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, 2020
- 5 min
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, 2020
- 3 min
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, 2020
- 4 min
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, 2019
- 1 min
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, 2019
- 1 min
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, 2019
- 4 min
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, 2019
- 1 min
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, 2018
- 1 min
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, 2018
- 3 min
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, 2018
- 5 min
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, 2018
- 4 min
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, 2018
- 3 min
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, 2018
- 2 min
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, 2018
- 1 min
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, 2018
- 1 min
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, 2018
- 2 min
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, 2018
- 1 min
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, 2018
- 1 min
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...
- May 24, 2018
- 4 min
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...