David K. Johnson is a historian and award-winning author of two books, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians (Chicago, 2004) and Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement (Columbia, 2019). A nationally recognized authority on LGBT history, he has appeared on CNN, PBS, and CBS Sunday Morning and his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Foreign Policy. His first book was made into the award-winning documentary film "The Lavender Scare,"which aired nationwide on PBS. Buying Gay won both the John Boswell Prize from the Committee of LGBT History of the American Historical Association and the Smithsonian Institution's award for scholarship in postal history. It was also a finalist for the PROSE Award in U.S. History, the Hagley Prize in Business History, and the Randy Shilts Award in gay studies. Johnson holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, both in history. He has enjoyed fellowships from the National Humanities Center, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Social Science Research Council.He has contributed to government reports and legal briefs which document a history of LGBT discrimination and thereby seek to expand civil rights protections and create a more inclusive educational curriculum. As Professor in the History Department at the University of South Florida, he teaches courses on the post-1945 U.S. and the history of gender and sexuality.