was expecting a straightforward biography of him, and what I got was so much more.
Reading this was, from beginning to end, like watching an archer release an arrow from a bow. I fixated on it, mesmerized, watching it spiral, gain momentum, and travel, until it pierced a bullseye at the pivotal moment (the assassination) and then vibrated violently and tensely with the after affect of its landing. This book was at once an intense, sometimes invasive, and thorough examination of Harvey Milk's life, but it was also a smooth education in Castro Street itself, the origins and power of the gay political movement, and even the nuances of politics within the gay community that Milk represented.
I was fascinated, humbled, and enraged by all that I learned. Despite it being a produce of 1984, it is obviously scathingly relevant today. Though Pride month guided me towards this, I did not realize how much it would also resonate in terms of research and education police brutality, the bigoted structure of policing in this country, and the grotesque history of the police as (more often than not) purveyors of oppressive and racist/homophobic violence rather than heroes. If the tales of injustice and homophobia Milk and his movement fought against were not sobering enough, the detailed illustration of Dan White's trial, and how abysmal the miscarriage of justice was, drove the points home.
This is the latest in a long line of historical media I've consumed lately that focuses on the late 1970s, and what has been eye opening to me is how devastating conservative backlash is to true progress. The sheer revolution of women's rights, gay rights, civil rights, etc. in the late 70s was so inspiring, and yet the crushing defeats handed down by the subsequent election of "take back the country" mongrels like Reagan reflects exactly what has happened in the past four years re: Trump following Obama. It is haunting and harrowing to know that history repeats itself in such a way.
Shilts is an outstanding journalist, and I would not have trusted my education on this topic to anyone but him. The sheer attention to detail he gives when ensuring he tells the whole story is something that seems to be missing more and more lately -- and Shilts is always able to tell the whole story without also making both sides equal. He is fully aware that "sharing both sides" is not the same as "giving equal credence to both sides" -- a feat that was showcased brilliantly in "And the Band Played On" and is no less incredible here.
In his notes, he states: "I can only answer that I tried to tell the truth and, if not be objective, at least be fair; history is not served when reporters prize trepidation and propriety over the robust journalistic duty to tell the whole story."
It is a damned shame we lost a man like Shilts too soon. I look forward to reading his third and final book in the near future. He is a credit to journalism the likes of which is rarely seen. And it's a damn shame that Harvey Milk, too, was taken from us, a man who -- one can tell from his speeches alone -- was perhaps one of America's truest patriots.
I had a steep learning curve for most of the content of this. Having been public school educated in the bible belt, I have almost no foundational background for LGBTQ history. I also did not get much in college, though that is due more to my own lopsided pursuits in my electives, which is regrettable, as I minored in history (I gleefully bogged myself down in Tudor England...). The first time I heard of Harvey Milk was when the Sean Penn movie came out, and I vaguely remember thinking he was a fictional character, which is appalling. I was expecting a straightforward biography of him, and what I got was so much more.
Reading this was, from beginning to end, like watching an archer release an arrow from a bow. I fixated on it, mesmerized, watching it spiral, gain momentum, and travel, until it pierced a bullseye at the pivotal moment (the assassination) and then vibrated violently and tensely with the after affect of its landing. This book was at once an intense, sometimes invasive, and thorough examination of Harvey Milk's life, but it was also a smooth education in Castro Street itself, the origins and power of the gay political movement, and even the nuances of politics within the gay community that Milk represented.
I was fascinated, humbled, and enraged by all that I learned. Despite it being a produce of 1984, it is obviously scathingly relevant today. Though Pride month guided me towards this, I did not realize how much it would also resonate in terms of research and education police brutality, the bigoted structure of policing in this country, and the grotesque history of the police as (more often than not) purveyors of oppressive and racist/homophobic violence rather than heroes. If the tales of injustice and homophobia Milk and his movement fought against were not sobering enough, the detailed illustration of Dan White's trial, and how abysmal the miscarriage of justice was, drove the points home.
