The Life and Times

George Osterkamp, Shilts’s former TV boss, believes he greatly underestimated the challenges and pressures that Shilts faced as a gay reporter: “I think he faced more controversy than I was ever aware of at the time. He had to go back and deal with people in the gay community, many of whom had very strong opinions about how the movement should go, and they saw Randy as either an opportunity or an obstacle to where they thought the movement should go. I think that Randy had to walk a path that was strewn with more landmines than I ever realized.”¹