Arnold Kantrowitz1958 (Deceased)
LGBT activist, educator and author
Arnold Kantrowitz was born on Nov. 26, 1940, in Newark, NJ.
Arnold graduated from Weequahic High School and was accepted by Columbia and Princeton. But he recalled later that, being both gay and Jewish, he didn’t enroll in either school because he lacked self-confidence.
“I felt ‘other,’” he said in an interview with the Queer Newark Oral History Project in 2015. “I felt different from what my parents wanted me to be.” “My mother even took me to a doctor,” he added. “He didn’t think I was gay, he thought that I was sensitive. And I was! Both!”
Arnold graduated from Rutgers University-Newark with a bachelor’s degree in 1961 and earned a Master’s in 1963 from New York University, both in English literature. He also completed his preparation for a doctoral degree at NYU.
His first teaching job was at the State University of New York at Cortland, from 1963 to 1965. He taught from 1965 until he retired in 2006 at the City University’s College of Staten Island, where he introduced one of the earliest gay studies courses. He was named chairman of the English department in 1999.
A professor, author and activist, he fought against discrimination because of sexual orientation and for fairness from the media.
The modern-day gay rights movement was ignited in mid-1969 by the uprising provoked by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, which led to the founding several months later of the Gay Activists Alliance. Mr. Kantrowitz became the organization’s vice president in 1970, which was also the year he came to grips with his own homosexuality.
His memoir, “Under the Rainbow: Growing Up Gay” (1977), exposed to a wide audience the difficulties he and his gay contemporaries faced in the 1950s and ’60s and recalled how he had confronted them — including two suicide attempts. The book also chronicled historical events in the movement, including what was called the first Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade, held in New York City in 1970.
In 1985, he was a founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (now known as GLAAD), which was established to counter negative media coverage generated by the AIDS crisis. He was also a leading proponent of the work of Walt Whitman and the author of a biography of Whitman that was published in 2005 as part of the series “Gay and Lesbian Writers.”
Arnie Kantrowitz died from complications of Covid-19 in 2022, leaving his life partner, Dr. Larry Mass, his brother, Barry Kantrowitz, and extended families of relatives, students and LGBTQ+ individuals and communities in mourning and gratitude for his spirit, courage and creativity.
Condensed from NYT Obituary 12/2022
Arnold graduated from Weequahic High School and was accepted by Columbia and Princeton. But he recalled later that, being both gay and Jewish, he didn’t enroll in either school because he lacked self-confidence.
“I felt ‘other,’” he said in an interview with the Queer Newark Oral History Project in 2015. “I felt different from what my parents wanted me to be.” “My mother even took me to a doctor,” he added. “He didn’t think I was gay, he thought that I was sensitive. And I was! Both!”
Arnold graduated from Rutgers University-Newark with a bachelor’s degree in 1961 and earned a Master’s in 1963 from New York University, both in English literature. He also completed his preparation for a doctoral degree at NYU.
His first teaching job was at the State University of New York at Cortland, from 1963 to 1965. He taught from 1965 until he retired in 2006 at the City University’s College of Staten Island, where he introduced one of the earliest gay studies courses. He was named chairman of the English department in 1999.
A professor, author and activist, he fought against discrimination because of sexual orientation and for fairness from the media.
The modern-day gay rights movement was ignited in mid-1969 by the uprising provoked by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, which led to the founding several months later of the Gay Activists Alliance. Mr. Kantrowitz became the organization’s vice president in 1970, which was also the year he came to grips with his own homosexuality.
His memoir, “Under the Rainbow: Growing Up Gay” (1977), exposed to a wide audience the difficulties he and his gay contemporaries faced in the 1950s and ’60s and recalled how he had confronted them — including two suicide attempts. The book also chronicled historical events in the movement, including what was called the first Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade, held in New York City in 1970.
In 1985, he was a founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (now known as GLAAD), which was established to counter negative media coverage generated by the AIDS crisis. He was also a leading proponent of the work of Walt Whitman and the author of a biography of Whitman that was published in 2005 as part of the series “Gay and Lesbian Writers.”
Arnie Kantrowitz died from complications of Covid-19 in 2022, leaving his life partner, Dr. Larry Mass, his brother, Barry Kantrowitz, and extended families of relatives, students and LGBTQ+ individuals and communities in mourning and gratitude for his spirit, courage and creativity.
Condensed from NYT Obituary 12/2022