David K. Johnson

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David K. Johnson

Professor

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About

My research interests focus on the crucial role that gender and sexuality have played in American politics since World War II.

My first book, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, chronicles how McCarthy era hysteria over national security impacted sexual minority communities and introduced “family values” into American politics. It chronicles how gays and lesbians were considered threats to national security during the cold war and how this targeting by the federal government politicized the community, helping to empower a new civil rights movement for LGBT Americans. Winner of three national book awards, The Lavender Scare became the basis for a documentary film that was broadcast nationwide on PBS. Watch The Lavender Scare film trailer here.

My most recent book, Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement, explores the relationship between commerce and politics in the development of an LGBTQ community in the U.S.  It shows how an extensive gay consumer culture network of magazine publishers, mail order businesses, book clubs, and pen pal services developed much earlier than previously believed, well before Stonewall. It highlights how these commercial enterprises played a crucial role in the rise of a national gay consciousness and won important First Amendment victories against the U.S. Post Office, which waged a relentless war to shut them down. Shortlisted for the PROSE Award in U.S. History, the Hagley Prize in Business History, and the Randy Shilts Award in gay studies, Buying Gay won the Smithsonian's award for scholarship on the significance of the postal service in American life.
 
A nationally recognized authority on LGBT history, I have been interviewed on CNN, PBS, and CBS Sunday Morning and my writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Foreign Policy. I’ve served as a consultant to the National Park Service in its survey of LGBTQ sites of historical significance and contributed to legal briefs documenting a history of LGBTQ discrimination in order to expand federal civil rights protections. You can find me on Twitter @GayHistoryProf.

Related documents

Education/Academic qualification

Ph.D., Northwestern University

… → 2000

M.A., University of Chicago

… → 1987

B.A., Georgetown University

… → 1983

Disciplines

  • Arts and Humanities
  • History
View all 53 Research outputs
  • 4 Membership of committee
  • 1 Membership of network
View all 6 prizes
View all 7 courses