When The Band Played On [CLOTH ]

2025 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist in Gay Memoir/Biography

Randy Shilts was the preeminent LGBTQ+ reporter of his generation. 

He was the first openly gay reporter assigned to a gay beat at a mainstream paper and one of the nations most influential chroniclers of gay history, politics, and culture. Shilts wrote three seminal works on the community:The Mayor of Castro Street, on the life, assassination, and legacy of Harvey Milk;And the Band Played On, detailing the failure of politics as usual during the early AIDS epidemic; andConduct Unbecoming, a history of the US militarys mistreatment of LGBTQ servicemembers.  

Yet the intimate life story of Randy Shilts has been left unwritten.When the Band Played Ontells that story, recognizing his legacy as a trailblazing figure in gay activism, journalism, and public policy.   

Author Michael G. Lee conducted interviews with Shiltss family, friends, college professors, colleagues, informants, lovers, and critics. The resulting narrative tells the tale of a singularly gifted voice, a talented yet insecure young man whose coming of age became intricately linked to the historic peaks and devastating perils of modern gay liberation. 

When the Band Played Onis the authoritative account of Randy Shiltss trailblazing life, as well as his legacy of shaping the history-making events he covered.   

"Shilts’ work, well described and documented here, helped draw public attention to a disease that all too many—not least in the Reagan administration—plainly wished to ignore."—Kirkus Reviews

“Randy Shilts was one of the most significant and controversial journalists of the late twentieth century, especially for his coverage of the AIDS pandemic in America. Michael Lee has done a stupendous job of navigating Shilts&rsquol��