We welcome author and UIC Professor Emeritus John D'Emilio to discuss the history of LGBTQ activism in this country from the 1950s, to the Stonewall uprising in 1969, through the present day.
This illustrated talk will present a broad overview of LGBTQ activism in the United States from its beginnings in the 1950s through the early 21st century. It will cover the intense persecutions of the 1950s, the rise of a militant liberation movement at the end of the 1960s, the impact of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, and the depth of change that occurred across half a century of activism.
A pioneer in the field of LGBTQ history, John D'Emilio is a retired professor of History and of Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Illinois - Chicago. The author or editor of almost a dozen books, he was also the founder of the Policy Institute of the National LGBTQ Task Force. His work was quoted in the historic Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision of 2003, which declared sodomy statutes unconstitutional. His most recent books are Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago's LGBTQ Archives, and Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties, a personal memoir.
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This program will be recorded
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