The Mayor of Castro Street

I had, like Shilts' other book, And the Band Played On, purchased this in the early aughts when I worked at the café attached to a bookstore that was known as The Hellmouth. Prior to reading The Mayor of Castro Street this week, I had already seen the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk in February of 2007 and of course, Gus Van Sant's Milk in the Winter of 2008. But, I distinctly remember the first time I saw Harvey Milk's name. It was probably 1998-ish when I subscribed to Out magazine. In one issue there was a timeline of significant events in gay history and it listed the first high school specifically for LGBT teenagers called Harvey Milk High School. The name is unique and so I never forgot it. Getting back to the book, I suppose what I liked about it was how Shilts never made Harvey into a saint. I can't stand people that do that to those that have passed on; drives me right 'round the bend. It's so disrespectful to paint a person as perfect because you take away their humanity and the things about them that made them special and relate-able. Harvey came across as a man with an agenda, as a fighter, someone that did not back down and was not afraid to be himself no matter what. On the flip side, I didn't like that he outed Oliver Sipple or that he seemed only interested in younger men (that's a pet-peeve of mine - people that are only interested in dating the young. Ugh, it's just so cliché.), but I liked that he annoyed me in that respect. Who wants to admire someone without any irritating flaws? Not me. By the end of the book I was angry, as I knew I would be since the outcome is so outrageously preposterous and infuriating, but thankfully the appendix was Harvey's speeches and his political will. I can't hear the Hope Speech or his will without crying because he had so much more left to do and I know if this world existed without hatred and fear of the differences that make us all so glorious he would still be here - here guiding the youth of today into a more accepting and happier tomorrow. It fucking sucks that it was not to be.