ERIC CERVINI is the author of The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, published this year by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book is both a biography of gay rights activist Frank Kameny and a history of the times in which he lived and organized the first protests for homosexual rights in the 1950s and ‘60s. At press time, the book is listed as a New York Times bestseller, having been selected as an “Editor’s Choice” by that paper.
Cervini earned a doctorate in history from Cambridge University after receiving a BA from Harvard, where he graduated summa cum laude. An authority on 1960s gay activism, he serves on the Board of Advisors of the revived Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C.
This interview was conducted as part of a live, on-line series titled “Zooming through Queer Culture,” organized by Andrew Lear (visit website at OscarWildeTours.com).
James Polchin, a frequent contributor to these pages, is a clinical professor at NYU. He is the author ofIndecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall (Counterpoint).
