The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982) By Randy Shilts

I have re-read The Mayor of Castro Street by Randy Shilts each June since it was it published in 1982, but I have never written a review of it. It is a very personal book for me. I call it my bible.

For gay activists, even ones like me who call ourselves “retired from the frontlines” The Mayor is our collective autobiography. Its subtitle … “The Life and Times …” is us, and though we may not march at the head of the parade any longer, it’s OUR parade. This weekend’s Pride Parade will mark my 41^st. And in reality, gay activists may move to the sidewalks, but we never really retire because just living our lives honestly is a political act.

Several years ago, no, more than that I’m afraid, the late and wonderful Paul Varnell, a nationally syndicated gay newspaper columnist in Chicago and close friend, and I, had the delight of jointly interviewing journalist/author RandyShilts over dinner when he was doing a book tour for his epic And the Band Played On.  During the interview I mentioned to Randy (hard to call him Shilts, he was way too cuddly) the importance of The Mayor to me. He said he wrote The Mayor because “the story” needed to be told, however he had never expected it to have the impact on gay readers that it does. 

Randy Shilts

The story details some of the key chapters in the modern day gay rights movement – a historic sea change that has occurred in our lifetimes. While there are skirmishes yet to be fought, and probably re-fought, the war was effectively won this week with the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality. The promise of "equality under the law" has one meaning, you either have it, or you do not; to me it’s never been a difficult concept to grasp.

How far the gay movement has come, and how difficult the road has been, is what will always remain important about The Mayor.  When Harvey Milk and the rest of us were growing up, being gay wasn’t just considered a “perversion” it was an actual criminal offense. At the time, the idea of gay marriage didn’t even rise to the level of science fiction.

People lost their jobs, and were barred from many occupations. They automatically lost the custody of their children, and were usually even denied visitation. Establishments that served gays were routinely extorted by the police for payoffs, and then raided anyway, with the names of those arrested published in newspapers. So-called “professionals” considered barbaric electric shock therapy a “cure.” Gay kids were routinely thrown out by their parents, ostracized and bullied and beaten by their peers. Religious figures made profitable careers out of preaching hatred, and (ironically) called gay men pedophiles. Our relationships were not considered “real” relationships, no matter how many years they had existed. And our government knowingly ignored AIDS until it became an uncontrollable epidemic that began impacting others. And throughout all of this, most -- but not all -- of straight America stood by silently, not wanting to acknowledge what was happening all around them.  

As we celebrate its demise, it is important that we never lose this history. 

The Mayor is the book I always recommend to non-gay people because it, better than any other, describes chapters of American history that they are probably unaware of, even though they lived through it. And its story, our story, my story -- is what I want every young gay person to know, to be proud of, and to never forget.  

Bananas (UK, 2007) By Peter Chapman

Bananas are ubiquitous to comedy – think Woody Allen’s 1971 drug cult classic, or the chorus from The Divine Miss M’s song Twisted (because two heads are better than one), or the Marx Bros. But, this book is not about comedy.  This book is about an early trial run at globalization and so-called "Free Trade" agreements, Reagan, Bush, Clinton & Obama style. And, it's no joke. Bananas, a book by a London-based financial reporter named Peter Chapman, is a decidedly unauthorized biography of the United Fruit Company, the remnants of which are today known as Chiquita.

Chapman’s book, the culmination of a thesis, is a 20^th century history of that aspect of American imperialism that gave the term “banana republic” its present day meaning. And the book is comprehensive, it covers everything from United Fruit’s marketing campaigns, to its supply chain, its internal politics, its overthrowing of Central American governments in alliance with the CIA, the Bay of Pigs, and the Panama Canal. And, it includes an eclectic cast of characters ranging from Teddy Roosevelt, to Carmen Miranda, to Howard Hunt of Watergate notoriety.

It’s the supply chain aspect that led me to this book, if I can digress for a moment. One of my sisters and her husband recently moved to the Kentucky Lake area. In investigating ways to get to and from their new place from Chicago where I live, I looked at Amtrak’s City of New Orleans train (which I’ve traveled on many times). The station nearest their new home is in Fulton, Kentucky. As I’m prone to do, I looked up Fulton on Wikipedia.  I discovered it once billed itself as “The Banana Capital of the World.”  Say what?

It seems that the supply chain for 80% of the bananas shipped to North America used to make a stop in Fulton. In the first half of the twentieth century, bananas were shipped north from the Port of New Orleans on the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad to Chicago, then dispersed east and west. But, early rail refrigeration cars were cooled by blocks of ice, which tended to melt as they passed through the hot and humid South, making it only as far as Fulton before having to be repacked with new blocks of ice – hence, bananas were rather important to the town’s economy. Keep that tidbit of history in mind next time you watch Jeopardy!

   

Back to the book …

Despite my flippancy, this really is a good and frighteningly relevant book. I’m a strong believer that what is wrong with the current political situation in America is that every level of government, regardless of partisan affiliation, has been completely taken over by corporate robber barons.  United Fruit’s history is a how-to manual on that subject. Likewise, our twentieth century foreign policy in Central America was unquestionably dictated by officials in the United Fruit Company, with scare tactics about communist insurgencies (also known as poor people believing in self-rule).  This “Big Banana” pattern is striking similar to how "Big Oil" today dictates American foreign policy in the Persian Gulf, Libya, and Venezuela. Returning to my flippancy ... Bananas offers ample food for thought on the political history front. 

Recommendation:  Yes for history buffs, or anyone working on a marketing degree.