Author and community activist to receive GLBT Distinguished Alumni Awards

On Sunday, July 17, 2005, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alumni Council (GLBTAC) will recognize two recipients of the their 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award at the 14th annual GLBT Alumni Council Brunch.

As senior humanities editor, award recipient Raphael Kadushin has established the University of Wisconsin Press as one of the nation’s leading publishers of books on GLBT issues. He launched the press’s “Living Out” series, America’s only book series devoted solely to gay and lesbian autobiographies. Perhaps best known in Madison as a restaurant and food critic for Isthmus weekly newspaper, he authored that publication’s “Close to Home” column for two years.

He has also contributed to such magazines as National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Bon Appetit, and Wisconsin Trails. Kadushin won Britain’s Bedford Pace Travel Writing Prize in 2002.

Also a frequent contributor to Isthmus, honoree Jess Anderson has been a music critic for that paper since 1980. But his cultural influence extends into other spheres. Anderson was a long-time announcer for Madison’s WORT radio, and he was a pioneering member of such organizations as the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Center. Though now retired, Anderson worked for UW–Madison’s Physical Sciences Laboratory and its predecessor, the Midwestern Universities Research Association, for more than 40 years.

Each year, the GLBT Alumni Council honors UW–Madison graduates who have shown an exemplary commitment to the GLBT community and have demonstrated excellence in their life’s work as a self-identified GLBT person or ally. The event is open to the public and will be held from 10 a.m. until noon at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, Madison.

Brunch tickets are $16 per person, and the registration deadline is Wednesday, July 13. Please call P.J. Hoesly at (608) 262-9646 or register online at uwalumni.com/glbtac. Proceeds benefit the GLBT Alumni Council Scholarship Fund.