Sebastian Fortino Author

A Shirtless Gardener Hiding

This Is What It’s Like When You Have to Cancel Your Garden Party

In a city with a rich culture of urban gardening, Sebastian and his fiancé want to celebrate the work they put into their bit of earth. Unfortunately it RSVPs to their party as...

Columnists and Letters • Food • Gay Voices • Lifestyle|

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Guy With Secret

This Is What It’s Like to Be Adopted by Your Grandparents

I remember the first time I learned I was getting old. It was on the occasion of my tenth birthday. That year, my cousin Martin and his wife Margie took me to Sea Isle City in New...

Columnists and Letters • Gay Voices • Lifestyle|

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a place at the table plating

New American Recipes from the Nation’s Top Foreign-Born Chefs

A Place at the Table: New American Recipes from the Nation’s Top Foreign-Born Chefs Edited by Gabrielle Langholtz & Rick Kinsel; Prestel Press; $40.00 Despite rabid...

Food|

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Queer Eye Star

Here’s How to Help LGBTQ Political Targets across the Globe

There are still some 75 countries across the globe that criminalize or penalize LGBTQ people because of sexual orientation or gender identity. For example — and hard as it is to...

Lifestyle|

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Gay Couple Sharing Breakfast

This Is How a Happy Gay Couple Shares Breakfast with Meds

Sebastian recounts the joy of sharing breakfast with his fiancé, and how part of that morning ritual makes them part of a new generation of happy, healthy, loving gay couples....

Columnists and Letters • Gay Voices • HIV • Wellness|

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Michelangelo's David

What It Was Like to Be Queer Genius Michelangelo

I’ve been lucky to meet several notable LGBTQ celebrities in my life. Many of them I was interviewing for a publication like this one. However, I think my first such...

Art & Design • Columnists and Letters • Gay Voices • Lifestyle|

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This Is How Camping Gave a Gay Man Hope for the Future of America

We thought we had packed almost everything for our visit to a gay-owned campground, but one of the best moments of the trip came from something we forgot. There was an ad campaign...

Gay Voices|

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Polaroids of Sexy Gay Men

These Are 3 Fabulous New Books about the Fine Art of Being Gay

See queer photographer Tom Bianchi’s intimate inspirations, meet an art lover who helped shape iconic institutions, and experience art after the Stonewall Uprising. Tom...

Books • Entertainment|

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man in tanktop

Do You Know the Signposts of the LGBT Revolution?

Historians regard symbols as one way of determining the unique  characteristics of a culture. Sometimes the signifiers are auditory — much the way first responders’ sirens...

Art & Design|

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Older Man Looking in Mirror at Younger Man

What Happens When You Look in the Mirror and See Someone Half Your Age?

As he approaches his fortieth birthday, a gay man reflects on the many faces he’s seen in the mirror. A Gay Man Turns Thirty Years ago, I relocated – first to Miami and...

Gay Voices|

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A Smiling Black dog

A Gay Man, Chasing a Dog, Sipping the First Iced Coffee of Spring

Sebastian’s first sunny spring Sunday – enjoying coffee with his new boyfriend and his dog, Taffy Davenport – goes way off the leash. The First Iced Coffee of...

Gay Voices|

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Young Man Reflected in Bus Mirror

Here Are 4 Soul-Stirring Encounters with Homeless LGBTQ Youth

Portland’s homeless population is infamous for its sheer size, but it is the homeless LGBTQ youth that always stand out to me. The People You Meet on Public Transportation As a...

Columnists and Letters • Gay Voices|

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