Randy Shilts: ‘Making History While Reporting It’

A new bibliography about Randy Shilts, the history-making gay journalist, has been published. When the Band Played On: The Life of Randy Shilts, America’s Trailblazing Journalist written by Michael G. Lee, hit the bookshelves on October 8 this year. 

Lee writes in his book that Shilts was “making history at the same time he was reporting it.” It’s a great read to mark the 30th anniversary of Shilt’s death, and the 30th anniversary of the first Pride month ever recognized.

The biography features countless interviews with Shilts’ family, friends, ex-boyfriends, and casual flings. It’s well researched from reputable sources and also provides access to Shilts’ personal journals, which give you an intimate peek into what his life was like and what kind of person he was.

Shilts was born the third of six boys in 1951 and was raised in an unstable home in the suburbs of Chicago. His father was a working-class man struggling to get by, and his mother was an alcoholic. He came to the realization that he was a gay man when he turned 21, and at the age of 30, he became the first openly gay reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, quickly garnering national fame. 

He went on to write three books alongside his journalism: The Mayor of Castro Street (1982), his most famous work And The Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1987), and Conduct Unbecoming: Gay & Lesbians in the US Military (1993). 

Unfortunately he died in February 1994 of the very disease he wrote about. He was a HIV and AIDS activist and also one of the casualties of America’s reluctance to act.

Lee is an activist for the HIV and AIDS community as well as an activist for the LGBTQ+ community at large. He’s been fighting for change for over 20 years now. An author, grant writer, and adjunct professor, he graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in English and got a PHD in philosophy as well as an M.A. in social work from the University of Minnesota.

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect author to write about such a legend.

Image courtesy of social media