John D’Emilio will discuss and read from his recently published memoir, Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood. It describes how a boy raised in the Bronx in the 1950s in a politically and religiously conservative Italian family had his life reshaped in the sixties as he came to explore the hidden gay world of Manhattan; became an antiwar activist and conscientious objector while a student at Columbia; and made the decision to research and write U.S. history as a tool for social change.

Copies of Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties will soon be available on the Bureau’s online store, and will be available for purchase at the event.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.

All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register.

Safety protocol

In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please stay home.

Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.

A pioneer in the field of LGBTQ studies and the history of sexuality, John D’Emilio has written or edited almost a dozen books, including Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: the Making of a Homosexual Minority; Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America; and Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin.