He authored two books and contributed articles, essays, poems and short fiction to magazines, newspapers and anthologies.
Kantrowitz was born in Newark, New Jersey, and graduated from Weequahic High School, before moving to nearby Elizabeth with his mother and siblings after his parents divorced.
[2] In the early 1970s, he was one of the first openly gay individuals to appear on popular radio and television shows, including those of Jack Paar, Geraldo Rivera, Bill Boggs and Sally Jesse Raphael.
In October 1985, Kantrowitz joined Gregory Kolovakis, Darrell Yates-Rist, Vito Russo, Jim Owles, Allen Barnett and Barry Adkins in helping to form the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Defamation League, renamed the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
The organization's original purpose was to respond to the inaccurate and slanderous portrayals of gay and lesbian people that were widespread in the early years of the AIDS epidemic.