This is the latest in a long line of historical media I've consumed lately that focuses on the late 1970s, and what has been eye opening to me is how devastating conservative backlash is to true progress. The sheer revolution of women's rights, gay rights, civil rights, etc. in the late 70s was so inspiring, and yet the crushing defeats handed down by the subsequent election of "take back the country" mongrels like Reagan reflects exactly what has happened in the past four years re: Trump following Obama. It is haunting and harrowing to know that history repeats itself in such a way.
Shilts is an outstanding journalist, and I would not have trusted my education on this topic to anyone but him. The sheer attention to detail he gives when ensuring he tells the whole story is something that seems to be missing more and more lately -- and Shilts is always able to tell the whole story without also making both sides equal. He is fully aware that "sharing both sides" is not the same as "giving equal credence to both sides" -- a feat that was showcased brilliantly in "And the Band Played On" and is no less incredible here.
In his notes, he states: "I can only answer that I tried to tell the truth and, if not be objective, at least be fair; history is not served when reporters prize trepidation and propriety over the robust journalistic duty to tell the whole story."
It is a damned shame we lost a man like Shilts too soon. I look forward to reading his third and final book in the near future. He is a credit to journalism the likes of which is rarely seen. And it's a damn shame that Harvey Milk, too, was taken from us, a man who -- one can tell from his speeches alone -- was perhaps one of America's truest patriots.
June 17, 2025
Absolutely fantastic, a portrait of a dynamic man and a historic movement that completely absorbed me. I loved the personality and humor of the writing, and the author managed to hold my attention and get me interested in the complex mechanics of politics, campaigning, and governance. The book gave a complete view of Harvey Milk’s vices and virtues in both his personal and political lives, and also painted portraits of the many, many people around him. I am amazed that the narrative biography was able to keep so many people and events organized and understandable while also telling a fascinating story. While the murder of Harvey Milk was an atrocity, the end of the book filled me with hope. It was published in 1982 by an openly gay journalist who died of AIDS 12 years after writing it, and this perspective so soon after Milk’s murder left a lot of things open-ended, with no long-term perspective about Milk’s impact or the trajectory of LGBT community. I looked up the Wikipedia page listing all openly gay politicians in the US and was struck by the dozens of LGBT individuals elected in all 50 states, with representation up to the federal level. This book made me realize that even as things seem bleak, there really is so much progress we can see.
October 13, 2021
Harvey Milk's remarkable life, including his transformation from Goldwater conservative to gay rights activist, campaigning for office, and finally becoming the first openly gay elected official in California, would be plenty fascinating without its tragic end. Shilts brings to life the LGBT scene of 1970s San Francisco right along with Milk himself - a complex figure the author portrays in depth, not always flatteringly. (In fact, I was a little surprised to find I didn't find the man all that likable, his admirable political stance notwithstanding.) An illuminating read about a major figure in LGBT history.
June 2, 2025
“The entire story of the life and death of Harvey Milk rang so true to the experiences of gays in throughout the country because it already seemed a part of the homosexual collective unconscious…So for years after Harvey’s death, when full moments fell over a gay demonstration and the old slogans felt thin, someone could shout, ‘Harvey Milk lives,’ and it would not be hollow rhetoric; Harvey Milk did live, as a metaphor for the homosexual experience in America.”
This book was fantastic! Both incredibly well-researched and inspiring. I really enjoyed how much of the broader gay liberation movement was interwoven throughout the book; after all, it shaped Harvey’s life, and vice versa. As a homosexual living in 21st-century New York City, I can often take for granted the general acceptance of LGBTQ people; however, the numerous examples of police brutality against gays and ballot initiatives to deprive gays of rights helps remind me of the fight that many fought for civil rights.
This book was fantastic! Both incredibly well-researched and inspiring. I really enjoyed how much of the broader gay liberation movement was interwoven throughout the book; after all, it shaped Harvey’s life, and vice versa. As a homosexual living in 21st-century New York City, I can often take for granted the general acceptance of LGBTQ people; however, the numerous examples of police brutality against gays and ballot initiatives to deprive gays of rights helps remind me of the fight that many fought for civil rights.
