Shilts Confirms He Is HIV-Positive

Reporter Randy Shilts, author of an acclaimed history of the AIDS crisis, said in Tuesday’s San Francisco Chronicle that he is infected with the AIDS virus. The news comes just as he has completed an important new book and two of his other books--”The Mayor of Castro Street” (about San Francisco’s slain gay supervisor, Harvey Milk) and “And the Band Played On,” (a history of the AIDS epidemic)--were pegged for release as major films.

His new book, “Conduct Unbecoming,” about gays in the military, is described by St. Martin’s Press, as “so illuminating that it will profoundly affect the nation’s thinking on the subject” when it is published in May.

But this week, Shilts announced that he’s known he was HIV-positive since 1985, and that seven weeks ago, he was “98% finished” with the book when a collapsed lung almost forced him to stop work.

Shilts said he kept his condition secret for fear it would detract from his role as a reporter on AIDS issues. He serves as national correspondent for the Chronicle and published a weekly column, “AIDS--The Inside Story,” in 1989.

“Every gay writer who tests positive ends up being an AIDS activist,” he said. “I wanted to keep on being a reporter.”

Shilts said he changed his mind last week in the wake of rumors within the gay community and inquiries from reporters.

“I want to talk about it myself rather than have somebody else talk,” he said.