{"id":287,"date":"2024-07-28T16:52:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T16:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/?page_id=287"},"modified":"2024-07-28T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T17:07:00","slug":"remembering-charles-william-gossett-professor-emeritus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/remembering-charles-william-gossett-professor-emeritus\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Charles William Gossett,\u00a0Professor Emeritus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

— Prepared by Mark Blasius, City University of New York and Greg Lewis, Georgia State University, with Mary Kirlin, California State University, Sacramento.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long-time LGBTQ+ Caucus\/Sexuality and Politics Section member Charles W. (Charlie) Gossett, 72, died in Palm Springs, CA on May 10, 2024, as a result of Parkinson\u2019s Disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"PictureA scholar and practitioner of human resource management, Charlie received his PhD in political science from Stanford University. While completing his dissertation on the civil service in Botswana, Charlie worked on personnel issues for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the District of Columbia government. As special assistant to Mayor Marion Barry and as chief of the benefits administration division, he was deeply involved in policy decisions about domestic partners benefits. His enduring interest in culturally sensitive teaching and learning coupled with his interest in African politics brought him to Africa thrice, serving as a lecturer at the University of Botswana while doing research for his dissertation, later as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Swaziland, and finally as a Fulbright Scholar assisting in the establishment of the Centre for the Study of HIV and AIDS at the University of Botswana, Gaborone.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University, Charlie was one of the first scholars to publish on LGBT issues in public administration. Focusing on state and local governments, he described provision of domestic partner benefits in 23 cities (in 1994), gay men\u2019s and lesbians\u2019 experience with anti-discrimination laws (1996), and the impact of Dillon\u2019s Rule on local government efforts to protect the rights of lesbians and gay men (1999). He continued to examine the status of LGBT public employees for the remainder of his career. His public opinion research examined mind-changing on LGBT rights and showed that long-run trends in popular support for same-sex marriage in California predicted the passage of Proposition 8, which overturned the state supreme court\u2019s decision establishing that right. He examined how American government textbooks covered LGBTs and same-sex marriage. He also compiled the first-of-its-kind data base of gay and lesbian elected officials in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California maintains an archive of Charlie\u2019s research<\/a> on domestic partnership benefits, LGBT employment discrimination, and other LGBT-related topics, as well as administrative records from his time on the Commission on Domestic Partnership Benefits for the District of Columbia, the Georgia Equality Project, and the American Political Science Association’s Committee on the Status of Lesbians and Gays in the Profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie\u2019s faculty leadership role expanded when he became acting department chair at Georgia Southern University in 2001, then moved to California State Polytechnic University in 2002 to become chair of the department of political science for seven years. In 2009, Charlie was named Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies at California State University, Sacramento.  He served in that role for three years until being named Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of the campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following his Provost role, he opted to return to teaching and writing, spending the final years of his career in the Political Science and Public Administration and Policy Departments.  Charlie transferred to emeritus status in 2019 and moved to Palm Springs, CA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his administrative calling, Charlie was a true scholar-teacher. He published over 20 articles and book chapters about gay and lesbian politics, African politics, local government, and teaching.  He loved teaching American government and public administration and was passionate about supporting students and serving the profession.  In the APSA, besides serving on the LGBT Status Committee he served on the Trust and Development Committee, the Leonard White Dissertation Award Committee, as the Public Administration Section\u2019s Program as well as Section Chair, and was an early member of the Sexuality and Politics Section.   Charlie will be remembered as one of our political science pioneers, teaching and otherwise institutionalizing LGBTQ scholarship and professional concerns within the discipline, and through his political engagement, beyond it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A funeral service for Charlie was held in Palm Springs on June 4, 2024, and a memorial service is planned for Sacramento State on a date to be announced.\u00a0 In lieu of flowers, and since Charlie supported many LGBTIQ initiatives, please consider a donation to: ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives<\/a> at the USC Libraries; to its community partner ONE Institute<\/a> (oneinstitute.org); and to the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy<\/a> at the UCLA School of Law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

— Prepared by Mark Blasius, City University of New York and Greg Lewis, Georgia State University, with Mary Kirlin, California State University, Sacramento. Long-time LGBTQ+ Caucus\/Sexuality and Politics Section member Charles W. (Charlie) Gossett, 72, died in Palm Springs, CA on May 10, 2024, as a result of Parkinson\u2019s Disease. A scholar and practitioner of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7159,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-287","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.apsanet.org\/lgbtq-caucus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}