On this day in 1984 American diver Greg Louganis won his first Olympic gold medal for the Men’s 3-metre springboard at the Los Angeles Olympics.
A few days later he went on to win another gold for the 10-metre platform. The athlete would have further success at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and would be labeled one of the greatest divers ever. At the time Louganis was keeping his sexuality a secret.
In 1994 Louganis came out in a pre-taped announcement that was played at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games. In 1995 he shared that he was living with HIV, speaking about the medical condition with journalist Barbara Walters.
Releasing his memoir Breaking The Surface around the same time he shared that he had been in a romantic relationship with his manager from 1983 to 1988. The relationship was an abusive one with Louganis alleging that he had been sexually assaulted during the relationship, and his manager had also taken most of his income.
His autobiography was turned into a TV movie in 1997 with Mario Lopez portraying Louganis. The Olympian has gone on to be a prominent activist fighting against the stigma associated with HIV, and LGBTI related discrimination.
In 2013 he announced his engagement to partner Johnny Chaillot, the couple wed in 2013 but divorced in 2021.
Journalist Randy Shilts was born on this day in 1951
The author is best known for his 1987 book And The Band Played On which documented the early days of the AIDS epidemic.
Shilts studied journalism and the University of Oregon and came out while he working on the student newspaper. Once he graduated he found it difficult to gain employment as a journalists due to the homophobia of the mid-1970’s.
He worked as freelance journalist and wrote for The Advocate, in 1981 hew became a national correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle. Shilts was the first reporter hired by a mainstream newspaper to specifically cover LGBTIQ+ news.
He work at for the newspaper largely focussed on the political and social ramifications of the AIDS crisis. Shilts published three well known books, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk was published in 1982 and recounted the life of the assassinated politician.
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic came out in 1987 and went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and be translated into several languages. It was adapted into a film in 1993 with an all-star cast.
Shilts’ final book was completed shortly before his death. Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf investigated the discriminatory policy of firing LGBT people from the military.
Shilts often courted controversy within the queer community, he was a vocal supporter of the decision to close saunas and bathhouses in San Francisco to stop the spread of HIV, and was opposed to outing closeted prominent people – even if they had a history of being opposed to gay rights.
The author refused to find out his own HIV status while writing And The Band Played On, out of fear it would influence his writing. After the book was completed he discovered he was HIV positive.
He died in 1994 at his ranch in California, and was survived by his partner Barry Barbieri, his mother and brothers. The couple had a commitment ceremony the year before he died.
In June 2019, Shilts was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York.
