Description
The Rofes Papers contains drafts of his writings, clippings, subject and research files, teaching notes, and correspondence.
Rofes was involved with the Gay Men's Health Collective, and Shanti Project, among others. His research interests included
gay teachers, education, charter schools, gay men's health, AIDS/HIV education, social life of gay men in the 1970s, and media
coverage of gay issues. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley and Bowdoin College.
Background
Eric Rofes (August 31, 1954–June 26, 2006) was a gay activist, educator, and author who wrote or edited 12 books. He grew
up in Commack, New York. He graduated from Harvard University and went on to receive a master's degree from the University
of California, Berkeley in 1995 as well as a doctorate in social and cultural studies in 1998.
He was appointed to the White House Conference on the Family in 1980. He became director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian
Center in the 1980s. In 1989, he became executive director of the Shanti Project, a nonprofit AIDS service organization in
San Francisco. He resigned in 1993.
In 1998, Rofes wrote "Dry Bones Breathe: Gay Men Creating Post-AIDS Identities and Cultures," in which he argued that the
AIDS crisis had passed and gay men needed to free themselves from the sense of emergency and victimhood. He was a professor
of Education at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, and served on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force and White Crane Institute. One of the last projects he worked on was the creation, with Chris Bartlett, of a series
of "Gay Men's Health Leadership Academies" to combat what he saw as a "pathology-focused understanding of gay men" in safe-sex
education.
Restrictions
Copyright retained by the Eric E. Rofes estate, 2007.
Availability
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours. The collection is stored offsite and should
be requested 48 hours in advance. Some restrictions apply for the interviews in Series 11; consult LGBTQIA archivist for more
information.