Author: Michael Lee in conversation with Leah Garchik and Randy Alfred

Author Michael Lee’s first book, When the Band Played On: The Life of Randy Shilts, America's Trailblazing Gay Journalist, details the intimate life story of Randy Shilts, whose trailblazing journalism brought the story of Harvey Milk, the political gamesmanship of the early AIDS crisis and the persecution of LGBTQ+ service members into the public consciousness. A gifted and engaging storyteller, Lee shares his journey to becoming Shilts’s biographer, which led him to visit multiple archives and conduct original interviews with over 70 sources. Joining him for this event are two of those sources, San Francisco journalists Leah Garchik and Randy Alfred, to share their reflections on Randy Shilts and discuss his legacy as one of the most influential and controversial chroniclers of LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS history, politics and culture. 

Come early for a hands-on history tour of the Randy Shilts Papers led by the Hormel Center archivist in the SF History Center on the 6th floor. 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

For more than twenty years, Michael Lee has had a passion for storytelling that has fueled a dynamic career of LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS organizing, human services, research, writing and teaching. He has taught graduate courses at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota for more than a decade while working as a professional grant writer. Michael’s interest in Randy Shilts came about while he was researching the origins of 1970s-era gay and lesbian community services and their influence on AIDS organizations of the 1980s. He lives in Minneapolis, MN.  

Randy Alfred is widely known for his detailed 1980 probe into the biased and unfair portrayal of San Francisco’s gay community in CBS Reports’ “Gay Power, Gay Politics,” an investigation that resulted in CBS making a rare public apology for its failed coverage. He was twice editor of the S.F Sentinel and co-founded the S.F. Bay Times. Alfred produced and hosted KSAN's public-affairs radio show The Gay Life from 1979 to 1984. He was a founding member of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists and entered its Hall of Fame in 2015. For more than four decades, Alfred has spoken out in newsrooms and professional organizations for bias-free language, bias-free news coverage and bias-free workplaces and benefits, not only for LGBTQ people, but for women, minorities and disabled people.  

Leah Garchik was hatched in Brooklyn before Brooklyn was cool. She arrived in San Francisco in 1971, and with her husband raised two fine sons and two fine dogs. She worked at the San Francisco Chronicle for 47 years, starting as a temporary steno-clerk and clawing and back-stabbing her way to presiding over a daily column for 35 years. Lest that sound cruel, it should be noted that she is a vegetarian. She has written two books (San Francisco: The City’s Sights and Secrets and Real Life Romance), was a panelist on the KALW radio show “Minds Over Matter,” and played the accordion in a German band. She putters in the garden, paints, makes terrible pottery and excellent chocolate cakes.