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Making—Gay History Tigative Stories by the San Francisco Portunity to Read an Account of His Or Her Own Examiner, a Frightening Picture of U.S

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Making—Gay History Tigative Stories by the San Francisco Portunity to Read an Account of His Or Her Own Examiner, a Frightening Picture of U.S 4—GUARDIAN BOOK REVIEW SUPPLEMENT—SUMMER. 1983 "THE MAYOR OF CASTRO STREET: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HARVEY White, therefore, was found guilty only of MILK" two counts of manslaughter and will be out By Randy Shilts on parole, next January. I Martin's Press, New York, 1982 Shilts's investigative reporting around the trial "588 pp., $9.95, paperback. makes "The Mayor of Castro Street" an important document. From the questionable process of jury selection, to Nazi support for By DAVID FRANCE White at the trial, to the suppression of inves¬ It is not often that a gay person has the op¬ making—gay history tigative stories by the San Francisco portunity to read an account of his or her own Examiner, a frightening picture of U.S. jus¬ history. It is as though we have no history, no tice procedures emerges. Shilts suggests that predecessors. The books that might introduce the deaths of the mayor and the gay super¬ our role models to us number in the dozens; visor benefited the •those that police department, corpo¬ might record our political legacy rate interests which sought to maintain a de¬ amount to even less. Without a past, we must cidedly right-wing majority in city govern¬ recreate gayness with our individual com¬ ment and the once-strong conservative ings-out. .We are, each of us, .the first Democratic machine which was losing politi¬ homosexual and, once we realize thdt, we cal influence. Shilts found these united begin a search for our connection with the forces—if not somehow to blame for the mur¬ past. Every gay history becomes our gay his¬ ders—at least responsible for keeping Dan tory. This is the nature of homosexuality. White from being found 'guilty of murder. Only since the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion Shilts's mistake is in calling his biography have lesbians and gay men been able to find of Harvey Milk a history of San Francisco significant and positive representation in lesbian and gay politics and. therefore, les¬ print. BcK>ks of fiction, and poetry, history and bian gay liberation throughout the coun¬ and theory are finally appearing. It is a com¬ try. His most significant omission is the state plicated task, though, this making up for lost of the lesbian movement during the 1970s. time. In "The Mayor of Castro Street." jour¬ Shilts merely says lesbians did not generally nalist Randy Shilts recognizes this and offers support Milk, reasoning that they "did not up a history of the lesbian and gay movement trust his alliances with drag queens," and as it is discovered the eyes an through of indi¬ noting his lack of close lesbian friends. This vidual. Harvey Milk's history becomes ours. seems to be a belittling acknowledgment of Milk begins like many gays, growing up what may have been serious problems the les¬ feeling somehow odd. He learns in his late bian community had with Milk's politics. teens that his difference is a sexual one. Similarly, Shilts seeks to discredit whaL he- —— By the mid-1950s. Milk had settled into his calls the organized radical element of the les¬ role as a corporate financial analyst: conser¬ Harvey Milk. bian and gay movement for "prostrating vative and very discrete about his sexuality, themselves before the causes of Chicanos and responding to the antigay pogroms world. From of the the development of gay political ily" platform, still represented the majority socialism, even if those causes rejected gays McCarthy period with fear, not rage. clubs to the first as much as gay business association, the viewpoint on the board. Even in the late the political establishment." He Milk's perspective changed during the up¬ gay moderates used the 1970s to entrench 1970s, he believed his constituency would does rejoice in the radical actions taken by surge of the 1960s, and by the time of the themselves in Democratic Party politics. have him oppose pro-gay legislation in any gay people—as long as they appear to be un¬ Stonewall riots, he believed he was not Milk was only one of them, although much form it might take. White ultimately took this organized. And socialists, such as Harry allowed to feel outrage at more anti-gay, violence, liberal, organizing lesbian and gay par¬ as a "mandate" to kill Harvey Milk and the