Richard Grayson (born June 4, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer, political activist, performance artist, and perennial candidate most noted for his books of short stories and his satiric runs for public office.

[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] In the same year Grayson registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as a candidate for Vice President of the United States, receiving coverage for his humorous "campaign".

[13][14] He remained a prolific writer in the early 1980s, when several short story collections came out in quick succession: Lincoln's Doctor's Dog (1982),[15][16][17][18][19] Eating at Arby's (1982),[20][21][22] and I Brake for Delmore Schwartz (1983).

[42] Later in 1990, as the economy faltered, Grayson appeared on CNN touting Pauper, a magazine featuring "articles about poor celebrities, bankrupt businesses, failed financial institutions, [and] tips on frugal living.

[53] After winning the endorsement of John B. Anderson, an independent candidate for president in 1980, Grayson told Broward Palm Beach New Times, "What I'm doing now is not quite a joke...I'm trying to make a point.

"[54] In the conservative 4th congressional district in northern Florida, Grayson supported legal recognition of same-sex marriage, socialized medicine, a $10 an hour minimum wage, repeal of President George W. Bush's tax cuts, and immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; Grayson did not set foot in the district until October 2, 2004, when he did a television spot at a Jacksonville CBS affiliate.

[60] Grayson ran for president again in the 2012 election, this time in the Green Party's Arizona presidential primary and was endorsed by the Tucson Weekly, which noted "we have been most impressed with Richard Grayson, including his plan to deport Republicans back to the 18th century, where they could be more comfortable with their tricorner hats and other Tea Party garb, and his demand that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu be nicer to his ex-boyfriends.

[62] Later in 2012, Grayson changed his voter registration to the new Americans Elect party and in the primary, he won the nomination to run in Arizona's 4th congressional district.

[72] Grayson won another Green Party primary in 2018, this time for the election for state representative in Arizona's 16th legislative district.

"[79] Another story in the same volume is "Twelve Step Barbie,"[80][81] which, along with "With Hitler in New York"[82] is probably the author's best-known work and the subject of academic criticism.

[86] In New York in June 1990, Grayson created Radio Free Broward, a service to mail copies of the 2 Live Crew album As Nasty as They Wanna Be to residents of South Florida, where a federal judge had ruled it obscene and where a record store owner was arrested for selling it.

[90] As a staff attorney in social policy at the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida law school, Grayson began writing op-ed columns for various Florida newspapers opposing proposed laws limiting the rights of gay speakers on college campuses,[91] reinstating chain gangs in prisons,[92] charging lottery winners for past welfare payments,[93] and randomly testing students in middle and high school students for drugs,[94] along with Florida's then-existing ban on adoptions by LGBT parents.

[105][106] Grayson originally published some of the gay-themed stories in The Silicon Valley Diet[107] on early internet sites that featured short fiction.

"[116] The second volume, And to Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street (2006), which Kirkus termed "[a] funny, odd, somehow familiar and fully convincing fictional world,"[117] featured more representational and autobiographical stories, set mostly in Brooklyn.