Co-Chairs

John D'Emilio

John D'Emilio is a professor of history and of women's and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He taught previously at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow from 1995 to 1997, he served as the Founding Director of the Policy Institute at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

D'Emilio was awarded the Stonewall Book Award in 1984 for his most widely cited book, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, which is considered the definitive history of the U.S. homophile movement from 1940 to 1970. His book Lost Prophet: Bayard Rustin and the Quest for Peace and Justice in America won the Stonewall Book Award for non-fiction in 2004. He was the 2005 recipient of the Brudner Prize at Yale University.

Leisa Meyer

Leisa Meyer is a distinguished associate professor of history and American studies at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, where she also serves as the director of Graduate Studies for the Lyon G. Tyler Department of History. She is the author of Creating G.I. Jane: Sexuality and Power in Women's Army Corps During World War II. She is currently working on Sexuality in America: A History Since World War II (forthcoming, Columbia University Press).

Meyer has worked through the New Jersey teacher’s project and the Organization of American Historians to integrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender experiences into high school and college history curriculums and has participated in efforts to publicize issues facing women veterans through the National Congressional Black Caucus and The Women’s Resources and Education Initiative.