I have had more support through the process of making this book than I can possibly acknowledge here. Thanks first of all to the very first people I turned to after I lost my job: my parents, Bruce and Raven, and my wonderful expanded family, including Nick, Clint, Jenna, Susie, Thorne, Nina Feldman, and the Comptons. Community is everything when your life is a mess, and I won’t forget the ways I was also supported during that time by Sam Worley, Elzbieta and Medha at the Peace Palace, Eli Oberman, Jessie Dunn Rovinelli, Laura Wernick, Causten Wollerman, Amita Lonial, ChaNell Marshall, Mariame Kaba, Sarah Lu, Jane Hereth, Neenah Ellis, Janada Halbisen-Gibbs, Jocelyn Robinson, Mia Henry, Neena Pathak, Morgan M. Page, and Emily McCord, among others. Jennifer Brandel’s advice as both a media maven and a compassionate human has been invaluable. I’m indebted to the friendship and allyship of Scott Tong, Amy Scott, Deidre Depke, David Brancaccio, and Kimberly Adams at Marketplace, and to many journalists and organizers who have since helped me out or become my friends through this ordeal; they include Adam Ragusea, Steve Henn, Brenda Salinas, Andrew Ramsammy, Enav Emmanuel Moskowitz, Harron Walker, Barbara Feinman Todd, John Biewen, Celeste Headlee, Jay Rosen, Jenni Monet, Sarah Alvarez, Alicia Montgomery, Cass Adair, Ramona Martinez, Anna Simonton, and the entire amazing crew at Scalawag Magazine. Steven Thrasher and Meredith Talusan have gone above and beyond in their friendship and camaraderie; they both make me proud to be a queer journalist. One very special person proposed a professional connection but ended up sending me snail mail—our shared love language—and ultimately supporting me in every imaginable way, Cole Parke.
Many people read these chapters, beginning with Carrie Frye of Black Cardigan Edits, who reconnected me with my childhood role model, Harriet the Spy. I’m thankful for the feedback from Katherine Webb-Hehn, Raven McCrory, Bruce Wallace, Tom Warhover, David Mindich, Nina Lary, Kaitlin Ugolik, Lynette Kalsnes, Alexander Eastwood, Lauren Sharp, Ramona Martinez, Meredith Talusan, and all the members of Ronnie’s Children in New York. Ruth Samuel and Hideo Higashibaba took on some fact-checking in a pinch, and Juliet Fromholt at WYSO helped me access needed information from the archives. My younger brother Nick Wallace gave great feedback and caught mistakes for me and was generally generous with his time and insights.
I’m so grateful for the inspiration and ideas of my brilliant friends Micah Bazant, Ariel Springfield, Jesa Rae, Sinan Goknur, Autumn Meghan Brown, Catherine Edgerton, and Devi Vaidya, all of whom listened to me blabber and gave me ideas and great questions along the way. Gabrielle Civil and Billy Dee were brilliant critics who brought poetry, art, and vision into the mix, and the McCrory family gave us a place to retreat to at Mac’s Acres. My research about gay media history was supported by a Heidrich Research Fellowship at the University of Michigan, and the original idea for this book came from Priya Nelson, my wonderful editor.
Finally, Carrie Frye encouraged me to think about one “ideal reader,” the person whose questions I’m directly addressing in this book, whom I trust to be as curious as I am about the answers. That person for me, a sort of muse in addition to being a great friend and journalist, is Hideo Higashibaba.