Gregg Shapiro has spent more than three decades documenting LGBTQ life, culture and creativity through the regional queer press.
The Fort Lauderdale journalist began writing for LGBTQ publications in 1994. For Shapiro, that work is inseparable from his identity.
“My queerness is central to my identity and has been so since my early 20s,” he said. “It's reflected in my writing and career as a journalist for the LGBTQ press.”
His body of work extends well beyond journalism. Shapiro has published 10 books, including two short story collections and eight poetry collections. Across those forms, he has made queer identity and experience a visible part of the literary record.
Shapiro has also organized events designed to bring South Florida’s LGBTQ community together. The work reflects a career spent not only covering the community, but participating in it and helping create opportunities for connection.
Still, when Shapiro considers the accomplishments that matter most to him, professional milestones share the list with something deeply personal: his 34-year relationship with his husband, Rick Karlin, and the life they have built together in Fort Lauderdale.
Karlin is also active in South Florida’s LGBTQ community. He contributes to local LGBTQ media and has written several books, including “Last Call South Florida.”
To Shapiro, being Out & Proud means being recognized by a community in which he remains an active member. His queerness is neither incidental to his career nor confined to his personal life. It is woven through his reporting, poetry, fiction, relationships and community work.
His advice to LGBTQ youth is concise, borrowing three enduring words from musicians Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush: “Don't give up.”
It is an apt message from someone whose career demonstrates the value of persistence. Since 1994, Shapiro has continued writing, publishing and creating space for queer stories. Through 10 books and decades of journalism, he has helped ensure that South Florida’s LGBTQ community is not merely seen in the present, but preserved on the page.
