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 | | John D'Emilio | | | Inducted 2005 | | | Photo: Jim Oleson | | Historian, for pioneering research that has enriched
academic study of the sexual-minority past, helped to make Chicago a national center of such scholarship, and undergirded social activism, including historical work that was cited by the Supreme Court in its landmark 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision.
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| John D’Emilio’s work in the field of GLBT
(gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) history has had far-reaching impact. | |
| He earned his Ph.D. in 1982 from Columbia
University as well as earlier degrees there and was
one of the first academics and activists in the
country to begin work on gay scholarship. This is
reflected in his numerous essays published in the
Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Journal of Sex
Research, and New York University Review of Law
& Social Change; in contributions to anthologies;
and in eight books, which include Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making
of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970 (published in 1983);
Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, co-written with Estelle B.
Freedman (1988); The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture
(2002); and his latest, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (2003), a
biography of the noted U.S. civil rights leader who was also gay.
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| D’Emilio has taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the
University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been on the UIC faculty since 1999. He is a
former director of the UIC Gender and Women’s Studies Program and serves as
professor of history and gender and women’s studies. | |
| In addition, he was responsible for writing, researching, lecturing, and planning as
the founding director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Policy Institute
from 1995 to 1997. From 1988 to 1993 he was a member of the NGLTF board of
directors, which he co-chaired for two years. | |
| D’Emilio’s activism and scholarship have been recognized by grants, awards, lecture
invitations, and fellowships from many institutions, including the John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities,
the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the Graduate Center of the City
University of New York, and the Lambda Literary Foundation. | |
| He has worked as a member of the UIC Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues; as a member of the CLAGS
advisory board; and as a member of several other boards, including the editorial
board of the Journal of Homosexuality. He currently serves on the board of directors
of Chicago’s Gerber/Hart Library. | |
| In the 1980s and 1990s, D’Emilio submitted affidavits in support of litigants
challenging the constitutionality of sodomy statutes. In the most significant such
case, D’Emilio and Freedman’s Intimate Matters was cited by the landmark U.S.
Supreme Court majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), which
declared consensual “sodomy” laws to be unconstitutional. D’Emilio was also a coauthor
of a historians’ brief, which the Court cited as well. | |
| His professional career has helped to inspire our future while reflecting our past and
enriching our present. | |
| This biography is as of the induction date. It has not been updated. |
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