The Journalist of Castro Street

June 1, 2019
Randy Shilts was one of the most prominent contributors to gay culture in the early years of the AIDS epidemic. His best-seller, And the Band Played On (1987), which chronicled the beginning of the AIDS nightmare and the sluggish responses of the medical and political communities to the growing crisis, won the Stonewall Book Award and was made into an award-winning HBO movie. The Mayor of Castro Street (1982) brought into the light the life of Harvey Milk, an openly gay politician who was assassinated because of the stand he took on gay causes in his native San Francisco. Throughout his reporting for the San Francisco Chronicle, Shilts elevated himself to the rank of a nonmedical specialist in AIDS and its consequences, having closely watched, in his dual capacity as advocate and reporter, its spread from an exotic disease impacting young gay men to its worldwide status as a major health problem. Stoner makes the case to support his clams that Shilts' writing changed the world in which it existed. This book is also a major contribution to gay history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)