Mar 13, 20212 min read

The History of Organized Male Nude Swimming in the U.S.

BAMMER47: Did you know that, until the 1960s, it was a widespread requirement that boys who swam in segregated groups in public school...

Mar 13, 20212 min read

How Meaningful Are Straight Friends in your LGBTQ life?

BAMMER47: From everything you hear and read, younger LGBTQers today are much more inclusive and non-discriminatory, as a rule, than the...

Mar 12, 20214 min read

Dad and Me

STORY: I grew up in a close-knit and loving family of four in Minnesota. As a child, I was always close to my mom but didn’t really know...

Feb 24, 20212 min read

My Nephew Callum

STORY: Callum is the youngest of my brother’s three sons. On the surface, he was a shy kid, but, hidden behind that facade was a bold boy...

Jan 26, 20215 min read

Madonna Didn’t Call

STORY" I grew up in South Africa. In 1994, we were promised a new constitution with protected rights and social acceptance for gays. I...

Jan 1, 20218 min read

How Did I End Up Here?

STORY: “How did I get to this point?” I kept asking myself nervously and guiltily, during the two-hour train ride. I’m a father,...

Dec 20, 20202 min read

The 1993 March on Washington

STORY: I attended the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation on April 25, 1993, with a group of...

Dec 20, 20206 min read

What I Learned

STORY: It was one of those days I will never forget. It was the Spring of 1999, probably in late March, just after my birthday. It was on...

Dec 9, 20203 min read

The Lover

STORY: When I first heard the Turkish word sevici, I had no idea what it meant. Though literally translated it means lover, it seems the...

Nov 10, 20203 min read

The Great March

STORY: —excerpted from the book Farm Story: Coming Out Of Indiana by Eddie Casson In October 1987, at what has become known as “The Great...

Oct 22, 202014 min read

Kissing Summer

STORY: I wanted to disappear. “Hi, Paul! What are you doing these days? Where are you working?” I stared blankly at this acquaintance,...

Oct 4, 20205 min read

Bartending at Studio

STORY: It was late evening, as just about everything was at Studio 54. I can’t remember who got me the interview, somebody I met in...

Sep 29, 20207 min read

Reflections on BOYS IN THE BAND

COMMENTARY: Brian Hutchison, Charlie Carver, Zachary Quinto, Robin de Jesus, Jim Parsons and Tuc Watkins in Los Angeles, during the...

Sep 21, 20204 min read

Saloma

STORY: I don’t like parties, but I had promised I’d attend this one birthday gathering at a ritzy pub in Istanbul, where I live. The...

Sep 12, 20203 min read

Mea Culpa

STORY: At the age of 19, I began to realize that something was wrong with my soul. I live in Turkey, a Muslim country with a long secular...

Sep 2, 20205 min read

Speedy and Bam

STORY: When I was in graduate school in Boston in the mid-1970s, my attraction to other guys was proving intractable and I feared it...

Aug 28, 20206 min read

Same-sex Marriage, New York Style (2011)

STORY: June 2011, my partner, Juan, and I left our 13-month-old son, Oliver, home in Roanoke with his nanny, and traveled to New York...

Jul 11, 20204 min read

Catharsis

STORY: In the mid-nineties, I was a naive 21 y.o. young man, full of fear about my budding homosexual orientation. Coming out was not an...

Jul 11, 20203 min read

Portrait of a Gay Adolescent

STORY: I’ve just come in from coffee at my downtown spot, the Zoot Cafe—downtown being all of two blocks long in the quintessential...

Jul 11, 20202 min read

First Times

STORY: I began having sex on a regular basis when I was really young. In fact, the first time it happened, I was only eleven. The school...