May 4, 1950 — August 27, 2019
Stephen O. Murray, Ph.D., a San Francisco-based sociologist, anthropologist, and independent scholar, died August 27, 2019 from an aggressive lymphoma. He was born and raised in Minnesota. Steve's publications include studies in sociolinguistics, the history of social sciences (anthropology, sociology, linguistics), and publications on the historical and cross-cultural social organizations of homosexuality. His books for the University of Chicago Press, "American Gay" (1996) and "Homosexualities" (2000), investigate the emergence of gay and lesbian lives across extensive geographical places and historical eras.
His many collections of articles on homosexualities in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Islamic world, Oceanic and Pacific areas including Taiwan and Cambodia show an amazing breadth of knowledge and history in many cultures. He was a prolific critic, writing reviews in print publications and online websites about African cinema, Italian fiction, and Japanese culture. He was a founding member, in the mid- to late-1970s, of the gay caucuses in the American Anthropological Association and the American Sociological Association.
Steve is survived by his loving spouse, Keelung Hong, Ph.D., with whom he shared a life since 1981. Hong will continue to contribute to Steve's charities in his honor.