January 8, 2021
So I grew up in the Bay Area and was in the same school as Mayor Moscone's son when the mayor was shot. I couldn't have cared less about SF politics in those days so this book was great for learning about the intricacies of the political change happening in the late 70s in San Francisco. So I learned a lot. A lot of info about the personal lives of Milk. More than I needed. But the intersection of Dan White, Dianne Feinstein, George Moscone, and Quentin Kopp was really interesting.
January 20, 2023
took me one mill yrs to read and kind of skimmed by the end and a little outdated but overall super interesting look at sf government and harvey milk but also like a lot of other people
September 4, 2022
God this book made me angry.
July 24, 2013
So many things to say on this one! Long review. This is a great read for those not only interested in the history of gay rights, but also those interested in biographies of dynamic political leaders and the powerful change they can inspire in people, despite -- and/or because of -- their personal lives and complex character profiles.
Harvey Milk is super fascinating, period. In some ways, he was a consummate politician, shaking hands everywhere he went, obsessed with the concept of "political theatre," forging alliances, getting the media to present the story he wanted told... But he was also a real idealist and a frustratingly stubborn public representative for the underserved community, which is not that easy to find in a big city anymore. It sounds like he never compromised on a damn thing when it came to the big stuff. I get a little grossed out whenever I interact with politicians because I feel like they're 700% focused on trying to win votes and force their agenda. Half the time I don't agree with them, and the other half, I may agree with part of it, but I don't really like the person because they're just smarmy or whatever. And you can definitely see from this book that Harvey Milk was obsessed with winning votes and furthering his agenda, but the agenda was always about fundamentally important community development issues -- expanding rights for the vulnerable, fighting corporate interests, and developing cities from the inside instead of the outside.
Another thing I liked about this book is that it presented a neutral profile of a politician who didn't have a pearly white chaste personal life. I sincerely don't give a single solitary shit what politicians do in their personal life, as long as they're not hypocritizing against their own political platforms or committing some sort of crime. Maybe this is why I still love Bill Clinton - because I agree with the majority of his actions as President (and 99% of his actions post-President), and I never judged Hilary (who is also mah girl) for not leaving him - because it is absolutely none of our business and it has literally nothing to do with their jobs of serving us as public officials. This book unabashedly shows Harvey Milk as a free-lovin' guy who had a lot of boyfriends (even when he had serious boyfriends), and again, it literally had no effect on his work as a Supervisor. Randy Shilts was also open about the fact that he was pretty demanding and not that cool sometimes, so I appreciated that an honest look at that.
I would also highly recommend reading the speeches in the appendix because they're truly awesome take-no-shit calls for action. At the same time, those speeches were a big bummer because he actually talked a lot about non-exclusively gay issues like fighting big business and tourist interests, making San Francisco an accessible place to live, developing neighborhood-centric city plans... and depending on which report you look at, San Francisco is now in the top 5 most expensive cities in America to live in, above LA, Boston, DC, etc. Such is the legacy of those with unpopular ideas, I guess.
What I was not expecting from this book was the final 50 pages, and this is because of my own ignorance of what happened in the aftermath of Milk's death. It's weird to say spoiler alert, as it happened like 30+ years ago, but it is absolutely insane what happened to Milk's murderer in the trial. It recalls a lot of ridiculous non-murder verdict in the past 20 years (including 2013).
One small note is that the edition I read wasn't really updated from its original 1980 publication date so I had to do some Googling afterwards to find out what everyone was up to.
Overall a really fascinating political read.
Harvey Milk is super fascinating, period. In some ways, he was a consummate politician, shaking hands everywhere he went, obsessed with the concept of "political theatre," forging alliances, getting the media to present the story he wanted told... But he was also a real idealist and a frustratingly stubborn public representative for the underserved community, which is not that easy to find in a big city anymore. It sounds like he never compromised on a damn thing when it came to the big stuff. I get a little grossed out whenever I interact with politicians because I feel like they're 700% focused on trying to win votes and force their agenda. Half the time I don't agree with them, and the other half, I may agree with part of it, but I don't really like the person because they're just smarmy or whatever. And you can definitely see from this book that Harvey Milk was obsessed with winning votes and furthering his agenda, but the agenda was always about fundamentally important community development issues -- expanding rights for the vulnerable, fighting corporate interests, and developing cities from the inside instead of the outside.
