Australian academic and author Dennis Altman was born on this day in 1943.
Altman was born in Sydney, but spent most of his childhood in Tasmania. In 1964 he won a Fullbright Scholarship to Cornell University. Here he began working with American gay activists.
In 1969 he returned to Australia where he began working at Sydney University. In 1985 he became a lecturer at LaTrobe University where he later became a professor.
Over his career Altman has been a key advocate in the Australian response to HIV and served on the Australian National AIDS Council, and several international bodies too.
In 1971 he published the acclaimed and influential book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. He would go on to write many more influential works on gay rights and culture. As well as works about American author Gore Vidal and a study of monarchies. In 2021 he published the fictional work Death in the Sauna.
Altman is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow and Professorial Fellow in the Institute for Human Security at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. He was Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard in 2005 and listed by The Bulletin as one of the 100 most influential Australians ever. He currently serves a patron to The Pride Foundation Australia.
