John D’Emilio
Historian
A pioneer in the field of LGBTQ studies and the history of sexuality, John D’Emilio (he/him) is Emeritus Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author or editor of almost a dozen books including Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970; Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin; and Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, co-authored with Estelle B. Freedman and now in its third edition. His awards include the Brudner Prize from Yale for lifetime contributions to gay and lesbian studies; the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Publishing Triangle, an organization of LGBTQ people in publishing; and the Roy Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award of the Organization of American Historians. His biography of Bayard Rustin was a finalist for the National Book Award. The founding director of the Policy Institute of the National LGBTQ Task Force, he has also served as President of the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, a community-based library and historical archives in Chicago, and wrote a book on Chicago LGBTQ history – Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives. His most recent book is Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties, a memoir published by Duke University Press.