Journalist versus Advocate

Shilts begins to offer his first writing at length about the experience of lesbian women via “Conduct Unbecoming.” Shilts’s new book further unpacks cultural beliefs about the roles of men and women in society, and aspects of masculinity and femininity. U.S. military policy toward HIV testing is reported. While mainstream reviews of Shilts’s “Conduct Unbecoming” are favorable, LGBT leaders continue to question Shilts’s elevation as a “leader” or representative of the gay community. Shilts personally addresses the thin line he has walked between journalist and advocate for the issues he has covered.