Award-winning journalist and writer of several books about gay and lesbian life, Randy Shilts (1951–1994) graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism in 1975. During his undergraduate years at the UO, Shilts was managing editor of the student newspaper, The Oregon Daily Emerald, and was very active in gay and lesbian life on campus. He also served as the director of the Gay People’s Alliance.
Shilts worked as a national correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, becoming “the first openly gay reporter with a gay ‘beat’ in the American mainstream press.” He did extensive reporting on the emerging AIDS epidemic and authored three bestselling books: The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk; And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic; and Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. Shilts died of AIDS in 1994.
Randy Shilts in the San Francisco Chronicle newsroom in 1987.
Courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.