Another thing I liked about this book is that it presented a neutral profile of a politician who didn't have a pearly white chaste personal life. I sincerely don't give a single solitary shit what politicians do in their personal life, as long as they're not hypocritizing against their own political platforms or committing some sort of crime. Maybe this is why I still love Bill Clinton - because I agree with the majority of his actions as President (and 99% of his actions post-President), and I never judged Hilary (who is also mah girl) for not leaving him - because it is absolutely none of our business and it has literally nothing to do with their jobs of serving us as public officials. This book unabashedly shows Harvey Milk as a free-lovin' guy who had a lot of boyfriends (even when he had serious boyfriends), and again, it literally had no effect on his work as a Supervisor. Randy Shilts was also open about the fact that he was pretty demanding and not that cool sometimes, so I appreciated that an honest look at that.
I would also highly recommend reading the speeches in the appendix because they're truly awesome take-no-shit calls for action. At the same time, those speeches were a big bummer because he actually talked a lot about non-exclusively gay issues like fighting big business and tourist interests, making San Francisco an accessible place to live, developing neighborhood-centric city plans... and depending on which report you look at, San Francisco is now in the top 5 most expensive cities in America to live in, above LA, Boston, DC, etc. Such is the legacy of those with unpopular ideas, I guess.
What I was not expecting from this book was the final 50 pages, and this is because of my own ignorance of what happened in the aftermath of Milk's death. It's weird to say spoiler alert, as it happened like 30+ years ago, but it is absolutely insane what happened to Milk's murderer in the trial. It recalls a lot of ridiculous non-murder verdict in the past 20 years (including 2013).
One small note is that the edition I read wasn't really updated from its original 1980 publication date so I had to do some Googling afterwards to find out what everyone was up to.
Overall a really fascinating political read.
July 11, 2017
All these years I have wondered why the media have described the double assassination of 1978 as THE MURDER OF HARVEY MILK (oh, and the mayor of San Francisco too). This book explains why. We learn all about Harvey Milk and what a big personality he had, what a terrific advocate he was -- not just for gay rights, but for all the rights of anyone within range -- and what a gifted grassroots politician he was. Shilts also paints a wonderful portrait of the many, many changes going on in San Francisco at the time, some of them quite ominous. I got a totally new perspective on Dianne Feinstein, among many other characters in this story. This makes a great companion piece for Talbot's SEASON OF THE WITCH, as well as Shilts's own AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. Beautifully written in Randy Shilts's crystal-clear style. Don't miss it.
June 19, 2017
I love Harvey Milk. I really do. But after reading this book, I think I like him a little less. I love that Randy Shilts can write about my hero, flaws and all, and still leave me humbled. Humbled that even the people we idolize are actually, like all of us, flawed human beings.
June 4, 2017
When in San Francisco one reads about its slain royalty.
January 30, 2022
“He had spent the last years of his life clinging tenaciously to the naive notion that one person could change the world. Because he so dumbly believed he could change the world, Harvey Milk did.”
June 5, 2021
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk is a biography of Harvey Milk, one of America's first openly gay politicians. Randy Shilts, an American journalist and author wrote this biography.
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Although he was one of America's first openly gay public officials, San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk would probably have escaped biographical attention if he had not been gunned down at age 49 by the same man who shot mayor George Moscone.
Martyrdom catapulted Milk into mythic status. Milk's career had become a metaphor for the homosexual experience in America and a portrait of a gay everyman – from the early sense of being different and living a double life to arriving on Castro Street and coming out and gay hippiedom in the late Sixties, which ended up in tragedy – his assassination.
Shilts' interwoven account of the emergence of San Francisco as a gay Mecca is well documented as he argues that that Milk was not merely a gay politician, but an urban populist who believed passionately that a gay person's success in public life would be a symbol of hope to all the disenfranchised.
