Date: Sat, 19 Feb 94 20:43:17 -0500
From: af244@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steve Schochet)
Subject: Cleveland PD Editorial on Shilts

REPORTER RANDY SHILTS

Randy Shilts didn't have a long life. When he died of complications
related to AIDS Thursday, he was just 42. But he may have won a bit of
immortality through his articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, his
essays and of course, his books.

A century from now when historians research the AIDS plague years they
will turn to Shilts' book "And the Band Played On: Politics, People
and the AIDS epidemic," a chronicle of the discovery of AIDS and the
growth of the disease.

No discussion about gays and the military in the next century will be
complete without at least a perusal of Shilts' "Conduct Unbecoming:
Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military."

Shilts could have worn many labels. He was openly gay. His AIDS was
diagnosed after he finished "Band," but he kept it secret for many
years.

Many wanted him to use his fame as a writer to bolster the campaign
against AIDS. But Shilts was comfortable with only one label: "Every
gay writer who tests positive ends up being an AIDS activist and I
didn't want to end up being an activist," he said time and again. "I
wanted to keep on being a reporter."

Shilts' interest in reporting was nourished at the University of
Oregon in Eugene, where he studied journalism and worked on the
school's newspaper. He later was a reporter for the Advocate, a gay
publication, and for a Bay-area television station. Later, he was a
national correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Throughout his career, Shilts called it the way he saw it. Some gays
criticized "Band" because Shilts charged that gay leaders ignored the
disease in their fight to prevent the closing of bath houses,
particularly in San Francisco.

But he also handed out coals for others' handling of the disease. He
pointed out how blood banks argued against screening blood and he
bashed researchers whose interest in the disease grew only after it
was clear that a cure would bring fame and fortune.

Although Shilts wrote with a death sentence over his head, he seldom
faltered. He foolishly stopped making trips to his doctor so he could
press on with "Conduct Unbecoming," and when he became ill, he
dictated the last paragraphs of the book from his hospital bed. His
book made deadline, the New York Times best-seller list and probably
history.

[Editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 2/19/94]



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STEVE SCHOCHET\af244@cleveland.freenet.edu\af244%cleveland.freenet.edu@cunyvm