Charley Shively
Charley Shively (1937 - 2017) was an American gay writer, anarchist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.[1][2] A scholar of Walt Whitman,[3] he edited Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers (1989)[4] and Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados (1987).[5][6]
Shively was an activist against the Vietnam War. Following his graduation at Harvard University in 1969, he began working in gay activism. He co-founded several gay groups including Fag Rag and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. He famously burned a copy of the bible and his Harvard diploma in protest at a Boston Pride march in 1977.[2]
Shively started displaying symptoms of Alzheimer's in the early 2000s. Having had his activism mostly forgotten in the following years, he died in 2017 at a nursing home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2][1]
References
- ^ a b "The Last Gay Liberationist". Boston Review. 2017-12-20. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
- ^ a b c Bronski, Michael (2017-11-09). "In Remembrance: Charles Shively, a Pivotal Figure in the Gay Liberation Movement". Lambda Literary Review. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
- ^ Folsom, Ed (2017-11-15). "IN MEMORIAM: Charley Shively, 1937-2017". Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 35 (2): 218–218. doi:10.13008/0737-0679.2281. ISSN 0737-0679.
- ^ Folsom, E. (1989). Charley Shively, ed."Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers"(Book Review). Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, 6(4), 200.
- ^ Giantvalley, Scott. "Charley Shively, ed.," Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados"(Book Review)." Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 5, no. 2 (1987): 35.
- ^ Killingsworth, M. Jimmie (1990). "Review of Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados; Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers, Charley Shively". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 1 (1): 168–171. ISSN 1043-4070.