Whether Milk could have successfully crossed over as a politician is unclear, though he managed sometimes to forge alliances with unlikely groups and he was both an adept ward politician and a virtuoso manipulator of the media.
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk is written and researched rather well. Shilts manages to balance the public Harvey Milk with an account of his private life – including some disastrous lovers, that is honest and illuminating without being lurid. Nor does Shilts deny that there was always an element of con in Milk, or that a part of him never took politics seriously. Though Shilts offers perhaps a bit too much of the intricacies of San Francisco politics for outsiders, his convincing presentation of Milk's life as a mirror of the times should transcend a purely gay audience.
All in all, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk is a first rate account of the emergence of gay culture in San Francisco and the rise of homosexual in politics.
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Although he was one of America's first openly gay public officials, San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk would probably have escaped biographical attention if he had not been gunned down at age 49 by the same man who shot mayor George Moscone.
Martyrdom catapulted Milk into mythic status. Milk's career had become a metaphor for the homosexual experience in America and a portrait of a gay everyman – from the early sense of being different and living a double life to arriving on Castro Street and coming out and gay hippiedom in the late Sixties, which ended up in tragedy – his assassination.
Shilts' interwoven account of the emergence of San Francisco as a gay Mecca is well documented as he argues that that Milk was not merely a gay politician, but an urban populist who believed passionately that a gay person's success in public life would be a symbol of hope to all the disenfranchised.
Whether Milk could have successfully crossed over as a politician is unclear, though he managed sometimes to forge alliances with unlikely groups and he was both an adept ward politician and a virtuoso manipulator of the media.
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk is written and researched rather well. Shilts manages to balance the public Harvey Milk with an account of his private life – including some disastrous lovers, that is honest and illuminating without being lurid. Nor does Shilts deny that there was always an element of con in Milk, or that a part of him never took politics seriously. Though Shilts offers perhaps a bit too much of the intricacies of San Francisco politics for outsiders, his convincing presentation of Milk's life as a mirror of the times should transcend a purely gay audience.
All in all, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk is a first rate account of the emergence of gay culture in San Francisco and the rise of homosexual in politics.
August 6, 2017
Beside the lines "You gotta give 'em hope" in my copy of this book I wrote a small note that said, "I love you Harvey." In reality I'm almost positive I would have a far more nuanced opinions or Harvey Milk, but reading about the man gives me hope and so I love him for it.
I credit whatever pre-"coming out" self-awareness with the movie Milk which brought my attention to Harvey Milk in the first place. Watching that film I fell for the teenager Paul who's in a wheel chair and crying over the phone as he talks to Harvey. Though this scene was altered slightly from the real details Shilts notes that such a call did place and it did remind Harvey that his role in society wasn't just as a politician, but as a figure for a larger idea. Queer people existed, but the only way to ensure that their existence could continue unmolested or unhindered was by participating in democracy.
The Mayor of Castro Street is as much a political book as it is a biography of Harvey Milk, for it follows the rise and assassination of Harvey but then also notes the political aftermath and legacy of Milk's administration. It follows people like Cleve Jones who would go on to be the founder of the AIDs quilt foundations and Ann Kronenburg who would establish her own political legacy.
But Milk is still the focus and in this biography the reader gets a full sense of the man as an individual who was often extremely flawed, but who managed to inspire people with his sense of drive, purpose, faith in the political system, and his concern for helping people. Shilts follows the people that Harvey impacted, and while at first that was only a small handful of people, usually young men who would become his lover, over-time it would become the entire city of San Francisco and then eventually the United States.
Reading this book I often fell in love with Harvey Dent, because even when he was a selfish man who thought more with his dick than his head, his passion and his idealism won me over. Hope is not always easy to have in queer community, but Harvey Milk gives me hope.
