The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) was founded in 1991 as the first university-based research center in the United States dedicated to the study of historical, cultural, and political issues of vital concern to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and communities. By sponsoring public programs and conferences, offering fellowships to individual scholars, and functioning as an indispensable conduit of information, CLAGS serves as a national center for the promotion of scholarship that fosters social change.

Founder: Martin Duberman is Distinguished Professor of History at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the founder and first Director (1986-96) of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. One of the country's foremost historians, he is the author of 19 books and numerous articles and essays. He won the Bancroft Prize for Charles Francis Adams; two Lambda awards for Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, an anthology he co-edited; and a special award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters for his "contributions to literature." His play, In White America, won the Vernon Rice/Drama Desk Award. His most recent play, Visions of Kerouac,was produced in May 2003 at the Marin Theater Company. His other works include James Russell Lowell, Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community, Paul Robeson, Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey, and Stonewall. He just completed a novel, Haymarket and has recently begun a biography of Lincoln Kirstein.