Michael Bronski (born May 12, 1949) is an American academic and writer, best known for his 2011 book ''A Queer History of the United States''. He has been involved with LGBT politics since 1969 as an activist and organizer. He has won numerous awards for LGBTQ activism and scholarship, including the prestigious Publishing Triangle's
Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. Bronski is a Professor of Practice in Media and Activism at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.
Career
Since 1970, Bronski has written extensively on culture, politics, film, theater, books, sexuality, LGBT culture, and current events. As a journalist, cultural critic and political commentator he has been published in a wide array of venues including ''Gay Community News'' (Boston), ''The Village Voice'', ''The Boston Globe'', ''GLQ'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''The Boston Phoenix'', ''Cineaste'', ''Contemporary Women's Writing'', ''Time'', '' The Nation'', and the ''Boston Review''. His scholarship includes over 50 essays in anthologies on LGBTQ culture and politics.
He was an original member of
''Fag Rag'' Collective from 1971 to 1998 and the Good Gay Poets Collective. He was a founding member of the ''Boston Gay Review''. He acted as program coordinator for OutWrite: Lesbian and Gay Literary Conference for five years in the 1990s.
Bronski was awarded the 1995 AIDS Action Committee Community Recognition Award for 20 years of journalism on gay and
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
-related topics.
In 1996, he received the Cambridge Lavender Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award for journalism and political organizing.
Bronski was featured in the
BBC's ''Stage Struck: Gay Theater in the Twentieth Century'' (1999),
PBS's ''
After Stonewall
''After Stonewall'' is a 1999 documentary film about the 30 years of gay rights activism since the 1969 Stonewall riots directed by John Scagliotti. It is the sequel to the Scagliotti-produced 1984 film ''Before Stonewall'' and is narrated by mus ...
'' (1999)'',''
Cinemax's ''The Hidden Führer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality'' (2004), and ''
Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon'' (2008).
In 1999, the Anderson Prize Foundation granted Bronski the Stonewall Award in recognition for "helping improve the lives and LGBT people in the United States."
''A Queer History of the United States'' won both a
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...
and a
Stonewall Book Award in 2012.
[.] He also previously won two Lambda Literary Awards as an editor of
anthologies, in 1997 for ''Taking Liberties: Gay Men's Essays on Politics, Culture, & Sex'' and in 2004 for ''Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps''.
Bronski consulted on LGBT content and analyzed focus group results for
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
/
Logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...
in 2014 and wrote ten biographies of noted LGBT historical figures for the MTV/Logo June
Pride Month
Pride Month, sometimes specified as LGBTQ Pride Month, is a List of month-long observances, month-long observance dedicated to the celebration of LGBTQ pride, commemorating the contributions of lesbian, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender a ...
programming in 2017.
In 2017, he was the recipient of the
Publishing Triangle's prestigious
Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Previous awardees included Audre Lorde, Martin Duberman, and Alison Bechdel.
He was a senior lecturer in Women’s and Gender Studies and in Jewish Studies at
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...
, where he was granted the 2008 Distinguished Lecturer Award and 2004 Leadership Award from the Dartmouth Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association. He is currently Professor of the Practice in Media and Activism in the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.
Personal life
Bronski has resided in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, Massachusetts since 1971. He was the partner of American poet
Walta Borawski, who died in 1994.
Published works
Books
*''Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility'' (South End Press, 1984)
*''The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash and the Struggle for Gay Freedom'' (St. Martin's Press, 1998)
*''Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps'' (St. Martin's Press, 2003)
*''
A Queer History of the United States'' (Beacon Press, 2011)
*''You can tell just by looking: and 20 other myths about LGBT life and people'' (co-authored with
Ann Pellegrini and Michael Amico, Beacon Press, 2013)
*''Considering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics'' (co-authored with Kay Whitlock, Beacon Press, 2015)
*''A Queer History of the United States for Young People'' (Beacon Press, Boston, 2019)
Edited publications
*''Taking Liberties: Gay Men’s Essays on Politics, Culture, & Sex'' (Editor, Masquerade Books, New York, 1996)
*''Out-Standing Lives: Profiles of Lesbians and Gay Men''. (Advisory Editor, Visible Ink, 1997.)
*''Gay and Lesbian Biography'' (Advisory Editor, Gale Research, 1997)
*''Flashpoint: Gay Male Sexual Writing'' (Editor, Masquerade Books, New York, 1997)
*''Queer Ideas/ Queer Action'' series (Beacon Press, 2007-2013)
*''Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History: Critical Readings'' Vol. 1-4 (Bloomsbury, 2019)
References
External links
Michael Bronski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronski, Michael
1949 births
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
American gay writers
American LGBTQ historians
Historians of LGBTQ topics
Lambda Literary Award winners
Stonewall Book Award winners
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
American LGBTQ academics
American male non-fiction writers