Hugh Ryan

Freelance writer

What Does Trans* Mean, and Where Did It Come From?

First published on Slate, January 10, 2014. Read the original here.
It’s widely accepted that computer-mediated communication—emailing, texting, sexting, commenting, chatting, and so on—has changed the way we speak, even when we’re away from the keyboard. But a new label being embraced online by some transgender people may represent a linguistic first: borrowing from [...]

We Can End AIDS Without a Cure

First published in Slate, November 29, 2013. Read the original here.
This Dec. 1, as we mark yet another World AIDS Day without a cure, a vaccine, or an intelligently interdependent global response to the crisis, I’d like to propose a thought experiment based on a radical—yet commonsense—proposition: We can end AIDS without [...]

The Quest to Build a National LGBT Museum

First published in Slate, October 18, 2013. Read the original here.
Someday, somewhere in Washington, D.C.—perhaps on the National Mall, kitty-corner across Maryland Avenue from the sinuous, sandy-colored Museum of the American Indian, or tucked behind the sprawling complex of the Natural History Museum—there may sit a National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Museum. [...]