Three-Part Gay.com Interview

August 28, 2010 | Interview

Sometimes, the internet is all you have. When I was seventeen, my mom got the internet. It was new then - if you live in the States, it’s hard to remember a time when the internet was new.

We had AOL, which we welcomed in with the muttering, torn up sound of a dial up modem. The screen was all text. No photos, no video, just “stats” - and sometimes guys would even refuse to give those. We all had so much more to hide back then, and we all hid it. It was Pennsylvania in the 1990s; not a nice place. There was little hope of finding someone in your region - you’d go into the general chat room and end up falling in love with someone who lived, hopelessly, in Arkansas or Alaska or somewhere terribly far. The little symbols on the screen were rescue from desperation and loneliness. If you were lucky, you might have a phone conversation with the guy that put them there.

Gay.com was the first site I had access to that featured extensive photos and the first site to offer chat in a comprehensive way, regionally. I could find guys that lived near me, that had the same KKK marches down their streets growing up, that knew the same language, and most importantly, were actually close enough for me to meet and maybe get a kiss from. (Okay, who am I kidding? - to get head from.)

Gay.com was a more than a website - it was a cultural innovator and savior of exhausted, frightened gay guys in small places. Today it boasts a membership of tens of thousands and is part of the Here Network, which includes Here TV, Out, and the Advocate.

Gay.com also boasts a three-part interview with me (or maybe I’m the one boasting?). The interview, which appears in its entirety on Queerclick is a bright spot in a career I’m constantly grateful for. I hope you enjoy it.


Back to Articles