Dec 21, 20206 minWhat I LearnedSTORY: 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 5, 20205 minBartending at StudioSTORY: 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...
Feb 1, 20203 minFrom My Past: Obsession—John Duka, The Passion of FashionSTORY: “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 14, 20204 minSeven Revelations of Gay SpiritualityCOMMUNITY: I am starting to see an amazing, life-changing movement surfacing through what is now called the “LGBTQ movement,” although...
Oct 31, 20191 minBAMMER and Me: Life in NYC Avant Garde Theatre Scene and StonewallPODCAST—EPISODE 8: Mike talks with Frank Carucci, a life-long New Yorker, about working in the NYC avant-garde theatre scene, the...
Jul 10, 20191 minBAMMER and Me: Author David Nimmons Discusses Gay CommunityPODCAST—EPISODE 3: Mike interviews Dave Nimmons on gay male bonding and how gay men can find meaningful ways to connect and create...
Apr 29, 20194 minOn TrialSTORY: 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 5, 20191 minGay Life in Brooklyn in the 1800s – New Exhibition OpeningCOMMENTARY: 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 18, 20181 minJust Another Day in ChelseaSTORY: 2004ish – I was staying in a friend’s apartment on 17th Street off Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, then Manhattan’s gayest neighborhood,...
Oct 23, 20183 minOn the Rainbow ScreenCOMMENTARY: 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 20, 20185 minMarcusSTORY: 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 26, 20184 minDon’t Let The Parade (March?) Pass Me ByCOMMENTARY: The 2018 NYC Pride Parade got me thinking. I’d heard rumblings from others about the new and shortened parade route. And that...
Jun 23, 20183 min The Changing Face of PrideCOMMENTARY: 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 10, 20182 minThankful for Chosen FamilySTORY: 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 9, 20181 minAt the Gay Games IVSTORY: 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 9, 20181 minNo QueensSTORY: 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 9, 20182 minGreek 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 8, 20181 minThe Closing of Chicago’s First Gay BathhouseCOMMENTARY: One of our members, Alex Kacala, generously contributed the linked story below, which he’d written for an online gay...
May 25, 20181 minRichardSTORY: 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 25, 20184 minGayborhoods – Sutton PlaceSTORY: In the early 1980s, Sutton Place on Manhattan’s East 50s and 60s were very gay, especially after work when the bars would fill...