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hearing anybtxly talk about being gay." TELLING IT Shilts credits his upbringing, however, with exposing him to a range of jx^litical views. "People on both ends of the politi¬ STRAIGHT cal spectrum tend to dehumanire the people on the other end," he said in a re¬ cent Rolling Stone interview. "They think Randy Shilts, the nation's first openly gay reporter, has they are evil, they are monsters. Having helped change the face of American journalism. been on both sides let me see that people tend to be motivated by sincere beliefs." By K Kaufmann Shilts arrived at the UO in the fall of 1972, after two years of community col¬ lege in Portland. He had "come out" the previous spring and was already- writing his hook ahout the active in what was then called the AIDS On the sameepidemic,day he Andfinishedthe gay liberation movement. He Band Played On, Randy Shilts found quickly became president of the out he was HIV-positive. Con¬ UO's Gay People's Alliance and cerned that questions aht)ut his HIV was the first openly gay person to status might overshadow his work, run for student government, cam¬ Shilts kept his condition a private paigning with the slogan, "Come matter until earlier this year, when § }if "- Out for Shilts." He was elected to a a collap.sed lung left him near death. seat on the Incidental Fee Commit¬ He dictated the epilogue of his most I I tee, where he consistently backed recent hook. Conduct Unhecominf;: funding for progressive causes and Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Mili¬ itJ organizations on campus. tary, from a hospital bed. The turning point for Shilts For thtxse who have known Shilts came in 1974 when he ttx)k his first since his days at the University of journalism course, "just to learn Oregon, it was no surprise that once grammar." He knew immediately he decided to go public with his con¬ that he had found his viKation, and dition, he was completely open, stayed at the UO an extra year to even granting interviews while he- get his joumalism degree. was hooked up to an oxygen tank. Shilts is remembered by profes- And for those who have followed his I sors and classmates alike as one of journalistic career with its series of ^ the journalism scht)ol's most out- well-timed articles and hooks, it was 4 standing students. Mike Thoele, no surprise that Conduct hit the then a reporter at the Register- nation's bookstores in the midst of Randy Shilts and Dash. Guard, taught Shilts in his class on this year's heated debate over Presi¬ interviewing and later was his advi¬ dent Clinton's plans to lift the military's Chronicle or the Examiner. Now everyone sor for an independent study project. ban on lesbians and gays. covers it. There has been a dramatic "Randy was a person who made waves, Even as a student, Shilts's openness change." but not in an obnoxious sense," Thoele ahout his sexuality and his integrity as a Shilts's hooks on the lesbian and gay says of his former student. "Tltrough him, reporter were inseparable from his belief community have been equally influential. people who had never known a gay person in the power of information to effect cul¬ The Mayor of Castro Street, his 1982 bi¬ and had never thought they could see one and tural political change. Today, this ography of Harvey Milk, San Francisco's as a friend found themselves challenged." combination of social vision and profes¬ first gay supervisor, tracked the emer¬ Shilts's ambition, even then, was to sional dedication has made him one of the gence of the gay movement from the cover gay issues for the mainstream press. nation's most respected jt)umalists, gay or 1970s. Attd the Band Played On, recently However, despite his academic achieve¬ straight. aired as a star-studded Home Box Office ments — he had been managing editor of In the 1980s, Shilts's coverage of gay movie, remains the definitive work on the the Emerald and won more awards than issues — specifically the AIDS epidemic politics of the early years of the AIDS any other joumalism student — no paper — for the San Francisco Chronicle was epidemic. in the mid-1970s would hire an openly instrumental in bringing these stories, and Exploring the ignorance and injustice gay reporter. other gay and lesbian reporters, out of the of homophobia has been a constant Moving to San Francisco after gradu¬ closet. "When 1 came to San Francisco in theme in Shilts's life and work. Bom in ation, Shilts spent the next six years as a 1975," Shilts recalled in a recent tele¬ Davenport, Iowa, in 1951, Shilts was freelance and part-time reporter for news¬ phone interview, "nobody covered the raised in the consers'ative town ofAurora, papers, magazines and television stations, lesbian and gay community, not the Illinois, where, he said, "1 grew up never building a solid reputation for coverage t)f
OLD R E G O N WINTER 1993 issues both gay and straight. His big break again put Shilts in the media limelight. came in was as a re¬ 1981 when he hired Typically unimpressed with all the hype, g « however, Shilts believes the media are porter tor the San Francisco Chronicle just two months after the first story on a mys¬ still missing the real story. >-a Q terious new disease "To me. Conduct was never about gays S)(C J affecting gay men had o S ie< o ® LU in the military," he says. "It was an over¬ uU 1— appeared in the paper's back pages. ii= a> O < view of how our 1 1— a. Chronicle science editor David prejudice works in soci¬ tm CO M UlS Perlman, who wrote the first story on ety. The whole debate is less about Ul< o5 AIDS, remembers Shilts as "ebullient, people's attitudes toward the military than it is about overall social attitudes eager, hardworking and super enthusias¬ lo toward tic about every story he covered." It was, gay people." f £• he said, Shilts's Unfortunately, such attitudes con¬ aggressive reporting in the oS tinue to affect early days of the epidemic that ultimately- perceptions of Shilts and and lesbians in the armed forces — has cisco Chronicle and Examiner. c n R p (■; n M