I credit whatever pre-"coming out" self-awareness with the movie Milk which brought my attention to Harvey Milk in the first place. Watching that film I fell for the teenager Paul who's in a wheel chair and crying over the phone as he talks to Harvey. Though this scene was altered slightly from the real details Shilts notes that such a call did place and it did remind Harvey that his role in society wasn't just as a politician, but as a figure for a larger idea. Queer people existed, but the only way to ensure that their existence could continue unmolested or unhindered was by participating in democracy.
The Mayor of Castro Street is as much a political book as it is a biography of Harvey Milk, for it follows the rise and assassination of Harvey but then also notes the political aftermath and legacy of Milk's administration. It follows people like Cleve Jones who would go on to be the founder of the AIDs quilt foundations and Ann Kronenburg who would establish her own political legacy.
But Milk is still the focus and in this biography the reader gets a full sense of the man as an individual who was often extremely flawed, but who managed to inspire people with his sense of drive, purpose, faith in the political system, and his concern for helping people. Shilts follows the people that Harvey impacted, and while at first that was only a small handful of people, usually young men who would become his lover, over-time it would become the entire city of San Francisco and then eventually the United States.
Reading this book I often fell in love with Harvey Dent, because even when he was a selfish man who thought more with his dick than his head, his passion and his idealism won me over. Hope is not always easy to have in queer community, but Harvey Milk gives me hope.
July 8, 2019
Fascinating and complex, both the book and its subject. I loved the movie "Milk," and I read this book after visiting the Human Rights Center in Milk's old camera store on Castro Street. Now I want to rewatch the movie and go back to Castro Street.
I would have liked to give this 5 stars, and on some levels it deserves it, but there were enough writing problems that I just couldn't. Shilts had a habit of using a person's first and last name in two different places in the same sentence, as if he wanted to avoid using a pronoun, and sometimes it took me a second to realize he wasn't talking about two different people. Lots of typos too, which may have been the fault of the editor (researchers don't POUR over documents....I hope).
I read a 2008 edition, and I wish they'd added an afterward to tell what has happened in the meantime to some of the major players.
I would have liked to give this 5 stars, and on some levels it deserves it, but there were enough writing problems that I just couldn't. Shilts had a habit of using a person's first and last name in two different places in the same sentence, as if he wanted to avoid using a pronoun, and sometimes it took me a second to realize he wasn't talking about two different people. Lots of typos too, which may have been the fault of the editor (researchers don't POUR over documents....I hope).
I read a 2008 edition, and I wish they'd added an afterward to tell what has happened in the meantime to some of the major players.
March 4, 2024
Shilts does a good job of painting the broader context of San Francisco politics and the history of gays in the city and America around his biography of Harvey Milk, who becomes a metaphor and symbol of that era's struggle for dignity and equality.
The writing is so-so. Shilts is a little murky with his chronology at times and for some reason switches between individuals' first and last names. The reporting, however, on history and politics is top-notch. It's clear that Shilts had a great grasp of the local politics and all its working parts.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get any less sad as you read, already knowing how the book will end. The sheer violence of the assassinations is just chilling and the subsequent trial deeply enraging. Nonetheless, a must-read for understanding a key era and figure in the gay rights movement and San Francisco history.
The writing is so-so. Shilts is a little murky with his chronology at times and for some reason switches between individuals' first and last names. The reporting, however, on history and politics is top-notch. It's clear that Shilts had a great grasp of the local politics and all its working parts.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get any less sad as you read, already knowing how the book will end. The sheer violence of the assassinations is just chilling and the subsequent trial deeply enraging. Nonetheless, a must-read for understanding a key era and figure in the gay rights movement and San Francisco history.
August 26, 2015
For me, to speak about The Mayor of Castro Street is to speak of And The Band Played On, also authored by Shilts, which analyzes the struggles in the political, medical, societal and interpersonal arenas that led to AIDS being allowed to spread before it was treated as a major health issue.
For one thing, many of the political figures featured in Mayor also make an appearance, older and in many cases more solidly settled, in Band. Among others, Cleve Jones, Dianne Feinstein, Dick Pabich or Bill Kraus. But also, and more strikingly as a reader, one can see how working in the Harvey Milk book prepared Shilts for the wider-focused, more ambitious AIDS chronicle. Where The Mayor of Castro Street turns its eye mainly on one man, his entourage and local politics, And The Band Played On goes national, medical, polyvocal.
