Mr. Dennis Altman. MA (1943-) was a Fullbright scholar at Cornell University in the 1960s when he met and began working with leading gay activists in the United States. Returning to Australia in 1969, he taught politics at the University of Sydney, and in 1971, published his book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation - considered an important intellectual contribution to the ideas that shaped Australia's gay liberation movement. In 2005, he also published Gore Vidal's America, a study, as the title suggests, of Gore Vidal and his writings on history, politics, sex, and religion.

In 1985, Altman accepted an appointment at La Trobe University, where he later became Professor of Politics; he was appointed the visiting Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University from January 2005.[1] Altman has delivered speeches on the topic of sexual liberation, one of his most known and appreciated speeches, 'Human Beings Can be Much More Than They Have Allowed Themselves to be', was delivered at the first Gay Liberation group meeting at Sydney University on January 19, 1972. This was at a time when homosexuality was considered 'shadowy' and 'ill understood'.

In his Preface to "The City and the Pillar"[ Andre Deutsch Ed.]Gore Vidal writes that Dennis Altman brought the book back with him but it was seized at Sydney airport and subsequently declared obscene by a judge who also observed that the law was " absurd", thus leading to its repeal some time later

Dennis Altman is also an active member of organisations that are dedicated to the amelioration of life for homosexuals, serving on the Australian National Council on AIDS and other International organisations including the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific, of which (as of the 2005 Kobe ICAAP Congress) he is President[2]. Although strongly identified with Gay Rights, Denis Altman also contributes to more widely based organisations. In October 2006 he was elected to the Australian board of Oxfam