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Douglas Gabriel Rotello (born February 9, 1963) is an American musician, writer and filmmaker. He created New York's ''Downtown Divas'' revues in the 1980s, was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of '' OutWeek'' magazine, became the first openly gay columnist at a major American newspaper, ''
New York Newsday ''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of '' Newsday'', a Long Island ...
'', and authored the book ''
Sexual Ecology ''Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men'' is a 1997 book by the gay activist Gabriel Rotello, in which the author discusses why HIV has continued to infect large numbers of gay men despite the widespread use of condoms, and why many e ...
''. He now makes documentaries for HBO, The History Channel and other networks.


Biography


Early life

Gabriel Rotello was born and raised in Danbury, Connecticut, and attended Knox College and
Carlton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...
. He was in the first group of American exchange students to live and study in
Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Nepal, Province , subdivision_name1 ...
, Nepal. After graduating Rotello became a New York City keyboard player, arranger and music director. In 1979 he co-founded the underground band Brenda and the Realtones, whose story was recounted in the off-Broadway show ''Endangered Species'' in 1997. In the 1980s, as music director of The Realtones he backed artists such as Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love, Solomon Burke,
Rufus Thomas Rufus C. Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee. He recorded for several labels, including Chess ...
and many others. In the mid-1980s he produced a series of music revues at The Limelight,
The Palladium Palladium is a chemical element with symbol Pd and atomic number 46. Palladium, The Palladium or Paladium may also refer to: Religion and mythology * Palladium (classical antiquity), a statue that protected Troy and later Rome * Palladium (prote ...
and The Saint under the general name Downtown Dukes and Divas. Among his collaborators were the Uptown Horns, David Johansen, Cherry Vanilla, Johnny Thunders, the Lady Bunny, Holly Woodlawn, Joey Arias, David Peaston, Taylor Mead, Sylvain Sylvain, Jackie Curtis, Dean Johnson,
Michael Musto Michael Musto (born December 3, 1955) is an American journalist who has long been a prevalent presence in entertainment-related publications, as well as on websites and television shows. Musto is best known as a columnist for ''The Village Voice ...
, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of the Fabulous Pop Tarts and many others. Rotello's life and productions during this period were frequently filmed by videographer Nelson Sullivan, and are now part of Sullivan's archive of downtown life in the 1980s.


AIDS activism and ''OutWeek''

In 1988 Rotello joined the AIDS activist group ACT UP and served on its fundraising committee. In 1989 he co-founded '' OutWeek'' magazine with businessman Kendall Morrison and became its editor-in-chief. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called ''OutWeek'' "the most progressive of the gay publications", and ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' magazine wrote that "its greatest success was in shaking up its competitors by challenging their brand of gay activism with a more militant stance." Rotello and ''OutWeek'' became controversial for the practice of
outing Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. It is often done for political reasons, either to instrumentalize homophobia in order to discredit political opponents or to com ...
, which originated at ''OutWeek'', and for promoting the word queer as a catch-all phrase for sexual minorities. As an investigative reporter Rotello helped break numerous stories such as the Covenant House scandal and the Woody Myers affair, which ''The New York Times'' called "the most bitter dispute of the Dinkins administration". Many of the young staffers Rotello hired at ''OutWeek'' went on to become well-known figures in gay and lesbian writing, publishing and other fields, including Michelangelo Signorile, Sarah Pettit, Dale Peck, Jim Provenzano,
K. M. Soehnlein K.M. (Karl) Soehnlein (born November 24, 1965) is the American author of the novels ''The World of Normal Boys'' (2000), a 1970s coming-of-age story that won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men’s Fiction; ''You Can Say You Knew Me When'' (2005) ...
and James St. James.


''New York Newsday''

Rotello left ''OutWeek'' shortly before it folded in 1991 and was hired as a columnist by ''
New York Newsday ''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of '' Newsday'', a Long Island ...
'', becoming the first openly gay man to become a columnist at a major American newspaper. For his weekly columns, which explored gay life, homophobia and the AIDS epidemic, he received the GLAAD Award as Outstanding Journalist in 1995. After ''New York Newsday'' folded he became a columnist for ''
The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * ''The Advocate'' (LGBT magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States *''The Harvard Advocate'', a literary magazin ...
'' and wrote for the ''Village Voice'', ''The New Scientist'', ''Out'', ''The Nation'' and ''The New York Times''.


''Sexual Ecology''

In 1997 Rotello published ''
Sexual Ecology ''Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men'' is a 1997 book by the gay activist Gabriel Rotello, in which the author discusses why HIV has continued to infect large numbers of gay men despite the widespread use of condoms, and why many e ...
: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men'' (Dutton). Its investigation of why HIV continues to infect large numbers of gay men, and its conclusion that partner reduction must be added to the strategy of condoms to bring new infections down, ignited a major debate and ''Sexual Ecology'' became one of the most controversial gay books of its generation. It has been called "a remarkable book ... a breath of fresh air in the growing litany about the AIDS epidemic" (''The New Scientist''), "the ''
Silent Spring ''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading d ...
'' of the AIDS epidemic (''Boston Globe'') and "the most important book about gay men and AIDS since '' And the Band Played On'' (''The Nation''). But it was also criticized for offering "a message of empathy laced with contempt" (''Out''), and as "an ugly distortion of gay life" (''The Village Voice''). In 1998 Rotello co-wrote ''My Life and the Paradise Garage'' with Mel Cheren, a memoir about the legendary gay disco Paradise Garage, its pioneering DJ Larry Levan and the impact of AIDS on a generation of gay men.


TV and film

In 1998 Rotello moved to Los Angeles and began making documentaries exploring American life and popular culture with World of Wonder founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Their first collaboration, the documentary '' Party Monster'', centered on New York's downtown nightclub scene, a world which Rotello, Bailey and Barbato knew from their earlier days as musicians. Their next feature, '' The Eyes of Tammy Faye'', is on Current TV's list of '' 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die''. Rotello's work with Bailey and Barbato includes a number of high-profile documentaries and documentary series including AMC's ''Hollywood Fashion Machine'', HBO's '' Hidden Führer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality''; HBO's ''Monica in Black and White'', Bravo's ''Reality of Reality'', AMC's '' Movies That Shook the World'', and AMC's ''Out of the Closet/Off The Screen: The William Haines Story'', as well as reality shows such as ''
RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...
''. Their 2010 HBO film ''The Strange History of Don't Ask Don't Tell'' was nominated for an Emmy Award and a GLAAD Award. Rotello currently makes science and history documentaries with Flight 33 Productions for the History Channel, Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel, including series such as '' The Universe'', '' Life After People'', ''Big History'' and ''America's Secret Slang''.


References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rotello, Gabriel 1953 births American gay writers American LGBT rights activists Living people LGBT people from Connecticut