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...
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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...
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