In this exclusive AlumniTALK in honor of LGBTQ+ History Month and in partnership with Columbia Pride, a pioneering writer of LGBTQ history, John D’Emilio CC’70, GSAS’74, ’82 describes his formative years coming of age in the 1950s and 1960s. Columbia's first LGBTQ group was formed during these years, and the Stonewall Uprising and the birth of gay liberation occurred as well. John will discuss his memoir that highlights the sharp contrast between the decade of the 1960s and the present.
How did a boy raised in a politically conservative family become a conscientious objector and anti war activist in the 1960s? How does a boy raised in a family in which almost no one ever reads books become a politically engaged scholar whose work will be cited by the Supreme Court? And how does a boy raised in a Catholic family where the word divorce was never spoken discover and explore the hidden gay underworld of NY before Stonewall? D’Emilio, who was a student at Columbia during the tumultuous late 1960s, will discuss his coming-of-age memoir and the events of these years in this talk.
Opening remarks by Carlos V. Cruz CC'88, President of Columbia Pride.
This is a fully virtual event.