SOURCE: "What He Did for Love," in The Village Voice, Vol. 27, March 23, 1982, p. 40.

Goldstein is an American editor and critic. In the following review of The Mayor of Castro Street, he commends Shilts's objectivity and directness in presenting the events of Harvey Milk's life and career.

In one of those amply underwritten discussions public television is famous for, Earnest Van den Haag and William F. Buckley held forth recently on the subject of gay rights. Secure in his conviction that homosexuality is "a defect," Van den Haag extended an olive branch by referring to "the gay leadership"—and that caused Buckley's brows to rise so high you'd have thought he was engorged with butyl nitrite. "There is no gay leadership," Buckley snorted, and the point was moot.

In a sense, Old Sawtooth is right. Though there have always been homosexuals in politics—in numbers roughly commensurate with their...