Lombardi, Michael A.

Biography

Michael Anthony Lombardi was born in Hawick, Scotland, on August 11, 1947, the son of Antonio and Clementina (Morelli) Lombardi. He was raised in an Italian colony in Dublin, Ireland, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1959. He received his primary and secondary education in Catholic and public schools in Lynwood, California. He interrupted his high school studies in Los Angeles and joined the U.S. Army in 1966, where he received his high school equivalency diploma. After completing his tour of duty, he received his A.A. degree from Compton Junior College, and entered the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where he graduated with a B.A. in German in 1973. He then entered the UCLA graduate program in German, spending his second year of graduate study at the Gesamthochschule Essen. He became a candidate for the M.A. in 1977, but did not take the degree. In 1983, he resumed graduate study at the ONE Institute for Homophile Studies Graduate School, earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in Homophile Studies in 1984 and 1986, respectively.

Lombardi first became acquainted with the writings of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895), the pioneering German theorist and activist for the legal and social rights of homosexuals, in 1977. From 1979 onwards he translated Ulrichs' works, which he and Paul Nash, his partner since 1972, published privately as "Urania Manuscripts". In 1990, he was approached by Vern Bullough, general editor of Prometheus Books' series on human sexuality, to translate the works of Magnus Hirschfeld. His translation of Hirschfeld's Die Transvestiten (1910) appeared in 1991, and of Hirschfeld's Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes (1914) in 2000. He has also published a translation of Ernest Borneman's Das Geschlechtsleben des Kindes (1985).

Paul Nash was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on February 20, 1934. After graduating from highschool, he spent two years in the U.S. Navy, after which he attended college. In 1962, he moved to Los Angeles, where he was employed in hospital administration and where he met Michael Lombardi, who became his partner in 1972. During the 1970s Nash and Lombardi became increasingly active in civil and gay rights. In 1975, Nash entered Los Angeles City College to study writing, and became involved in newspaper journalism. He served as Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Collegian in 1978. From 1980 to 1983 he was also Los Angeles City Editor of Update, a gay newspaper serving San Diego and Los Angeles. He was editor and principal financial supporter of "Urania Manuscripts", which he and Lombardi founded to privately publish the latter's translations of the works of Ulrichs and other European writers on homosexuality. The couple also runs the Karl Heinrich Ulrichs website at http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/celebration2000/, which serves as a clearing house for current information on the study of Ulrichs and his contribution to the GLBT movement.

In 1988, Michael Lombardi and Paul Nash moved from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida, where they currently reside.

Sources:

Michael A. Lombardi and Paul J. Nash Papers, Coll2008-011, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Website, http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/celebration2000/ (accessed December 6, 2008).

From the guide to the Michael A. Lombardi and Paul J. Nash papers, 1731-2001., 1975-1987., (ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.)