As has been noted, Shilts doesn't shy away from the complexities of local politics. Instead, he takes the time to walk the reader through concepts such as citywide versus district elections. He doesn't just say that the 1976 elections were manipulated in favor of Art Agnos, but goes into detail about the agreements between two competing Democratic "cabals" in California (the one around Moscone, and the one around Leo McCarthy), and how endorsements and favors can be gained to make the result of an election the one desired by those who already hold the power. It is enlightening for someone trying to understand politics at a medium scale (San Francisco is still a major city, and those elected to public office there move on to become senators and governors), as it doubtlessly was for the young activists who learned the ropes with Milk.
As personable as Harvey Milk was, he didn't exactly set out to make friends. He arrived in San Francisco, and shortly after began campaigning for public office. Gay men and lesbians who had been organizing for years were derided for supporting straight, liberal politicians who promised to be nice to that constituency. Milk was not shy about expressing the opinion that gay people should come out (pretty rich for a man who only came out after both his parents' deaths) and be the candidates instead of supporting them. For doing all this, he gained many enemies.
At the same time, he was incredibly popular among union men and even schoolgirls. Medora Payne, an 11-year old, volunteered for one of his campaigns and was put to work immediately. Milk talked a lot about hope, about the way his being Supervisor gave hope to queer kids in small towns, but he was also generous to his cohorts. Medora Payne was not laughed off, but got to work in a real life, adult campaign. Young people just out of college or with no college education, like Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, Bill Kraus, etc. gained a foothold in politics, got invaluable political experience, developed connections.
Shilts comes to the conclusion that the increasingly vocal gay community needed a legend that reflected their feelings at the time. The figure on which they had poured their sympathy in the 60s had been Judy Garland, a straight actress. Milk was an out gay man. But perhaps Shilts is selling Milk a little short in his own book about the man. While Harvey came out late in life, even though he dated young men, at least one of them only 16 when they started their relationship, also nicknamed friends and lovers based on their ethnicity, and he outed Billy Sipple, there were many factors that set Milk apart. He had a great sense of humor, which won many unlikely people to his cause. He didn't sell out to corporate interests, instead supporting small business and unions in San Francisco. He empowered young people, as I have mentioned. He worked tirelessly and put his convictions before a good salary. He was a mainstream media darling, at a time when no other out gay men were. It's hard to find a gay leader these days that meets some of these qualities, let alone all of them.
Speaking of Judy Garland, however, I must note that David Carter in Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution stressed the point that her death did not cause the Stonewall riots. The kids who caused those riots were not the quiet, moderate gay men who visited her casket, but rather the homeless youths who were disowned by their parents, and were more concerned with getting their next meal and finding a bed for the night than a Hollywood celebrity. I wonder to which extent Shilts contributed to, or whether he even came up with, the Judy Garland and Stonewall myth, because it is now seen as white gays (who at the time decried the riots as harmful to the reputation of the gay community, and sought to distance themselves from them) appropriating a triumph from homeless youths of all races.
But that's my one quibble with The Mayor of Castro Street. I'd definitely recommend this book as a follow up to And The Band Played On, despite the latter taking place after the former. Band is superior, and Mayor lets the reader see not only where Jones, Feinstein, Kraus, et al came from, but also where Shilts himself did.
For one thing, many of the political figures featured in Mayor also make an appearance, older and in many cases more solidly settled, in Band. Among others, Cleve Jones, Dianne Feinstein, Dick Pabich or Bill Kraus. But also, and more strikingly as a reader, one can see how working in the Harvey Milk book prepared Shilts for the wider-focused, more ambitious AIDS chronicle. Where The Mayor of Castro Street turns its eye mainly on one man, his entourage and local politics, And The Band Played On goes national, medical, polyvocal.
