The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick Book Launch (in person & live-streaming)
June 11 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
When a police officer stood at his bedroom door on August 3, 1982, Michael Hardwick had no idea that he would become an avatar of the gay rights movement. Arrested for sodomy, Hardwick sued for his right to privacy all the way to the Supreme Court, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic spiraled. When he lost, his era-defining case inspired a half-million people to protest the Court. Today Bowers v. Hardwick continues to reverberate as the rights of privacy underpinning abortion, contraception, and same-sex relationships come under fire.
In this fiercely empathetic blend of biography and history, Martin Padgett tells the story of Hardwick’s life—as a child of Stonewall, as an artist, and as one of thousands claimed by the epidemic. The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS (W. W. Norton, June 3, 2025, hardcover, $31.99) reveals the halting shifts of American sexual politics, poses urgent questions about the Supreme Court, and returns to Hardwick some of the humanity stolen from him.
Author Martin Padgett will be joined in conversation by John Voelcker.
To reserve a copy of The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS (W. W. Norton, June 3, 2025, hardcover, $31.99), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick for June 11 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Praise for The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick :
“A fascinating story, grounded in the complex oppression endured by American queers before the contemporary dynamics of commodification and legalization. Padgett’s loving engagement with Hardwick’s life reminds us that—despite stigma and state violence—queer, and AIDS history is fundamentally the story of regular people who change the world through the power of personal integrity rooted in the truth of our lives.”
— Sarah Schulman, author of Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP, New York 1987-1993
“As the increasingly right-leaning Supreme Court marches backward in time, all who believe that the arc of the moral universe will ultimately bend toward justice are in desperate need of a narrative as readable and moving as Marty Padgett’s The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick. Having argued the landmark constitutional case around which this gripping story pivots, I can say that it is by far the finest account of a personal, political, and legal saga like the one Hardwick’s brave life and premature death embodied.”
— Laurence Tribe, law professor at Harvard University
“Martin Padgett has heroically rescued the shooting star of Michael Hardwick’s errant 1980s Supreme Court story and placed it firmly in the constellation of the most urgent Queer American histories. Spinning the legacy of anti-sodomy challenges back to this foundational case in the AIDS crisis, The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick triumphs on both narrative and scholarly registers. Start polishing the awards.”
— Robert Fieseler, author of Tinder Box: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation
“Thoroughgoing history of a signal injustice committed against gay Americans by the American judiciary. . . A lucid, rightfully indignant study that demands a renewed commitment to equality for all.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Padgett combines incisive legal analysis with vivid evocations of the AIDS-era gay experience. . . a captivating account of one man’s awakening to injustice.” — Publishers Weekly
Participants’ biographies:
MARTIN PADGETT is the author of A Night at the Sweet Gum Head and The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick. Recipient of a Lambda Literary Fellowship, his writing has appeared in the Oxford American, The Paris Review, and Washington Post, among other publications. He lives in Pensacola Beach, Florida.
JOHN VOELCKER covers advanced auto technologies and policy as a reporter and analyst. As a Contributing Editor at Car and Driver, Green Car Reports, InsideEVs, and other outlets, he specializes in electric vehicles and the energy ecosystem around them. John edited Green Car Reports for nine years, publishing more than 12,000 articles on hybrids, electric cars, and other topics. His work appears in online, print, radio, and TV outlets that include Automotive News, The Drive, Charged EVs, Wired, and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” He is the subject of the upcoming documentary A Son’s Journey: How I Became an Automotive Journalist from Hampton Films. In his off hours, he’s part of the deluded but cheerful team at the YouTube channel Tempting Fate Tours. He splits his time between the Catskill Mountains and New York City.
