Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ+ Coverage
The Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ+ Coverage is an award designed to honor journalists who consistently bring stories of the LGBTQ+ community to life in mainstream media outlets. The award honors individual journalists and news organizations who go the extra mile to ensure that all Americans are aware of the diversity within the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the unique struggles LGBTQ+ people face in the United States and around the world.
The award is named in memory of Randy Shilts, a member of the LGBTQ+ Journalists Hall of Fame, who is widely credited with being the first reporter to cover the “gay beat” for a major metropolitan newspaper. His writing in the San Francisco Chronicle brought the stories of gays and lesbians – whether they were living with AIDS or serving in the military – to the attention of millions of Americans. Before his death in 1994, Shilts authored three best-selling books, including the groundbreaking “And the Band Played On,” cataloguing the rise of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
Award winners have included:
Lauren McGaughy
Lauren McGaughy is the winner of the 2024 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ+ Coverage. McGaughy is an investigative reporter and editor for The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration of NPR member stations in Texas. Her specialty areas include criminal justice, governmental...
David Crary
Award winning journalist David Crary is the recipient of the 2023 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ+ Coverage, which honors journalists who consistently bring stories of the LGBTQ+ community to life in mainstream media outlets. “David Crary has consistently produced...
Tamron Hall
Award-winning journalist and talk show host Tamron Hall is the 2022 recipient of the Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. An accomplished and award-winning journalist, Tamron Hall hosts the nationally syndicated daytime talk show, “Tamron Hall.” In addition, Hall...
Jonathan Capehart
The Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart was the recipient of the 2019 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart is an opinion writer for and a member of The Washington Post editorial board. He also hosts...
Lydia Polgreen
HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen was the recipient of the 2018 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. She was named editor-in-chief in December 2016 after spending nearly 15 years at The New York Times, where she most recently led an initiative to expand its...
Scott Simon
NPR "Weekend Edition Saturday" host Scott Simon was the recipient of the 2017 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. Scott Simon has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have...
Frank Bruni
The New York Times columnist Frank Bruni was the recipient of the 2016 NLGJA Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. “Randy Shilts paved the way for so many of us, covering gay issues when news organizations often resisted that,” said Bruni. “His work certainly...
Jeffrey Toobin
Jeffrey Toobin was the recipient of the 2015 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. Toobin is a senior legal analyst for CNN and staff writer at The New Yorker. Toobin was recognized for his outstanding coverage of major legal cases affecting the LGBTQ community,...
Diane Rehm
Diane Rehm was the recipient of the 2014 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. She was recognized for her exemplary coverage of the LGBTQ community, and for bringing LGBTQ issues to a mainstream audience. Rehm has covered marriage, progress and regression on...
Judy Woodruff
Judy Woodruff was the recipient of the 2013 NLGJA Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. Woodruff is co-anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour. During her more than 30 year journalism career with PBS, CNN and NBC, Woodruff has covered LGBTQ issues in a fair and...