Martin P. Levine

(July 26, 1950 - April 3, 1993)

One of the programs administered by ASA was established through a significant bequeast from Martin Levine. When Levine died, he devoted the bulk of his estate to establish the Martin P. Levine Memorial Dissertation Fellowship fund, which is administered through the ASA's Sexualities section (formerly administered by the Sex and Gender section). This award provides a one-year fellowship to a graduate student writing a dissertation about one of the areas that Levine was dedicated to researching. Time can rob us of the memory of how programs began, so this page provides a capsule summary of Levine and the important program he created. The following article by Michael S. Kimmel and John H. Gagnon was published in the October 1993 issue of Footnotes (page 23):

Martin P. Levine, a pioneer in the sociological study of homosexuality, died of AIDS on April 3, 1993, at his home in New York City. Marty Levine was a devoted teacher, a pioneering researcher, an enthusiastic and powerful presence within the ASA. He was also a delightful, witty, charming, and deeply caring friend and colleague.

At the time of his death, Marty was on disability leave as Associate Professor of Sociology at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida, and a Research Associate at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He also served on the National Academy of Sciences Panel that was monitoring the Social Impact of the AIDS epidemic, and was a community liaison with the Burroughs Wellcome Corporation, assisting the company in channeling some of its AZT profits back into the communities affected by the epidemic.

Born and raised in a working-class family in Brooklyn, NY, Marty was proud of his professional accomplishments that marked his upward mobility. The first member of his family to attend college, Marty graduated from SUNY at Binghamton in 1972 with a BA in Sociology. He received his MA (1977) and PhD (1986) from New York University.

His dissertation, Gay Macho: The Life And Death Of The Homosexual Clone placed gay male sexuality squarely within a socially constructed masculine sexuality. Based on extensive field work within various sites for gay male sexual expression (bars, bathhouses, sex clubs), Marty chronicled the changing masculinities of the community of gay men. He saw the transition from “failed men” to “real men” as evidence for the socially constructed nature of both sexuality and gender.

Marty’s teaching and research revolved around making gender and sexuality visible, within the academy, within the American Sociological Association, and in the world at large.

He was one of the first sociologists to define homosexuality as a field of study His edited collection, Gay Men: The Sociology Of Male Homosexuality (Harper and Row, 1979), was a pioneering anthology that used sociological concepts to understand the emergence of a gay male community In 1980, while researching the dissertation, Marty was hired by Bloomfield College, where he taught, as Assistant and Associate Professor, until 1991. While at Bloomfield, Marty’s extraordinary teaching abilities blossomed. He was an especially gifted teacher, utterly devoted to his students. He twice won “best teacher” awards at Bloomfield, and prided himself on the fact that as a gay white man, he was the faculty advisor to the black student organization, the gay student organization, and one of the school’s fraternities. Rarely has anyone been able to bridge those communities on any campus. Marty also taught at Queens College and at New York University.

While his work with undergraduate students at Bloomfield was enormously satisfying, Marty was also devoted to the mentoring of graduate students who were undertaking research on homosexuality, gender, and human sexuality and, later, research on the AIDS epidemic. Through his work in the ASA’s Gay and Lesbian Caucus, he worked informally with graduate students, providing a level of nurturing and support that went far beyond any expectations. Many younger gay and lesbian sociologists got their first “break” on a conference panel he organized or by his careful and considerate commentary and critique of their work.

In the past several years, as the gay and lesbian community became increasingly preoccupied with the AIDS epidemic, so too did Marty’s work. Even before he was diagnosed as HI V-positive, he had begun to look for ways to bring the concerns of social scientists and the AIDS community together to develop responsible and responsive research opportunities. Marty pioneered undergraduate courses about AIDS, developing one of the nation’s first courses about AIDS and homosexuality.

Marty directed a National Institute of Mental Health study of sexual decision-making among gay men, advised Commissioner Frank Lilly of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic, and testified about AIDS antibody testing, violence against gay men and lesbians, and employment discrimination against lesbians and gay men before the United States Congress, the Colorado state legislature, and the New York City Council.

