Bruce Mirken is a writer with 20 years experience in communications and activism in social justice, drug policy reform, LGBT- and AIDS-related issues. Mirken grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Pomona College in 1978. His activist career began in the LGBT community in the campaign against California Proposition 6 Briggs Initiative in 1978, then he went on to participate in a number of social activists movements. He was a regular contributor to periodicals such as San Francisco Chronicle, AIDS Treatment News, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Men's Health, Bay Windows, Progressive Media Project, and Los Angeles Reader; and a contributor to books and anthologies such as Pot Politics: Marijuana and the Costs of Prohibition (2007), The Castro: Desire, Promise, Activism (2001), Sexually Stigmatized Communities (1999), and Uncommon Heroes (1994), among others. Mirken has worked as a freelance communications consultant and was communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project for eight years.

As of 2013, Mirken lives in San Francisco and is media relations director for the Greenlining Institute, a non-profit public policy organization working for racial and economic justice.

Sources:

Bruce Mirken, LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/in/brucemirken (accessed October 31, 2013).

"Our Team: Bruce Mirken, Media Relations Director," The Greenlining Institute, http://greenlining.org/about-greenlining/our-team/ (accessed October 31, 2013).