Randy Shilts

1951-1994

Journalist

A gay journalist covering gay and lesbian issues might be accused of failing to report negative aspects of his community to avoid damaging his cause. But people didn't accuse Randy Shilts of that.

"He was able to separate being an advocate, in the sense of being unapologetic for who he was, from the kind of advocacy that says 'My group can do no wrong -- or at least will not talk about any wrong we do,'" a Time magazine senior writer said.

Shilts was one of the first openly gay journalists hired by a major newspaper when he joined the San Francisco Chronicle as a reporter in 1981

A native of Aurora, Illinois, he began his career in 1977 as a correspondent for The Advocate magazine. After his death, The Advocate called Shilts "perhaps the one person who most influenced national debate about AIDS and gay issues."

He died at age 42 of AIDS, the disease he discussed in his best-known work, And the Band Played On.

Although he wrote The Mayor of Castro Street about assassinated San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk in 1982, it was And the Band Played On in 1987 that made Shilts a respected investigative journalist. The book recorded failures in the medical establishment, the gay community itself and the Reagan administration in dealing with the AIDS pandemic. The book was made into a documentary which first aired in 1993 on HBO.

From his hospital bed as AIDS was claiming his life he completed Conduct Unbecoming, a book about gays in the military. Shilts called it his "definitive statement about homophobia."

Shilts life was about telling the truth. It wasn't about saying the things people wanted to hear. And he did manage to create quite a lot of controversy. But in a community that is often critical but rarely self-critical, there is nothing wrong with a little controversy.