Jack of All Arts

Michael Bronski

Black-and-white portrait of a younger Michael Bronski with short dark hair in a suit jacket and open-collar shirt, looking to the left with a contemplative expression.
Michael Bronski seated against a plain light gray wall, wearing a dark gray hoodie with the logo "GFS 102" on it. He has a trimmed gray beard and a soft, thoughtful expression.
A close-up video still of Michael Bronski with a beard and mustache, speaking in front of a dark background. He appears mid-sentence, lit from the front.
A smiling Michael Bronski seated outdoors in front of a vibrant floral background. He wears a dark blazer and has a full beard, giving a warm and approachable look.
A recent headshot of Michael Bronski in a black turtleneck, with soft lighting on his face. He looks directly into the camera, conveying a thoughtful presence.

Born: May 12, 1949, New York City, United States
Pronouns: He/him
Identities: Gay
Occupations: Writer, professor, activist, editor, cultural critic

Overview

Michael Bronski is a trailblazing American academic, author, and activist whose decades-long body of work has helped define modern LGBTQ+ scholarship and queer media critique. Best known for A Queer History of the United States, Bronski has been involved in queer politics since 1969 and has contributed to movements as a writer, publisher, editor, and educator. He currently serves as Professor of the Practice in Media and Activism in the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University.

Early Life and Activism

Bronski was born in New York City on May 12, 1949, and has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 1971. His activism began during the late 1960s and continued into the post-Stonewall liberation era. He became one of the original members of the Fag Rag Collective (1971 to 1998) and was part of the Good Gay Poets Collective. In the 1990s, he helped coordinate the OutWrite: Lesbian and Gay Literary Conference for five years. Bronski has been a consistent voice advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, the visibility of queer culture, and the importance of historical reclamation.

Academic and Editorial Work

Bronski has taught at Dartmouth College and Harvard University, offering courses in queer history, media studies, cultural theory, and Jewish studies. He has received multiple teaching awards, including the 2008 Distinguished Lecturer Award and the 2004 Leadership Award from the Dartmouth Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association.

At Harvard, Bronski teaches courses such as:

  • Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation 1955–1975
  • Hollywood Films and Postwar LGBT Politics
  • I Will Survive: Women’s Political Resistance Through Popular Song
  • Can We Talk? Jewish Women and Humor
  • Men to Boys: Masculinity in Postwar Hollywood Film

He also edits the Queer Action / Queer Ideas series for Beacon Press and contributed as advisory editor to Out-Standing Lives and Gay and Lesbian Biography. His editorial projects have supported emerging scholarship and preserved vital threads of LGBTQ+ history.

Writing and Journalism

Since 1970, Bronski has written extensively on LGBTQ+ issues, culture, and politics in publications including:
The Village Voice, The Boston Globe, Gay Community News, The Nation, The Los Angeles Times, Boston Phoenix, Cineaste, Harvard Design Magazine, The Utne Reader, Lambda Book Report, Notches, Boston Review, Contemporary Women’s Writing, and Time.

He has published more than 50 essays in anthologies and consulted for MTV/Logo on LGBTQ+ content. In 2017, he authored ten short biographies of LGBTQ+ historical figures for their Pride Month programming.

Books

Author

  • Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility (1984)
  • The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash and the Struggle for Gay Freedom (1998)
  • Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps (2003)
  • A Queer History of the United States (2011)
  • You Can Tell Just by Looking: and 20 Other Myths about LGBT Life and People (2013, with Ann Pellegrini and Michael Amico)
  • Considering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics (2015, with Kay Whitlock)
  • A Queer History of the United States for Young People (2019)

Editor

  • Taking Liberties: Gay Men’s Essays on Politics, Culture, and Sex (1996)
  • Flashpoint: Gay Male Sexual Writing (1997)
  • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History: Critical Readings, Vol. 1–4 (2019)

Awards and Honors

  • Stonewall Book Award for A Queer History of the United States (2012)
  • Lambda Literary Awards for Pulp Friction (2004) and Taking Liberties (1997)
  • Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement (2017)
  • 1995 AIDS Action Committee Community Recognition Award
  • 1996 Cambridge Lavender Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 1999 Martin Duberman Fellowship, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
  • 1999 Anderson Prize Foundation Stonewall Award ($25,000 honorarium)
  • Named to The Advocate’s list of leading LGBTQ+ voices

Media Appearances

Bronski has been featured in several documentaries and public television programs:

  • Stage Struck: Gay Theater in the Twentieth Century (BBC, 1999)
  • After Stonewall (PBS, 1999)
  • The Hidden Führer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler’s Sexuality (Cinemax, 2004)
  • Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon (2008)

Personal Life

Bronski was the longtime partner of poet Walta Borawski, who passed away in 1994. He continues to reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has lived since 1971. He remains an advocate for queer intergenerational knowledge and the politics of joy, resistance, and storytelling.

Legacy

Michael Bronski’s legacy spans cultural critique, historical scholarship, queer activism, and education. His work has helped generations of LGBTQ+ individuals better understand their place in history, and has pushed mainstream narratives to recognize queerness as integral to American identity. He stands among the most important queer thinkers and educators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

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