Shilts, Randy

Truly, a Hell of a nice guy and obviously missed.

Paul Reed, who died of AIDS in 2002, wrote the B.A.R.'s 1987 review of, And the Band Played On. It reads, in part: The theme of waiting until it was too late is the major focus of the book. Everything always came too late -- research, funds, public warnings, individual belief. The reasons for this deadly reticence were, as the book amply demonstrates, purely political, not medical.

Randy Shilts was interviewed by George Heymont for the November 1984 issue of Stallion. Here is an excerpt from that interview that appeared in the Nov. 21, 1984 Bay Area Reporter: Gay activists may be able to bullshit some reporter from the Los Angeles Times by telling him that the baths don't play any role in the AIDS epidemic. But they can't bullshit me, because I know what goes on in the bathhouses. I used to go there myself....Lately, the bathhouses have been imbued with a political meaning by everybody from Jerry Falwell to our own Gay leaders. As such, the baths have become a sacred political issue, because people are unwilling to look at what these institutions really are. The baths are a place where it's real easy to die....

I just finished reading through And the Band Played On and was devastated when I found out Randy had been taken by the same disease he wrote so in depth about. I was young enough to have missed the height of the epidemic, but as a gay man, it hurts my heart to read about all the people we have lost to this disease. All the possibilities, all the lives cut short. Rest in peace Randy. Thank you for educating me and helping me to understand the fight that so many of my fallen brothers took on.

As a woman I have spent my life around Straight and Homo-sexual men of all age ranges. What I observed as a caregiver of 11 friends who died from AIDS starting back in 1992-1999 I wouldn't wish this Virus on anyone! Also I have seen what happens when men of both sexual orientations live in denial and the result from that FEAR that come's creeping in. The film And The Band Played On was watched many times back in the 1990's on HBO. Many friends watched this movie as they lay dying and yes many men had no knowledge that a virus was sneaking into the gay community in 1979-1983. Now that this virus HIV-1 and HIV-2 are well known and how it's spread. Let's not forget the people who died,how the government ignored and how the 34 million shouldn't have come to be..RIP Randy S

We never met but he was a Prometheus among mortals. I've contintued researching the Heptavax trial in NYC, LA and SF. It has dubious underpinnings and connections to the Special Virus Cancer Program (61 - 78). There are bioweaponeers mixed in with legit cancer research. It appears that a special op was used to adulterate the vaccine at some point in production, but public access to examine the unmasked names of the men who volunteered in the cohorts is classified. Randy, if you were still here we would tear the lid off this thing.