Solomon, Howard

Interviewer

Richard Morin
Michelle Johnston

Files

Description

Howard Solomon is a 76 year-old man who grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania. During his early years, and still today, Judaism played a significant role in his life. His dad was a Kosher butcher, and Solomon attended a Hebrew school while growing up. Solomon’s profession was teaching history as a college professor at New York University, Tufts University, and the University of Southern Maine. Towards the end of his full-time teaching career, he taught a class about Lesbian and Gay History. During the same period, he openly discussed his homosexuality in the university context. He witnessed the AIDS epidemic while living in Boston and speaks about losing his partner and friends, as well as the overall experience the gay community went through during the AIDS epidemic. Howard Solomon gives an account of where he was during the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. He speaks about the history of the organization Mainely Men. He also talks about the impact of the Charlie Howard murder; in that context, Howard Solomon discusses organizing a 2-day conference and a traveling exhibit about the murder. Solomon discusses living in France and the importance of the philosopher Michel Foucault. Solomon now lives in the rural community of Bowdoinham, Maine. Throughout the interview, Solomon talks about the importance of bearing witness and taking action, something he sees as of renewed importance in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For more information about the Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project, please contact Dr. Wendy Chapkis.

ISBN

Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine

Publication Date

Winter 11-21-2016

Publisher

University of Southern Maine

City

Bowdoinham, Maine

Keywords

Howard Solomon, LGBTQ, Oral History, Maine, Judaism, Rural Life, Israel, AIDS, Stonewall, Charlie Howard, Mainely Men

Disciplines

History of Gender | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Oral History | Women's Studies

Recommended Citation

Morin, Richard and Johnston, Michelle, "Solomon, Howard" (2016). Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection. 4.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/4

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.