Bennett Hammer grew up in Long Beach, New York. In 1967 he moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico where he completed his B.A. in Spanish and English (1969) and a M.A. in Bilingual Education (1974) from New Mexico Highlands University. He taught Spanish at levels kindergarten through university. In 1975, he began working as a real estate broker in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the 1990s, Hammer was a member of the New Mexico Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance, The Duke City Gay and Lesbian Business Association, and the Common Bond Community Center. Hammer served on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of New Mexico (1994-2006), and was New Mexico’s representative to the National ACLU Board for three years (2003-2006). The ACLU of New Mexico honored Hammer with its Civil Libertarian of the Year Award (2005), and he received the Russell Gray Community Service Award from the Common Bond Foundation (2007).

From 1970-2009, Hammer collected articles on gay-related issues from local and national papers to preserve the dominant discourse in United States culture during these years of the LGBT civil rights movement. This clipping collection came to be known as the “Hammer Archives” and was used for advocacy, research and education by policy-makers, activists, legislators, clergy, university students and parents. In 2009, the “Hammer Archives” became part of the LGBT Educational Archives Project which was devoted to the preservation of LGBT archives.

Biography based on biographical/historical note by Barbara Korbal.