UPCOMING PANEL FEB. 10 FEATURES NATIONAL HEALTH REPORTER BEN RYAN

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On Feb. 10, the South Florida chapter of the NLGJA (National Lesbian Gay Journalist Association) will hold a forum called Crucial Context: Unpacking Media Coverage of LGBTQ Public Health Issues. The event begins at 7 p.m. in the ArtServe building at 1350 E. Sunrise Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. The event is free. Register on eventbrite.com.

One of the panelists is Ben Ryan, a journalist who covers LGBT health and issues for national outlets including the New York Times, NBC News and more. He talked with SFGN about issues specific to our community.

JOHN HAYDEN: I FIND WE OFTEN SPEND TIME CORRECTING MISINFORMATION, SUCH AS TELLING PEOPLE MPOX ISN’T A “GAY DISEASE” AND THAT THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A “GAY DISEASE.” WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES AND FRUSTRATIONS OF STARTING FROM THAT SPOT?

BEN RYAN: A bit of a pet peeve of mine, in fact, is the refrain “____ isn’t a gay disease.” When people say this, what they inadvertently do is perpetuate the notion that there is any such thing as a “gay disease.” I am determined to be specific and to use precise, dispassionate terms when describing the relative incidence of infectious disease among gay men compared with other groups.

MPox was overwhelmingly found in men who have sex with men. The key reason for this was that the virus was transmitted most readily via anal intercourse and had a short window when it was both infectious and not highly symptomatic. The only major subgroup of people who engage in behaviors, and who have an interconnected enough global social-sexual network to sustain a major global outbreak are men who have sex with men.

These are facts, and I don’t have a lot of patience for the pressure people put me under all summer trying to say I was homophobic or gay-hating for stating these facts. My job is not to massage the truth so it will land more gently. I need to get the facts to the public so they can use them to make decisions about their lives and those of the people around them.

JH: OFTEN OUR OWN LGBT COMMUNITY IS UNDER MISCONCEPTIONS. WE’RE WELL INTO THE AGE OF “NEW MEDIA’’ TO THE POINT THAT IT REALLY ISN’T “NEW.” HOW CAN WE EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE TO OUR COMMUNITY?

BR: One thing I can say is I spent an inordinate amount of time on Twitter this summer, sick as a dog from chemotherapy, tweeting up a storm to battle the misinformation hounds who were so desperate to downplay the impact of Mpox on gay men and to exaggerate the risk to women, kids and health care workers.

I found that gay men really responded to my frankness, both on Twitter and in my reporting and op-ed writing. I was not for everyone. I infuriated quite a few people. One guy wrote a 5,000-word hit piece about me. But I got constant emails and DMs from guys all over the place who appreciated that I didn’t doll up the truth. I was brutally frank and gave them the information they needed as quickly as I could learn it from my sources.

JH: MENTAL HEALTH SYMPTOMS AND ISSUES ARE JUST AS SUBSTANTIVE AS PHYSICAL AILMENTS, BUT ARE OFTEN INVISIBLE AND CERTAINLY UNDER-DISCUSSED. HOW CAN JOURNALISTS IN GENERAL AND LGBT JOURNALS SPECIFICALLY DISCUSS MENTAL HEALTH?

BR: One of the studies I was most excited to cover was by John Pachankis, a leading LGBTQ+ psych researcher at Yale, who published a paper about the intraminority stress, as he called it, that gays put on each other: through sexual competitiveness, status consciousness related to money, and racism. In my own life, I’ve had it pretty easy where straight people are concerned. So I’ve always been particularly interested in delving into how hard it can be to be gay, because of other gay people. We can be really dreadful to one another.

I think the bottom line is I’m perfectly happy to hold up a mirror to gay society and show us where we’ve got work to do. People get very angry that I air dirty laundry. But I don’t mind that they’re furious. I feel very strongly about this.

That said, we are also living in increasingly perilous times for anti-LGBT politicking, which is extremely disturbing to me and which I try hard to illuminate through my reporting.

JH: REPORTING ON THE TRANS COMMUNITY HAS INCREASED IN RECENT YEARS SINCE POLITICIANS BEGAN PUNCHING DOWN ON THE COMMUNITY, DENYING GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE, ETC. HOW CAN WE TALK TO THEM, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES?

BR: I interviewed George Santos in October and heard his reasons for supporting the “Don’t Say Gay” law. That was interesting.

One experience I can share is that I published an investigative piece for NBC that is partly to do with anti-trans political efforts. I partnered with a non-binary colleague on the story and had them handle more of that angle while I focused on the HIV angle. We disagreed on nomenclature when it came to describing medical treatment for trans people. But I deferred to them because they’re the expert. I’m surely on a learning curve.

But I sure do think a lot about young queer kids who are scared and suffering and how I might do my part to try to make things better for them.

JH: HOW CAN WE BETTER ADDRESS THE HEALTH NEEDS OF LGBT YOUTH?

BR: It’s important to keep telling the stories of what these anti-LGBT efforts are doing to health care, school, books in the library, friendships, families, nursing homes, you name it. There are endless stories to tell. We need society to keep opening its mind to what it means to be different.