Warren Johansson (born Peter Joseph Wallfield), A.B. University of Pennsylvania, M.A. Columbia University. Retiring and eccentric in many ways, and only loosely associated with Academia, Johansson was perhaps the most prodigiously learned gay scholar of the second half of the 20th century. His languages embraced French, German, Italian, Russian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic — all of which he read as easily as English; he had a further acquaintance with several dozen more. Beginning as an undergraduate, he assimilated the enormous German-language corpus of gay studies, from Heinrich Hössli in the early 19th century to the second third of the 20th century.
Johansson generously shared his research with other scholars. He assisted J. Z. Eglinton (the scholarly pen name of Walter Breen) with his magnum opus, Greek Love (1964). He was an associate editor of and prolific contributor to the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (1990) and was co-author (with William Percy) of Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence (1994).
Warren Johansson died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 60.
Wayne R. Dynes, Ph.D. New York University, Professor of Art History at Hunter College, City University of New York. Dynes has been a member of Gay Academic Union and Columbia University Seminar on Homosexualities. For many years he was the guiding light of the New York Scholarship Committee, and edited the Committee’s publications, Gay Books Bulletin and Cabirion.
His books include Homosexuality: A Research Guide (1987) and (as editor) the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (1990). He was the general editor of the Garland Press series on homosexuality.
John Lauritsen, A.B. Harvard College. A retired market research executive, he now lives in Dorchester (Boston), Massachusetts.
Lauritsen has been active in gay liberation since 1969, a member of New York Gay Liberation Front, Gay Activists Alliance, Gay Academic Union, and Columbia University Seminar on Homosexualities.
He has written for many publications, including New York Native, Christopher Street, The Freethinker, Gay and Lesbian Humanist, and Journal of Homosexuality. His books include A Freethinker’s Primer of Male Love (1998), The AIDS War (1993), and (co-authored with David Thorstad) The Early Homosexual Rights Movement (1864-1935) (1974, 2nd Edition 1995).