Martin Padgett in conversation with Philip Rafshoon – "The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick" Author Talk

Date and Time

• Tuesday, Jun 3, 2025  7pm

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The little-known story of the man who sparked a groundswell of gay activism after a wrongly decided Supreme Court decision.

A Cappella Books welcomes Martin Padgett to Saint Mark United Methodist Church in honor of his new book, “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS.” Padgett will appear in conversation with Philip Rafshoon, Director of Member Engagement at Midtown Alliance.

This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the venue.

About the Book

Michael Hardwick had no idea that when a police officer stood at his bedroom door on August 3, 1982, he would become a face of the gay rights movement. Arrested for sodomy, Hardwick sued for his right to privacy all the way to the Supreme Court, even as the HIV/AIDS epidemic began its toll. When he lost, his era-defining case inspired a half-million people to protest, and the ruling became one of the most reviled of its time.

Today, Bowers v. Hardwick reverberates again, as the rights of privacy underpinning legal abortion, contraception, and same-sex relationships come under fire. But the individual Michael Hardwick has faded from memory—his story has been relegated to legal arcana, with only a pale rendering of his life outside of the Supreme Court case. In “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick,” Martin Padgett assembles the complete kaleidoscope of Hardwick’s life—as a child of Stonewall, as an artist, and as one of many thousands claimed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Blending biography and history, Padgett traces how Hardwick became a political symbol, first by chance, then by his own choice, even when it made him an object of derision and scrutiny.

From the then-unopened archives of legal scholar Laurence Tribe—who argued Hardwick’s case alongside the ACLU—to hours of new interviews with Hardwick’s surviving family and friends, Padgett emerges with a story of someone who stood up for equality despite the infamy he knew would attach to him. He reveals how Hardwick forced America to come to grips with queer people—and to acknowledge its moral failures toward some of its most marginalized citizens.

In “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick,” Martin Padgett reveals the halting shifts in American sexual politics over the last half-century, posing urgent questions about the deliberations of the Supreme Court, and returning to Hardwick the humanity stolen from him decades ago.

About the Author

Martin Padgett is the author of “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head.” Recipient of a Lambda Literary Fellowship, his writing has appeared in the Oxford American, The Paris Review, and Washington Post, among other publications. He lives in Pensacola Beach, Florida.

About the Conversation Partner

Philip Rafshoon is a Georgia Tech graduate best known as the owner of Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse, a cornerstone of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community from 1993 to 2012. He later served as Program Director of the AJC Decatur Book Festival, helping expand its reach and diversity. Today, he leads member engagement at Midtown Alliance, connecting a broad mix of organizations across the city. Philip lives in Midtown with his husband and is passionate about books, cities, politics, and community.