Disclaimer.

When I became aware (in December 2023) of how events were unfolding in Gaza, it immediately affected my writing output on this platform. The first story I posted on January 1, 2024 detailed my conflicting feelings about how the U.S. government was behaving in this situation, and the ramifications it had for me as a queer man living in the United States. For several days (if not weeks) after I posted the story, the clap ability appeared to have been disabled and the story’s reach turned out to be limited compared to a few of my prior stories focusing on pop culture and my life experiences as a queer man.

That’s fine with me; I don’t do this for claps, followers or subscribers, although I appreciate the claps, followers and subscribers that I get. Subsequent stories I wrote that explored unfolding events tied to the ongoing genocide of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, as well as events in the U.S. that stemmed from that, have had minimal engagement and questionable visibility, as far as I can tell. For instance, each time I post a new story I receive an email announcing it, which is what people who have subscribed to me receive, at least that’s what I assume. When I posted my most recent story, I didn’t even receive an email like I usually do and the story has no engagement. Also, the story was posted as a “member’s only” story even though I did not designate it as such.

Now, like I said before, I don’t write stories for the claps although it’s nice to get feedback, even when people disagree with me. But I also question the practice of putting time and effort into a story that’s not going to be afforded any visibility or opportunity for engagement because the content might be too sensitive for Medium’s tastes. And that’s fine. I see some stories on the platform relating to the topics I’m alluding to, but not very often, and they tend to be a little more, shall we say, generous to the involved parties than mine are. This is fine. It’s Medium’s right to “manage” what gets posted on their platform. But when it comes to this topic, I don’t want to waste my time writing into the void.

I’m working on a website that I should have up and running pretty quickly, it’ll be a basic blog-type affair where I can write freely without having to worry about offending anyone’s sensibilities.

I will continue to post on Medium about other topics that I find interesting, and while I won’t be posting any more political stories on Medium that relate to Gaza specifically, please know that the ongoing events in Gaza, as well as the actions and inaction of our elected officials, will inform everything I write about from this point forward, even if it’s just a story about pop music, a movie I like, or Pride month. Because, frankly, how can it not be informed by what’s going on? Preventing us from freely discussing it does not change anything that is happening and just makes people like me more determined to find out and expose the truth to as many people as I possibly can. I’ll continue to do that elsewhere and I hope you’ll engage with me when I do.