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In Living Color
I was 14 years old in the long-ago summer of 1969. My freshman year of high school approached but my concerns were still very boyish:...
Jun 25, 20193 min read
BAMMER and Me: Caleb Holland, Self Discovery (Part 1)
PODCAST—EPISODE 1: Our first episode is about cross-generational perspectives on LGBTQ issues and themes between Mike Balaban and...
Jun 8, 20191 min read
Like a Virgin
STORY: Like most young men in America, I had gone my entire life believing I was meant to be with a woman. I had some satisfying sexual...
Jun 6, 20197 min read
Independence Day
STORY: “Catherine and I had been together for seven years. It had been a hard relationship since the second-parent adoption and I was...
May 30, 20195 min read
No More Swinging Dicks
STORY: When I was in Fort Lauderdale on a year-end vacation in 2014, a friend and I decided to stop by Swinging Richards, the Pompano...
May 12, 20191 min read
A Brief Encounter (Istanbul 2015)
STORY: A good friend once told me, “Never trust a married man. Just by being involved with you, lying is part of who he is.” Sexual...
May 4, 20193 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...
Apr 28, 20194 min read
Bar Wars – Quarter Stories 16
STORY: Fourth of July on Bourbon Street, hot muggy and so crowded you couldn’t move on the street or in the bar. I squeezed my way into...
Mar 26, 20196 min read
Ben, Minnie, and Ben’s Guardian Angel
STORY: Gananoque, Ontario (2015)—It was my last day in Canada before returning to the United States. Driving south on the Queen Elizabeth...
Mar 21, 20194 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...
Mar 4, 20191 min read
Nigeria Gay Life
STORY: Welcome to my world! I’m Nigerian, 33, Christian born and bred in the city of Lagos, where life is comfortable, at least for the...
Mar 4, 20193 min read
My Savior Max
STORY: Istanbul/Berlin, 2008-2019 – I don’t have a fond memory of the first time I had sex with another man. One night in 2008, hornier...
Mar 4, 20195 min read
Holding Our Ground at Mardi Gras
COMMENTARY: Just a week before Mardi Gras in 2019, two of New Orleans' most popular gays bars were getting harassed. According to Bobby...
Mar 3, 20194 min read
Who Exactly is Our Tribe? The Evolution from Gay to LGBTQ
COMMENTARY: When I was coming out in the late ‘70s, I was part of a large community that included men of different ages, races,...
Feb 13, 20193 min read
If You’re From Baton Rouge—Quarter Stories 15
STORY: Stories about my adventures bartending in New Orleans in the late ’70s and early ’80s. To read them all, click #quarterstories....
Feb 11, 201912 min read
Soothsayer
STORY: “Ya know, I can see it all. You and that girly little voice…You’re gonna’ grow up to be a faggot.” I was 12, on the verge of 13,...
Feb 9, 20194 min read
Barbra “Babs” Siperstein, R.I.P
COMMENTARY: Barbra “Babs” Siperstein, a founding member of Bammer.co‘s Advisory Board, passed away on February 3, 2019, due to cancer....
Feb 8, 20191 min read
“We Rebuke This Spirit of Homosexuality!”
STORY: I had looked into those blue eyes many times before. When he would jump on me to wake me up whilst still in just his briefs,...
Jan 12, 20193 min read
All American and Gay
STORY: 1977—I hated my first job. I was spending long hours in a rigorous bank training program in Manhattan and, besides infreq uent and...
Jan 4, 20194 min read
The Ins and Outs of Dating
STORY: August 2012 - September 8, 2013—For a lot of closeted gay men, the Internet, social media, and smartphone apps offer an excellent...
Jan 4, 20194 min read
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