Queer Science Blogs: Reflections on Public Communication Before the Age of Social Media

Before the ubiquity of social media, people interested in sharing their thoughts and experiences on the Internet mostly relied on blogging. Early STEM queer-related blogs of this era included Denim and Tweed authored by Jeremy Yoder. Under the “Diversity in Science” blog carnival series [Roca & Yoder 2011], Yoder also hosted the first carnival celebrating LGBTQ science and scientists [Yoder 2011] that serves as a sample of blog posts from this time (circa 2000 to 2010). This spotlight reflects on a blog created by the first author devoted to STEM and queer issues, The Mad Professah Lectures.

In the beginning around 2003-2005, Buckmire blogged about queer politics and forthrightly declared his positionality in the blog description as “a Black, Gay, Caribbean, Liberal, Progressive, Moderate, Fit, Geeky, Married, College-Educated, NPR-Listening, Tennis-Playing, Feminist, Atheist, Math Professor in Los Angeles, California.” His earliest blog posts were contemporaneous musings about the United States Supreme Court’s landmark ruling Lawrence v. Texas in which the High Court ruled all existing anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional, proclaiming that it was granting gay men and lesbians equal rights under the law for the first time.

Buckmire’s blogging was an early online outlet for queer science communication with posts tagged such as “science”, “STEM”, and “mathematics.” More broadly, The Mad Professah Lectures was intended for a general audience since his blog posts included pictures of shirtless, scantily-clad muscular men (tagged “Eye Candy”), atheism (Godless Wednesday), celebrities (Celebrity Friday), LGBTQ people (Queer Quote), book and movie reviews (Reviews), and obsessive cataloguing of men’s and women’s grand slam tennis matches (Tennis).

However, once at the blog, readers would also learn about important science policy issues such as HIV/AIDS information, STEM public policy (especially related to mathematics) and diverse representation and participation in STEM. One of the most impactful science communication topics covered was the issue of the criminalization of HIV in the context of the infamous “Tiger Mandingo” case. Tiger Mandingo was the eye-catching sobriquet allegedly used by Michael Johnson, a former college wrestler, who at age 21 in 2013 was arrested and charged by the state of Missouri of “recklessly infecting” and “recklessly exposing” multiple male sexual partners to HIV while being HIV-positive himself. Buckmire first blogged about the case within days of the initial press reports in 2015, when Johnson was found guilty at trial. Buckmire wrote about the anguish and surprise at the draconian punishment (from 30 years to life in prison) that a fellow Black gay man could receive for failing to disclose his HIV status. The focus on Michael Johnson’s predicament shows how the medium of blogging was used by Buckmire as an emotional and creative outlet that also reached readers seeking community and commonality.

Buckmire’s blogging exemplified...that the personal is political

Buckmire’s blog is just one example among many of the ways that web-based communication was affected by and had impacts on “offline” settings. The Michael Johnson case eventually became a cause célèbre in Black gay circles and in the wider LGBTQ media and blogosphere because of several factors. The story had multiple interesting angles: sex appeal, injustice, discriminatory public policy, and courtroom drama. Activists who had long advocated for an update of 1980s-era legislation on “exposure to AIDS” saw the case as a media-friendly vehicle to educate the public, policymakers, and the press about the stakes involved in HIV criminalization. In 2015, when Johnson was sentenced, Buckmire continued to cover the story [Buckmire 2015]. He directed readers to the Center for HIV Law and Public Policy, an organization working against HIV criminalization. This story had an influence on Buckmire’s real life work as an LGBTQ activist. For several years he was on the Board of Directors of the Center for Health Justice, an organization that advocates for people incarcerated in Los Angeles County to receive access to education, support, and treatment related to HIV/AIDS and other serious conditions.

In summary, Buckmire’s blog was an outlet for a queer STEM professional who was involved in various activist movements in the early twenty-first century. Buckmire’s blogging exemplified the adage that “the personal is political.” This blog was a pioneering example of queer science communication that helped pave the way for the thousands of out, queer STEM professionals that are active on social media today. Being out as queer in STEM professions is still not easy, especially for Black people and other people of color. Thus, online visibility is a crucial way to undermine stereotypes and to remind diverse people that we all have a place in science while being our authentic selves.