Overview
The Mayor of Castro Street by Randy Shilts chronicles the life of Harvey Milk, the famous gay rights icon who won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him the first openly gay elected official in California.
Milk was a relatively conservative Democrat who raged against “the machine” in populist fashion, demanded equal rights for all (especially gays and lesbians), and believed that government should solve basic problems.
Unfortunately, Milk’s term in office lasted a mere forty-six weeks. Dan White, the Supervisor who lost his seat to Milk, assassinated him and the city’s liberal mayor, George Moscone.
The book does an excellent job covering Harvey Milk’s ambitions, his unlikely rise to power, and the gay rights movement in general. Shilts’ writing is entertaining and Milk’s story, inspiring.
Vote Gay, Buy Gay
What I found most interesting about Milk was his natural political intuition and ability to motivate people to become civically engaged. Indeed, what Milk understood was that minorities could have the greatest impact with collective political and economic clout.
According to Milk, it wasn’t enough for gay people to vote for liberals promising them “crumbs.” Instead, they should be voting for gay candidates who could promise them the “real thing.”
Milk likened his philosophy on effecting change to that of African Americans’ boycotts during the Civil Rights Era. For example, Milk joined forces with a union boycotting six beer distributors that wouldn’t sign a proposed contract.
Gay bars refused to serve these distributors’ beers, and in exchange, gay men received a share of the union jobs. Five of the six companies buckled under the pressure and gave in, with Coors being the only holdout. As a result, the gay community launched a more highly publicized boycott of Coors beer in gay bars.
“‘Those guys in the gay community are real powerful. I don’t think you understand their power yet,’ Baird told [union] officials. ‘They can turn something on and off just like that.'”
Recommendation
I recommend The Mayor of Castro Street. It was informative and entertaining, especially considering I was unaware of virtually all of this history. Harvey’s story is one of hope: the hope that anyone can make a change, and that we all have the capacity to help others.
In fact, Milk repeatedly said that “a true function of public officials is not just to pass laws and approve appropriations, but to give hope.”
“It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.” – Harvey Milk
Get your copy of The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
