20 Facts About Randy Shilts

Randy Shilts was an American journalist and author.

Randy Shilts was honored with the 1988 Outstanding Author award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the 1990 Mather Lectureship at Harvard University, and the 1993 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists' Association.

Randy Shilts majored in journalism at the University of Oregon, where he worked on the student newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald, as managing editor.

Randy Shilts's writing focused on LGBT issues, including the struggle for gay rights.

Randy Shilts graduated near the top of his class in 1975, but as an openly gay man, he struggled to find full-time employment in what he characterized as the homophobic environment of newspapers and television stations at that time.

Randy Shilts wrote for gay news magazine The Advocate but quit in 1978 after publisher David Goodstein began requiring employees to participate in EST; Randy Shilts later wrote an expose of Goodstein's brand of EST, the Advocate Experience.

In 1984, Randy Shilts controversially supported closing the city's gay bathhouses.

Randy Shilts's first book, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, is a biography of openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, who was assassinated by a political rival, Dan White, in 1978.

The book made Randy Shilts a trusted commentator on AIDS, to the point that he was the closing speaker at 1989's Fifth International AIDS Conference in Montreal.

Randy Shilts saw himself as a literary journalist in the tradition of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer.

Undaunted by a lack of enthusiasm for his initial proposal for the Harvey Milk biography, Randy Shilts reworked the concept, as he later said, after further reflection:.

Randy Shilts' tenacious reporting was highly praised by others in both the gay and straight communities who saw him as "the pre-eminent chronicler of gay life and spokesman on gay issues".

Randy Shilts was honored with the 1988 Outstanding Author award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the 1990 Mather Lectureship at Harvard University, and the 1993 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists' Association.

In 1999, the Department of Journalism at New York University ranked Randy Shilts's AIDS reporting for the Chronicle between 1981 and 1985 as number 44 on a list of the top 100 works of journalism in the United States in the 20th century.

In 1992, Randy Shilts became ill with Pneumocystis pneumonia and suffered a collapsed lung; the following year, he was diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma.

Randy Shilts died at 42 on February 17,1994, at Davies Medical Center in San Francisco, California, being survived by his partner Barry Barbieri, his mother, and his brothers.

Randy Shilts bequeathed 170 cartons of papers, notes, and research files to the local history section of the San Francisco Public Library.

Randy Shilts remains the most prescient chronicler of 20th century American gay history.

In 2006, Reporter Zero, a half-hour biographical documentary about Randy Shilts featuring interviews with friends and colleagues, was produced and directed by filmmaker Carrie Lozano.

In June 2019, Randy Shilts was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City's Stonewall Inn.