Among Marty’s many publications were several particularly important articles. “The Life and Death of the Homosexual Clone” (In Gay Culture In America, edited by Gilbert Herdt, Boston: Beacon Press, 1992) recapitulated the argument of his dissertation in distilled form. His co-authored “The Motives of Gay Men for Taking or not Taking the HIV Antibody Test” (Social Problems, 36, 1989) presented the results of collaborative research on gay men s sexual decision making. “The Myth of Sexual Compulsivity” (with Richard Troiden, published in The Journal Of Sex Research, 25, 1988) unmasked the ideological component of the new disease called sex addiction. And “Discrimination against Lesbians in the Work Force” (with Robin Leonard) was published in Signs (8, 1984) special “Lesbian Issue,” a placement which especially tickled his pro-feminist political sensibilities.

Marty’s death brings into the ASA first modern scholars to initiate the stark reality of the AIDS epidemic in a profound way, since so much of his activity had been to establish the visibility and the legitimacy of gay men and lesbians within the organization. He was energetic in developing organizational ways for lesbian and gay male scholars to gain acceptance for their work. He was among the founders of the ASA’s Lesbian and Gay Caucus, and founded the Sociologists AIDS Network (SAN).

At ASA’s annual conventions, Marty was a constant and visible presence, arguing pointedly about the inclusion of gays and lesbians from the floor of ASA Council or at open business meetings, organizing sessions and presenting current research, and networking. He also organized some of the most enjoyable and memorable caucus parties, and bar-hopping expeditions in major cities where conventions were held.

Marty also used his prodigious interpersonal skills to bring the academic research and the major organizational and corporate players responding to the epidemic, face to face with the anger and anguish of the gay and lesbian community itself. As a member of the community liaison committee for Burroughs Wellcome, he was able to provide funding for all of the communities affected by the epidemic. Marty was no single-cause activist, and he was eager to use his abilities to provide resources for everyone harmed by the epidemic.

It seems fitting that even in his death, Marty remains committed to serving as a mentor and supporter of those younger scholars who are undertaking research on homosexuality, AIDS, or human sexuality in general. He used the largest share of his estate to establish the Martin P. Levine Memorial Dissertation Fellowship Award fund, which will be administered through the Sex and Gender section of the ASA. This award will provide a one-year fellowship to a graduate student writing a dissertation about one of the areas that Marty was so dedicated to researching. (Members of the ASA who are interested in contributing to this fellowship fund can send their checks to the ASA, earmarked for the Martin Levine Dissertation Fund)

Marty Levine was one of our era’s most visible, vocal, and vital gay sociologists. One could not have hoped for a better colleague, a more devoted teacher, a more selflessly supportive mentor, or a more loving and caring friend. He was all of these, and more, to both of us, and to all whose lives he touched. He will be sorely missed — indeed, he already is.

Michael S. Kimmel and John H. Gagnon, SUNY at Stony Brook

Recipients of the Martin P. Levine Fellowship:

• 1994 - Elizabeth Armstrong, University of California, Berkeley
• 1995 - Jammie Price, "Gender, Sexuality and Emotions in Friendships Betwen Gay and Straight Men"
• 1996 - Susan Dalton, "Legal Actors and the Construction of the Problematic Homosexual Parent: Thirty Years of Child Custody Cases and the Reproduction of Heteronormativity"
• 1997 - Matt Mulch
• 1998 - Kathleen Hull, "Wedding Rites/Marriage Rites: Same Sex Marriage as Cultural Practice and Political Goal"
• 1999 - Erin Calhoun Davis, "Overcoming Gender? Transsexualism and the Gender Paradigm"
• 2000 - Kim Richman, "Judicial Decision Making in Custody Cases Involving Gay and Lesbian Parents, 1952-1999: A Study of Indeterminacy in Legal Rationales and Outcomes"
• 2001 -
• 2002 - Jeffrey Sweat, University of California, Davis
• 2003 - Tasleem Juana Padamsee, "Medicine and Inequality in the Welfare State: AIDS Policy-Making in the United States and the United Kingdom"

Recipients of Honorable Mention:

• 1994 - Christopher Carrington
• 1995 - Kathleen Asbury, "Birkenstocks in the Bottom Drawer: Lesbian Identity and Workplace Strategies"
• 1996 - Nicole Raeburn, "The Rise of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights in the Workplace"
• 1997 - Howard Lune; Steven Kurtz
• 1998 - Michael Putnam, "Private 'I's: Investigating Men's Experiences of Pornographies"
• 1999 - Ian K. Leukus
• 2000 - Gina Masequesmay, "Becoming American: Negotiating Multiple Identities in a Queer, Ethnic Support Group"
• 2001 -
• 2002 -
• 2003 - Kristen Schilt, "Transsexuality in Context: The Variable Meaning of Transition"