John D'Emilio se zabývá historií a genderovými studiemi a jeho práce se soustředí na historii sexuálních komunit a hnutí za práva LGBTQ+. Zkoumá, jak se formovaly identity a jak tyto identity ovlivňovaly společenské a politické změny. Jeho spisy jsou ceněny pro svůj hluboký vhled do kolektivních snah o rovnost a uznání. Díky svému akademickému zázemí a aktivismu poskytuje D'Emilio klíčový pohled na sociální historii a boj za občanská práva.
Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood is John D'Emilio's coming-of-age story in which he takes readers from his working-class Bronx neighborhood and Columbia University to New York's hidden gay male subculture and the political and social upheavals of the late 1960s.
The variety of LGBTQ life in Chicago is too abundant and too diverse to be contained in a single place. But since 1981, the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives has striven to do just that, amassing a wealth of records related to the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified people and organizations. In Queer Legacies , John D’Emilio—a pioneering scholar in the field—digs deep into Gerber/Hart’s collection to unearth a kaleidoscopic look at the communities built by generations of LGBTQ people. Excavated from one of the country’s most important, yet overlooked, LGBTQ archives, D’Emilio’s entertaining and enthusiastic essays range in focus from politics and culture to social life, academia, and religion. He gives readers an inclusive and personal look at fifty years of a national fight for visibility, recognition, and equality led by LGBTQ Americans who, quite literally, made history. In these troubled times, it will surely inspire a new generation of scholars and activists.