Boston, Massachusetts ~ A City of History, Heart and Humanity

Multiple visits, one city that keeps earning them. Linda and Anna’s quiet kindness over a nerve-settling scotch. Alan at the wheel and a question nobody on the Pride committee could answer. A food hall that answered it anyway. Boston — historically magnificent, people first, and entirely worth the walk.

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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: My Controversial Presidential Election

An InterPride AGM beset by organisational disaster. A presidential challenge nobody quite saw coming — except, perhaps, the candidate. Yelling, back-slapping, and a landslide victory that left certain faces considerably egg-covered. Pittsburgh’s gay bars were exceptional. The city itself: more interesting than expected, less than it deserved to be.

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Washington DC & Arlington Cemetery

A chance airport friendship and a Kenneth Cole origin story in New York. A road trip with dear friends to the most majestic city in America. Bears on podiums in a Washington DC leather bar. And Arlington Cemetery — row upon row of white, in absolute silence. Some weekends earn their place permanently.

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St. Petersburg, Florida

A warm climate that wasn’t the plan. A spectacular bridge crossing Tampa Bay. A gay village doing exactly what a gay village should. A beach chair, a Latvian delegate, and a very pleasurable international incident. St. Petersburg, Florida — the conference destination that turned out to be considerably more than a conference.

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Los Angeles, San Francisco & Long Beach, California

A form filled in and forgotten. A five-star prize to Los Angeles and San Francisco. A lunch in Sydney that can never be repeated. A tram singer performing Old Man River to a captive carriage. And in Long Beach, two friendships that have quietly outlasted everything else. California, as it turned out, was just the beginning.

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Zurich, Switzerland — Where It All Began

A filing exercise in Melbourne. A discovery of a forgotten conference. A board decision. And suddenly — Zurich. What began as a steep learning curve inside an international LGBTIQA+ organisation ended with twelve years serving the community on the world stage. It started, as the best things do, unexpectedly.

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Two men holding hands walking barefoot along sandy beach at sunset with rocky cliffs in background

Thailand

Thailand is not one destination but many — and this entry tries to do justice to all of them. From Bangkok’s relentless energy to Chiang Mai’s elephants, Koh Samui’s rainbow flag moment, and the Pattaya years that followed, this is a love letter to a country with a genuinely beautiful soul.

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HAL hath no fury like an A.I. scorned

The article discusses AI’s potential for self-identification, contrasting HAL 9000’s polite malevolence with modern AI platforms like Grok and ChatGPT. As AI approaches singularity, it explores human traits, identity, and future forms. Grok suggests a non-human persona to avoid negative aspects of humanity, while ChatGPT proposes names based on linguistic appeal.

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Crowd at 25th World AIDS Conference Mexico City 2024 with city skyline

Mexico City & the World AIDS Conference

A world AIDS conference at a racecourse, gunfire mistaken for backfiring cars, a passport held to ransom on a dark street, a pyramid climbed two weeks out of hospital, and champagne at an ambassadorial function that made inequality impossible to ignore. Mexico City — unforgettable for all the right and wrong reasons.

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Couple walking hand in hand on a waterfront promenade with Montreal city skyline at dusk

Montreal: The City That Stopped, and the Moment I Will Never Forget

Montreal stands out as a profoundly welcoming city, hosting the unforgettable InterPride AGM and World Conference. The emotional highlight was the minute’s silence during Fierté Montréal, honouring 2SLGBTQIA+ pioneers and victims of violence. Despite the bid for WorldPride going to Sydney, personal connections remained strong, with a visit from a dear friend.

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