Hugh Ryan

Freelance writer

Making history cool: The Pop-up Museum of Queer History

First published in History@Work, July 29, 2013. Read the original here.
I founded the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History by accident. Originally, the idea was for a one-night party in my apartment in January of 2011, designed to create a for-us, by-us space where queer people could join together to celebrate ourselves as a valid public, [...]

Schmekel, a Band Born as a Laugh

First published in The New York Times on November 25, 2011. Read the original here.
THE basement auditorium of the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side is a sincere space. Big, brown and bare, it suggests a school gym, a place for officially sanctioned fun — which made a recent concert by [...]

A Gay Oasis, With Beer and Barbecue

First published in The New York Times on August 11, 2011. Read the original here.
WALK past the low-ceilinged bar, the jukebox and the pool table. Keep going, beyond the stage where “Queeraoke” erupts every Tuesday, and right out the back door. Feel the sunshine on your face and inhale the relatively fresh air (this is [...]

Gay Cruise in Hawaii

Originally published in The New York Times on 4/5/2010. Read the original here.
RSVP Cruises, a gay-friendly cruise company, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a new sailing expedition to Hawaii.
The eight-day cruise launches from Honolulu on Oct. 30, on the  Pride of America operated by Norwegian Cruise Line. The ship has 10 restaurants, multiple piano [...]

You Can Buy Gaydar at the Apple Store

Written with Brian Joseph Ferree and originally published in Details‘ March 2010 issue. Read it online here.

Jared had just locked himself out of his Brooklyn apartment. As he stood on the street waiting for his landlord, he launched a new app on his iPhone. Minutes later, the blond-haired, blue-eyed grad student was pants-down in a [...]

The Problem With Pro-Choice Men

Originally published on The Daily Beast on 2/5/2010. Read it in its entirety, with comments, here.
This weekend, Tim Tebow, the Florida Gators quarterback, will star in a contentious anti-abortion Super Bowl ad sponsored by the conservative Christian group, Focus on the Family. The ad comes just over a week after another man, Scott Roeder, was [...]

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