Out Spotlight XXXIII

Keith Boykin is the editor of The Daily Voice newspaper, daily news source for African American/Black Community in the U.S. He is also a host of the BET television show My Two Cents, a New York Times best-selling author of three books, and a frequent political commentator on CNN. Keith Boykin is a the story of success not only in the African American community, the powerful world of politics but the GLBT community as well.

Graduating Dartmouth College in 1987, Keith spent a year and a half working for Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign and before attending Harvard Law School, where he was a leader in the campus movement and general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. One of his classmates at Harvard was current U.S. Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. Keith served in the White House as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton. After Clinton's election, Boykin became a Special Assistant to the President and Director of Specialty Media. Once the highest-ranking openly gay person in the Clinton White House, Boykin helped organize and participated in the nation's first meeting between gay and lesbian leaders and a U.S. President. He left his position in the White House to write his first book, One More River to Cross.

He has been actively involved in progressive causes since he worked on his first congressional campaign while still a student in high school. He is a veteran of six political campaigns, including two presidential campaigns, and he was named one of the top instructors when he taught political science at American University in Washington.

In 2004, Keith launched his media career as a star on the Showtime television series "American Candidate." Since then, he has appeared on Anderson Cooper 360, The O'Reilly Factor, The Tyra Banks Show, The Montel Williams Show, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and on numerous other television and radio programs. He has been selected as one of The Advocate Magazine's 10 "people of the year" and as one of Instinct Magazine's 25 "leading men" of 2005. In 2004 and again in 2006, he was one of Out Magazine's 100 most intriguing people.

A founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington-based civil rights organization dedicated to fighting racism and homophobia. He has spoken to audiences, large and small, all across the world. He delivered a landmark speech to 200,000 people at the Millennium March on Washington and as well as one about the AIDS epidemic in front of 40,000 people in Chicago's Soldier Field in July 2006.

Each of his three books has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, including his most recent book, Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America. Keith won the Lambda Literary Award for his second book, Respecting The Soul: Daily Reflections for Black Lesbian and Gays, while his first book, One More River to Cross, is taught in colleges and universities throughout the country.

Boykin won a Gold in wrestling at the 2006 Gay Games, where he competed in the 82 kilo division

Keith is an associate producer of the 2007 feature film Dirty Laundry, nominated for a GLAAD media award, and is working on his fourth book.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Keith currently lives in New York City with his life partner Nathan Hale Williams, former model, actor,film and television producer, entertainment attorney and the founder of iN-HALE Entertainment.