Grew up in oil fields of Iran; went to high school in Rome, Italy; 4 year ROTC scholarship to Claremont Men's (now: McKenna) College, then commissioned lieutenant in US Army, assigned to 10th Special Forces Detachment (Airborne), Europe as, first, executive officer of operational detachment and, second, as unit BN intelligence officer. Came out in service, court-martialed, and filed first constitutional challenge to federal sodomy statute in 1975. Took interest in history of Iran, Italy, and Germany serious enough to earn doctorate in the subject, and became a life-long educator. Biggest influence on my life now is from my students.

BA, Claremont McKenna College; MA in International Studies-German from the Monterey Institute of International Studies; PhD from the University of Wisconsin;
Associate Professor of History and Chair, Edgewood College, Madison, WI; Editor & Publisher, Among Friends: A Journal for Rural Gays and Lesbians, 1983-1990; Wisconsin Governor's HIV Infection Task Force, 1987-1990; Book Author: 1) In Perfect Formation: SS Ideology and the SS Junkerschule-Tolz, 1999; 2) Guilty as Charged: The True Story of a Gay Beret, 2001; 3) Gilded Age Construction of Modern American Homophobia, St. Martin's Press/Palgrave, 2003; 4) Pursuit of Perfection in the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS), University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992. 2002 University of Wisconsin Distinguished Alumnus Awardee; Winner, Digital Literature Institute's 2002 Independent e-Book Award in the category of memoir for the book, Guilty as Charged.