Randy Shilts - Criticism and Praise

Criticism and Praise

Although Shilts was applauded for bringing public attention to bear on gay civil-rights issues and the AIDS crisis, he was also harshly criticized (and spat upon in Castro Street) by some in the gay community for calling for the closure of gay bathhouses in San Francisco to slow the spread of AIDS. Shilts maintained his sense of integrity in spite of being called "a traitor to his own kind" by a fellow Bay Area journalist. In a note included in The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, Shilts expressed his view of a reporter's duty to rise above criticism:

I can only answer that I tried to tell the truth and, if not be objective, at least be fair; history is not served when reporters prize trepidation and propriety over the robust journalistic duty to tell the whole story.

Shilts was also criticized by some segments of the gay community on other issues, including his opposition to the controversial practice of outing prominent but closeted lesbians and gay men.

Nevertheless, his 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". 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 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.