John D’Emilio

John D’Emilio has been a pioneer in the developing field of gay and lesbian studies. He is the author or editor of more than half a dozen books, including Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States; Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (with Estelle Freedman); and Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. D’Emilio was a finalist for the National Book Award, a Kessler lecturer at CLAGS in NYC, and received the Brudner Prize from Yale University for lifetime contributions to gay and lesbian studies. A former co-chair of the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, he was also the founding director of its Policy Institute. Intimate Matters was quoted by Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas case, the decision that declared state sodomy statutes unconstitutional. He currently is a Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.