Keith Boykin

File:Keithboykinwebphoto2005.jpg

Keith Boykin

Keith Boykin is a former White House aide to President Clinton and a New York Times bestselling author of three books. Born (August 28, 1965) and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Boykin attended Countryside High School in Clearwater, Florida before attending Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.

After graduating from Dartmouth in 1987, Boykin spent a year and a half working for the Mike Dukakis for President Campaign and then entered Harvard Law School, where he was a leader in the campus diversity movement and general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He received his J.D. from Harvard in 1992 and then joined the Clinton/Gore Campaign in Little Rock, Arkansas. After Bill Clinton's election, Boykin became a Special Assistant to the President and Director of Specialty Media. Once the highest-ranking openly gay person in the Clinton White House, Boykin helped to organize and participated in the nation's first meeting between gay and lesbian leaders and a U.S. President.

Boykin left the White House to write his first book, One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America, published in 1996. His second book, Respecting the Soul, was published in 1999.

In 1997, President Clinton appointed Boykin to the U.S. presidential trade delegation to Zimbabwe, along with Rev. Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King and Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. From 1999 to 2001, Boykin taught political science at American University in Washington, D.C.

Media Appearances

Boykin appeared on the Showtime television series American Candidate and has appeared on VH1, BET, CNN, Fox News, NPR, and numerous other television and radio programs, including the Dennis Miller Show, Tom Joyner Morning Show, Tony Brown's Journal and Anderson Cooper 360. He has been featured on the cover of several publications including A&U, Out and The Advocate, and he was selected as one of Out Magazine's 100 most intriguing people of 2004. He has also been featured or quoted in articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, VIBE and JET magazine.

He has written for the Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, the St. Petersburg Times, The Advocate, Black Issues Book Review and Crisis Magazine. His syndicated column appears in several newspapers across the country, including the New York Blade, the Washington Blade, The Southern Voice and The Houston Voice.

Recent Activity

Boykin's most recent book, Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America, was released in February 2005. Since January 2004, Boykin has served as president of the board of the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington-based civil rights organization dedicated to fighting racism and homophobia. He writes daily commentary on his website, keithboykin.com.

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Sources:

Keith Boykin's website: http://www.keithboykin.com

List of Notable Dartmouth Alumni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_Dartmouth_alumni

Dartmouth College Alums for Social Change: http://www.alumsforsocialchange.org/profiles.php?do=showitem&iid=142

The Dartmouth Newspaper: http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2004100101020

St. Petersburg Times: http://www.sptimes.com/Floridian/91698/The_way_he_sees_it_.html

Showtime Press Release: http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/media/showtime071304.html

A&U Magazine: http://www.aumag.org/coverstory/January05cover.html

The Advocate Magazine: http://www.advocate.com/currentstory1_w.asp?id=02503

National Black Justice Coalition: http://www.nbjcoalition.org/