Bob Hattoy (November 1, 1950 – March 4, 2007)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Bob Hattoy (November 1, 1950 – March 4, 2007) was an American activist on issues related to gay rights, AIDS and the environment.

Hattoy worked in the White House under American President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1999. He also served as chairman of the research committee of the Presidential Commission on HIV/AIDS, having himself been diagnosed HIV positive in 1992. He won renown as an outspoken critic of presidents Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush for their policies on issues such as conservation, the response to HIV/AIDS, and the ban on gay or bisexual men and women serving openly in the U.S. military. According to the New York Times Hattoy was "the first gay man with AIDS many Americans had knowingly laid eyes on."

In 2002 he started working for the California Fish and Game Commission. He was appointed president of the commission in February 2007, shortly before his death from AIDS-related causes.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hattoy

Further Readings:

Stranger Among Friends by David Mixner
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Bantam (June 2, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553375547
ISBN-13: 978-0553375541
Amazon: Stranger Among Friends

"From my fear of coming out to coming on strong in the struggle for human rights, this is my American journey, the story of an outsider on the inside, a gay man proudly committed to a life of standing up for freedom.

"President Clinton and I were born three days apart. We had both dreamed of serving our country. There was one difference: He could pursue his dream, while I felt I could not. The President was born straight and I was born gay."

In this stirring personal history, one of America's most influential gay rights advocates recounts his extraordinary career as a policy maker and adviser to the major political leaders of our time, and his own often anguishing, ultimately triumphant life as a gay man. A longtime personal friend of Bill Clinton, in Stranger Among Friends David Mixner offers an insider's look at the power struggles that occur every day in our nation's capital and candid insights on the Clinton administration's successes and failures. Spanning three decades of human rights activism--from the behind-the-scenes negotiations to the painful betrayals to the hard-won victories--his forthright story unflinchingly explores what it means to be an outsider on the inside, and sends a message of hope to all who have ever stood up for what they believe.

Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America by Dudley Clendinen & Adam Nagourney
Paperback: 720 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Touchstone Ed edition (June 5, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684867435
ISBN-13: 978-0684867434
Amazon: Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America

This is the definitive account of the last great struggle for equal rights in the twentieth century. From the birth of the modern gay rights movement in 1969, at the Stonewall riots in New York, through 1988, when the gay rights movement was eclipsed by the more urgent demands of AIDS activists, this is the remarkable and until now untold story of how a largely invisible population of men and women banded together to create their place in America's culture and government. Told through the voices of gay activists and their opponents, filled with dozens of colorful characters, Out for Good traces the emergence of gay rights movements in cities across the country and their transformation into a national force that changed the face of America forever.

Out for Good is the unforgettable chronicle of an important -- and nearly lost -- chapter in American history.

From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States (Queer Politics, Queer Theories) by Craig Rimmerman
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Temple University Press (November 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 156639905X
ISBN-13: 978-1566399050
Amazon: From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States (Queer Politics, Queer Theories)

Liberal democracy has provided a certain degree of lesbian and gay rights. But those rights, as we now know, are not unlimited, and they continue to be the focus of efforts by lesbian and gay movements in the United States to promote social change. In this compelling critique, Craig Rimmerman looks at the past, present, and future of the movements to analyze whether it is possible for them to link identity concerns with a progressive coalition for political, social, and gender change, one that take into account race, class, and gender inequalities.Enriched by eight years of interviews in Washington, D.C. and New York City, and by the author's experience as a Capitol Hill staffer, "From Identity to Politics" will provoke discussion in classrooms and caucus rooms across the United States. Author note: Craig A. Rimmerman is Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He is the author of several books, including "The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service".

More LGBT History at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Gay Classics