John D'Emilio's Home

932 West Ainslie Street

A best-selling author of a dozen books on gay history, John D’Emilio (born September 21, 1948) was the Stonewall Book Award in 2014 for Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, which is considered the definitive history of the pre-Stonewall 20th century homophile movements. His Bayard Rustin biography was a finalist for the National Book Award. D’Emilio founded the Policy Institute of the National LGBTQ Task Force, and served as President of the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, a community-based library and historical archives in Chicago. His book Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives chronicles Chicago’s LGBTQ history. D’Emilio was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2005; he is on the American LGBTQ+ Museum’s Board of Trustees. In the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame’s website profile, it writes, “John D’Emilio’s work in the field of LGBT history has had far-reaching impact. His pioneering research has enriched the academic study of the sexual-minority past, helped to make Chicago a national center of such scholarship, and supported social activism, including historical work that was cited by the Supreme Court in its landmark 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision.”

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