Britt, are treated as significantly as more but that he must. Harvey's history until now moderate ticipation in the Coor's beer boycott in the city's relatively pro-gay mayor. George Mos- figures. is the coming-out scenario of all lesbians and early 1970s and working closely with the cone. And White was right: as an ex-cop, Despite its few understatements. "The gays. It is our common Asian biography. The rest of community and generally with Ihe he received support and money—some Mayor of Castro Street" remains the best the book tells how Milk chose his struggle for working class. $100,000—from police and firefighters who book available about San Francisco gay his¬ gay rights, and how he began to make lesbian But while Milk's significance as a politi¬ cops tory, from a personal and political point of and organized his defense fund; reinstituted gay history, not just discover it. cian was clouded by his liberalism. Shilts and war against the community. view. Even if Harvey Milk is not the "credit Shilts's account of the campaigns which the movement used his assassination as an Shilts is the first author to suggest complic¬ to his proclivity" as he is billed, the book and ultimately led to Milk's as appointment city opportunity to give a more left-leaning in¬ ity on the part of the district attorney pro¬ its author clearly are. Shilts has recorded the commissioner in 1975, and his 1977 election terpretation of the San Francisco political secuting White. His case did not counter any history which Milk helped to make, and all of to the Board of City Supervisors is a humor¬ milieu. defense testimony, and, most importantly, us have lived. ous and insightful record of San Francisco's Dan White, the conservati v'e city super¬ did not seek a mptive in the killings, without David France is a gay activjst who works transformation into the gay capital of the visor voted into office on a "bi ttress the fam¬ which a in New York jury cannot convict for murder.' Qty., . ,. -- i.fi , 1 T a lf\WNAJ2_ vr' By Clarence _Petej^i\4 1 = '' -S" ts- ^ nuhe Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Har- i vey Milk, by Randy.Shilts [St. Martin's, $9.95]. Milk was a political - conservative in the 1950s, his homosexuality closet- - ed; in 1977, when he was elected to the- San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he became the na¬ tion's first openly gay city offi- - ! cial. In 1978, he was slmt to death in city hall. This is what you call an eventful ..life, and Shilts, a reportar fofc" the San Francisco Chromdev has written a remark¬ able book: a biography, a history of the Castro Street gay commu¬ nity and a story of big-city poli¬ tics that, for all of its comdexity, ^ is as readable as a good novel, j -.J.. •' f - .■■.-iY-i V.-- - / 01/20/®® cJiiw®£5iiSB TV, film rights to AIDS study sold; miniseries planned Television and film rights to "And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic" (St. Martin's Press), San Francisco reporter Randy Shilts' critically acclaimed history of the politics, people and events that marked the early years of the AIDS epidemic (1980-85), have been sold to ^gar Scherick Associates, and an agreement is near for an NBC mini- series based on the book. The Holly¬ wood Reporter has learned. Scherick ("Shoot the Moon," "Sleuth," "They Shoot Horses Don't They?") confirmed both the sale and the likelihood of an imminent NBC r-rknttnup/i fin Daze 40 "The disease is a social dilemma of AIDS study monstrous proportions," Scherick add¬ ed, saying the miniseries he envisions continuedfrom page I — will Ik "exciting, entertainiitg and agreement in a brief phone conversa¬ enlightening." tion Thursday with THR. A number of Hollywood's most well- "We intend to begin work today on known production entities made bids the miniseries," Scherick said, empha¬ for the rights, to make either a film or a sizing the uniqueness of the project. miniseries from the story. At least a "This book is very special, and that's half-dozen of those companies submit¬ what's important." He declined to dis¬ ted formal bids that ranged from six cuss the specifics of the deal other than figures to $1 million, according to a to say that the rights buy is the source. In the end, however, the rights "largest" with which he has been asso¬ sale was determined not so much by the ciated and that Shilts will have "close highest dollar figure as by Shilts' con¬ participation" in the projected miniser¬ cern that the rights buyer treat the mate¬ ies, although he will not write (nor does rial with care. he want to write) the teleplay. — Louis Chunovic 9.
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