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...

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...

Jan 31, 20203 min read

From My Past: Obsession—John Duka, The Passion of Fashion

STORY: “One of the requisite skills for sitting at a fashion show is being able to roll your eyes, talk to the person behind you, chew...

Jan 13, 20204 min read

Seven Revelations of Gay Spirituality

COMMUNITY: I am starting to see an amazing, life-changing movement surfacing through what is now called the “LGBTQ movement,” although...

Oct 30, 20191 min read

BAMMER and Me: Life in NYC Avant Garde Theatre Scene and Stonewall

PODCAST—EPISODE 8: Mike talks with Frank Carucci, a life-long New Yorker, about working in the NYC avant-garde theatre scene, the...

Jul 9, 20191 min read

BAMMER and Me: Author David Nimmons Discusses Gay Community

PODCAST—EPISODE 3: Mike interviews Dave Nimmons on gay male bonding and how gay men can find meaningful ways to connect and create...

Apr 28, 20194 min read

On Trial

STORY: It was like being naked and shot at by a firing squad. The year is 2010 and I am in court, battling for the custody of my...

Mar 4, 20191 min read

Gay Life in Brooklyn in the 1800s – New Exhibition Opening

COMMENTARY: When someone says gay community in NYC we think of Greenwich Village in the 70s and Chelsea in the 90s, but Brooklyn in the...

Dec 17, 20181 min read

Just Another Day in Chelsea

STORY: 2004ish – I was staying in a friend’s apartment on 17th Street off Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, then Manhattan’s gayest neighborhood,...

Oct 22, 20183 min read

On the Rainbow Screen

COMMENTARY: NewFest, NYC’s LGBTQ film festival, is celebrating it's 33rd year and will host a hybrid virtual/in-person week of more than...

Jul 19, 20185 min read

Marcus

STORY: 1989—I met Marcus Lutsky at Uncle Charlie’s Downtown Bar in NYC in the Spring of 1989. It was a Saturday night and I was on the...

Jun 25, 20184 min read

Don’t Let The Parade (March?) Pass Me By

COMMENTARY: The 2018 NYC Pride Parade got me thinking. I’d heard rumblings from others about the new and shortened parade route. And that...

Jun 22, 20183 min read

The Changing Face of Pride

COMMENTARY: When I first arrived in NYC in 1976, the LGBTQ Pride Parade was a half dozen years old. In those days, it was just called the...

Jun 9, 20182 min read

Thankful for Chosen Family

STORY: Thanksgiving used to be a time when I would go home and see family. This tradition ended 6 years ago when I moved across the...

Jun 8, 20181 min read

No Queens

STORY: My first boyfriend, Jim Fragale, was turning 40 and I was 27. It was 1979. He’d moved to NYC from West Virginia in 1963 at 24....

Jun 8, 20181 min read

At the Gay Games IV

STORY: In June 1994, the world gathered in New York for Gay Games IV as well as for a massive march outside the United Nations marking...

Jun 8, 20182 min read

Greek Fraternity or Gay Fraternity?

STORY: June 25, 1978: In December 2017, I reconnected with a younger fraternity brother I hadn’t seen since Gay Pride in NYC 39 years...

Jun 7, 20181 min read

The Closing of Chicago’s First Gay Bathhouse

COMMENTARY: One of our members, Alex Kacala, generously contributed the linked story below, which he’d written for an online gay...

May 24, 20184 min read

Gayborhoods – Sutton Place

STORY: In the early 1980s, Sutton Place on Manhattan’s East 50s and 60s were very gay, especially after work when the bars would fill...

May 24, 20181 min read

Richard

STORY: Richie and I met as teenagers in the gay clubs in Boston and both moved to NYC in 1979. We used to go to Studio 54 and Mudd Club...