As has been noted, Shilts doesn't shy away from the complexities of local politics. Instead, he takes the time to walk the reader through concepts such as citywide versus district elections. He doesn't just say that the 1976 elections were manipulated in favor of Art Agnos, but goes into detail about the agreements between two competing Democratic "cabals" in California (the one around Moscone, and the one around Leo McCarthy), and how endorsements and favors can be gained to make the result of an election the one desired by those who already hold the power. It is enlightening for someone trying to understand politics at a medium scale (San Francisco is still a major city, and those elected to public office there move on to become senators and governors), as it doubtlessly was for the young activists who learned the ropes with Milk.
As personable as Harvey Milk was, he didn't exactly set out to make friends. He arrived in San Francisco, and shortly after began campaigning for public office. Gay men and lesbians who had been organizing for years were derided for supporting straight, liberal politicians who promised to be nice to that constituency. Milk was not shy about expressing the opinion that gay people should come out (pretty rich for a man who only came out after both his parents' deaths) and be the candidates instead of supporting them. For doing all this, he gained many enemies.
At the same time, he was incredibly popular among union men and even schoolgirls. Medora Payne, an 11-year old, volunteered for one of his campaigns and was put to work immediately. Milk talked a lot about hope, about the way his being Supervisor gave hope to queer kids in small towns, but he was also generous to his cohorts. Medora Payne was not laughed off, but got to work in a real life, adult campaign. Young people just out of college or with no college education, like Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, Bill Kraus, etc. gained a foothold in politics, got invaluable political experience, developed connections.
Shilts comes to the conclusion that the increasingly vocal gay community needed a legend that reflected their feelings at the time. The figure on which they had poured their sympathy in the 60s had been Judy Garland, a straight actress. Milk was an out gay man. But perhaps Shilts is selling Milk a little short in his own book about the man. While Harvey came out late in life, even though he dated young men, at least one of them only 16 when they started their relationship, also nicknamed friends and lovers based on their ethnicity, and he outed Billy Sipple, there were many factors that set Milk apart. He had a great sense of humor, which won many unlikely people to his cause. He didn't sell out to corporate interests, instead supporting small business and unions in San Francisco. He empowered young people, as I have mentioned. He worked tirelessly and put his convictions before a good salary. He was a mainstream media darling, at a time when no other out gay men were. It's hard to find a gay leader these days that meets some of these qualities, let alone all of them.
Speaking of Judy Garland, however, I must note that David Carter in Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution stressed the point that her death did not cause the Stonewall riots. The kids who caused those riots were not the quiet, moderate gay men who visited her casket, but rather the homeless youths who were disowned by their parents, and were more concerned with getting their next meal and finding a bed for the night than a Hollywood celebrity. I wonder to which extent Shilts contributed to, or whether he even came up with, the Judy Garland and Stonewall myth, because it is now seen as white gays (who at the time decried the riots as harmful to the reputation of the gay community, and sought to distance themselves from them) appropriating a triumph from homeless youths of all races.
But that's my one quibble with The Mayor of Castro Street. I'd definitely recommend this book as a follow up to And The Band Played On, despite the latter taking place after the former. Band is superior, and Mayor lets the reader see not only where Jones, Feinstein, Kraus, et al came from, but also where Shilts himself did.
May 14, 2021
Incredibly interesting! Well written and quite emotional at times.
October 30, 2023
I can truly say I don't think a book has impacted me as much as this one
November 29, 2023
Had to read for a class, but was actually so good. . . Harvey Milk slayyyyyyyy
December 28, 2022
When I first read about Harvey Milk I couldn't but be a bit like "oh well he was just a city councilor, is that really that big an accomplishment?". However this book does a fantastic job of not only telling the story of Harvey Milk, but establishing the context of LGBT+ rights in the 1970s, a time where being gay was not just taboo, it pretty much was just not a thing, which makes Harvey Milks success even more extraordinary.
He was strange, charismatic, ambitious and horny as fuck, aka a true gay icon.
He was strange, charismatic, ambitious and horny as fuck, aka a true gay icon.
December 30, 2024
So so good. We all collectively say thank you Randy.
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