Hugh Ryan

@hughryan.bsky.social

Author & queer historian. MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND is available for preorders now! Previously: The Women’s House of Detention (2022) and When Brooklyn Was Queer (2019) linktr.ee/HughRyan

Almost all of our labels for sexuality or gender identity fall into two camps: words that describe people who take certain actions (sodomite, cross-dresser, etc.), and words that describe people who ascribe to certain identities (lesbian, trans man, etc.). Queer, however, is different. As both an insult and a reclaimed political label, it has always referenced marginalized sexualities and gender identities—the key word here being marginalized. It isn’t about your specific sexual behaviors or identities; rather, it’s about how those things are appraised by the culture around you. This is the essence of queerness: To be queer is to be judged, and to find community with others who have been judged similarly. This is less a matter of radical “inclusivity” and more a kind of qualifying criteria for entry.

SCOTUS often saves the biggest decisions for the very end, but this year they dropped a pretty big one earlier than normal—Louisiana v. Callais. Can you catch people up on why this is such a big deal, and why they likely dropped it early?

In Callais, the Republican-appointed justices gutted what remained of the Voting Rights Act, allowing state legislatures to obliterate representation for racial minorities. Then, in a follow-up ruling, the same justices used Callais to dismantle the 14th Amendment’s surviving protections against racial gerrymandering. As a result, several states swiftly redrew their congressional districts to crush the political power of Black and brown communities, exactly as SCOTUS intended.

The decision came down surprisingly early: We would normally expect a ruling of this magnitude to arrive in June, not April. I am convinced Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues rushed out the opinion so states like Louisiana and Alabama would have enough time to eliminate seats held by Black Democrats before the 2026 election. They pretty much gave the game away when, in the weeks after Callais came down, they weaponized the shadow docket to implement the ruling at an unusually rapid clip. If Republicans hang on to the House of Representatives in November, they may well have this decision to thank.

A black invitation flyer with photos of authors Hugh Ryan and Michelle Tea, with a text that reads:

Author Michelle Tea in conversation with Hugh Ryan, in celebration of his new book My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer '90s and Beyond. ASU FIDM Museum June 9, 6:30pm.

It was a parade? Or maybe just Tuesday. One of the things I love about New Orleans is how similar those two things are

Listing of all of my upcoming events on the book tour for MY BAD!
MY BAD Tour Dates!
5/28 NYC – Launch, The Strand 7pm
6/4 NYC – McNally Jackson Pride in Writing Panel 7pm
6/9 LA – FIDM Museum, 7pm
6/16 DC – Politics & Prose 7pm
6/18 BK – Greenlight Bookstore 7:30pm
6/21 Narrowsburg, NY – Deep Water Lit Fest 2:30pm
6/23 Providence – Riffraff Bookstore 7pm
7/21 NY – Tompkins Square Library 5:30pm
8/4 BK - Perfume at Metropolitan Bar 8pm
8/23 Brattleboro, VT – Retreat Farm 7pm

An image of the review of My Bad from the Queer Book Club account, which reads:

My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer Nineties — Hugh Ryan
Bold Type Books
Identities: Gay author; broad queer and LGBTQ+ community history; 90s activism, visibility, and backlash

Ryan won the Stonewall Book Award for The Women’s House of Detention and brings the same historian’s discipline to something more personal here. My Bad uses his own experience of coming of age in the 90s as the spine for a broader portrait of what that decade meant for queer life: the visibility that arrived, the backlash that followed, the early internet that changed how queer people found each other. Elliot Page called it a powerful reminder of the enduring importance of preserving queer history. The 90s feel closer than they should right now. Ryan makes clear why that is not a coincidence.

Best for: Readers who want queer history told through personal narrative rather than academic distance. Anyone who came out in the 90s. Anyone who did not and wants to understand what that decade actually felt like.

Advertising graphic for the launch of MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND at The Strand featuring author Hugh Ryan in conversation with author Sabrina Imbler.

Me opening the box of MY BAD final copies while sitting in the sun on my couch!

“In “My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer Nineties and Beyond” (Bold Type, 2026), out in May, queer historian Hugh Ryan takes us from the painful purgatory of 7th grade, where his gender was a Lisa Frank trapper keeper, to his experiences with camp, AOL chat rooms, androgyny, coming of age in the mid-1990s AIDS period, Radical Faeries, Burning Man, sex work, 9/11, thruppledom, and much more, amounting to the author’s “attempt at a balance sheet.””

Hugh Ryan - My Bad

May 26, 2026

I met Hugh a couple years ago at the Provincetown Book Festival, where I heard him read from The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison. I know him mostly as a historian, and I was excited to read My Bad, Ryan’s memoir of queer life in the 90s. I loved being inside this book, and inside Ryan’s early exploration through queerness. He has an eye for historical details, which feel especially relevant in this book, where Ryan deftly draws connections between larger social forces and his personal journey. I normally hate the word journey, but that is what’s happening here. What makes this memoir really stand out is Ryan’s honest assessment of himself. I’m reminded of Melissa Febos, who also lovingly takes a scalpel to her past actions–both Ryan and her write with the rare courage of honesty, highlighting both their accomplishments and the small but significant shames that make up a life. Ryan doesn’t veer away from those moments, and by doing so, he has written a book that feels so smart and embracing. I can’t wait for this to be in the world

The cover of MY BAD with the E! News blurb underneath that reads: "Years after breaking out with When Brooklyn Was Queer, the historian candidly details his own journey as a queer person in the ‘90s and early 2000. Weaving through his own experiences with AOL chatrooms and navigating the nightclub scene as a broke student, Hugh Ryan examines the Queer experience in run up to Y2K and the internet boom. It’s compelling, unfiltered and takes a thoughtful approach to detailing the complicated time in a person’s coming of age."

Two photos from 1997 (?) in one I have shoulder length brown wavy hair and a black pleather jacket, I’m lying on the floor making pouty lips in a hallway. In the other, my hair is clipped back in a sort of fake bob maybe? And I’m wearing a red velvet smoking jacket with lipstick that does not match!

This is a photo of me in 1999 sitting in front of a boxy computer monitor. I have very long brown hair and most importantly: I’m wearing freedom rings. In a hemp choker. That a friend bought at the lillith fair!

$"Historian Hugh Ryan turns his powerful investigative attention to the queer self as shaped by the Nineties. My Bad is a fearless blend of memoir and history that treats mistakes as evidence: of desire, of survival, of how we got here. I saw my own life refracted through these pages, even as Ryan taught me to understand that history differently. Ryan joins the essential queer tradition of writers who turn memory, sex, and shame into a usable past." – Garrard Conley$