As is the norm these days I learnt about Chad’s death from a Facebook post. His name, colored in the familiar blue of hyperlinks, gut punched me. We were not particularly close. We had befriended one another at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Palm Springs. He was very good to…

This day in 2007, this review came out in Art in America by the inimitable Peter Selz. Another person to whom I owe my art career. Clinton Fein currently exhibits horrifying high-resolution C-prints depicting (through carefully staged reenactments) the torture of prisoners by the American military at Abu Ghraib prison…

South Africans are not its Politics. As a South African born American, I have always had a mixed relationship with the country of my birth. An abhorrence of nationalism was an expected outcome of growing up under apartheid, and it was difficult for me to find pride as an American for that very reason. Especially given…

An unearthed treasure trove of notes written to author of Conduct Unbecoming, Randy Shilts, by warriors, veterans and rockstars of the epic battle against discrimination against gay and lesbian servicembers in the U.S. military are published here for the first time. — In 1994 I co-founded ApolloMedia with partners Steven Campbell and Trace Cohen, and in January 1995 we released Conduct Unbecoming, the first ever CD-ROM to tackle social issues and pioneering digital activism through its ‘e-post’ feature — the first ever technology allowing users to electronically communicate directly with their elected…

RIP, Alan Parker. I will never forget you.

I originally wrote this on May 10, 2014 as an opinion piece for a gay publication that did original reporting. The piece has long since been removed from the internet, but in light of Instagram’s shameful decision to reject a PrEP awareness campaign to promote awareness among queer Asian and…

In the wake of the sexual abuse revelations in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Washington DC and pretty much everywhere else, there seems to be a seismic shift going on. The writing was already on the wall when Uber unceremoniously dumped Travis Kalanick to mitigate alarm over the increasing damage his tech…

In a rather stunning OpEd in The New York Times, The A.C.L.U. Should Rethink Free Speech, K-Sue Park, a housing attorney and fellow at U.C.L.A School of Law, excoriates ACLU for defending alt-right’s right to march in Charlottesville, Virginia. The danger that communities face because of their speech isn’t equal…

Dangerous Or Disgusting? Simon & Schuster Defends Milo Yiannopoulos Book Deal Despite Outrage Numerous media outlets are adopting the framing of the widespread outcry to an eyebrow-raising publishing choice by renowned publishers Simon & Schuster as a free speech issue. Their decision to publish a book by a widely reviled…