The Mayor of Castro Street
“The Mayor of Castro Street”
The Legacy of Harvey Milk
The Mayor of Castro Street, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk was the perfect biography to choose for this project. It not only tells the story of his life and short, radical political career, it also tells of the aftermath of his death, and what it meant to so many people.
The most noted gay movement before the 1970’s and 80’s U.S. movement was in pre-World War II Germany. H. Lucas Ginn states that there were more gay bars and periodicals in 1920 Berlin, the capitol of Gay Germany, than there were in 1980 New York. This movement was of course squashed by the Nazi persecutions.
The bravery and gumption to participate in another such movement, one for people for who are cruelly considered fruits or dykes, this time in America, fell in part to Harvey Milk.
During a battle to stop a proposition in California that would investigate and fire all possible homosexual teachers, Harvey Milk wrote these verses: “I can be killed with ease, I can be cut right down, But I cannot fall back into my closet, I have grown, I am not by myself, I am too many, I am all of us” (Shilts 287). He has become a symbol of hope for all minorities. His constant mantra was always “You gotta give them hope” (Cloud 1). Instead of being simply a liberal, he always focused on bettering society brick by brick by campaigning for the things that he knew needed to be fixed. He considered gays who only supported their liberal friends weak, and fought simply for his own ideals, not for his political party (Shilts 80).
Harvey Milk affected the course of gay history, and ultimately furthered the ideal of civil rights and complete equality for all people.
The author, Randy Shilts, was also a homosexual and was one of the first openly gay journalists hired at a major newspaper. So technically, this book is written from a biased perspective. But this isn’t really an issue. True logic can’t be found in these complex social relationships, so it
The Legacy of Harvey Milk
The Mayor of Castro Street, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk was the perfect biography to choose for this project. It not only tells the story of his life and short, radical political career, it also tells of the aftermath of his death, and what it meant to so many people.
The most noted gay movement before the 1970’s and 80’s U.S. movement was in pre-World War II Germany. H. Lucas Ginn states that there were more gay bars and periodicals in 1920 Berlin, the capitol of Gay Germany, than there were in 1980 New York. This movement was of course squashed by the Nazi persecutions.
The bravery and gumption to participate in another such movement, one for people for who are cruelly considered fruits or dykes, this time in America, fell in part to Harvey Milk.
During a battle to stop a proposition in California that would investigate and fire all possible homosexual teachers, Harvey Milk wrote these verses: “I can be killed with ease, I can be cut right down, But I cannot fall back into my closet, I have grown, I am not by myself, I am too many, I am all of us” (Shilts 287). He has become a symbol of hope for all minorities. His constant mantra was always “You gotta give them hope” (Cloud 1). Instead of being simply a liberal, he always focused on bettering society brick by brick by campaigning for the things that he knew needed to be fixed. He considered gays who only supported their liberal friends weak, and fought simply for his own ideals, not for his political party (Shilts 80).
Harvey Milk affected the course of gay history, and ultimately furthered the ideal of civil rights and complete equality for all people.
The author, Randy Shilts, was also a homosexual and was one of the first openly gay journalists hired at a major newspaper. So technically, this book is written from a biased perspective. But this isn’t really an issue. True logic can’t be found in these complex social relationships, so it
Cited: Shilts, Randy. The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. United States of America: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1982. Print. Cloud, John. “The Pioneer HARVEY MILK.” Time 14 June 1999 : 1-3. Web. 15 May 2011. Ginn, Lucas. “Gay Culture flourished in pre-Nazi Germany.” Update 12 October 1995. Web. 15 May 2011. The Times of Harvey Milk. Dir. Rob Epstein. Black Sand Productions, 1984. Film.