Guy Hocquenghem (1946–88) taught philosophy at the University of Vincennes, Paris. An activist and pioneering queer theorist, he was the author of many books, including Homosexual Desire, also published by Duke University Press, as well as a staff writer for the French publication Libération and a founding member of the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire.

Gilles Deleuze (1925–95) was one of the most influential and prolific philosophers of the twentieth century.