AIDS WATCH : Indifference Fighter

When the true profiles in courage are recorded for the century’s last two decades, the life of Randy Shilts surely will be among them. The first openly gay reporter for a major American newspaper, he traced the rise of the cruel AIDS epidemic for the San Francisco Chronicle and in his 1987 book, “And the Band Played On.”

His writing--marked by dogged reporting, compelling narrative and attention to detail--documented the shameful early indifference to the spreading viral plague by government, science and even the gay community itself. His work helped shut down gay bathhouses over the protests of San Francisco’s politically potent but often narrow-minded gay community.

Then last year, in another book, he shed powerful light on the national issue of homosexuals in the military. “Conduct Unbecoming: Gays in the U.S. Military From the Vietnam War Through the Gulf War” infuriatingly detailed how the military has wasted millions of dollars in ruthless witch hunts that purged the ranks of many loyal, capable service people who happened to be gay.

Yet Shilts was no political advocate. He was above all a fair and principled professional journalist pledged to finding the truth, however painful. Often he was vilified by gay radicals for his reporting on the bathhouses and for his opposition to “outing” of prominent gay people. He told the unhappy story of AIDS and wrote there was “no excuse” for the spread of the disease. His death Thursday at 42 from the very disease he chronicled brings a tragic end to a hero’s life.