Schilts, Randy, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk , [1998], New York, Atlantic Books and St Martins Press, 2009, pp. 480 The career of Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to political office in the USA – as a councilor in San Francisco – reflects the rise of the gay community in the 1970s. He was assassinated in November 1978. His life is also the subject of a 1984 documentary film, ‘The Times of Harvey Milk ’, 1984, directed by Rob Epstein, and a feature film ‘Milk ’ 2008, directed by Gus Van Sant.