Troy Davis Masters, whose 35-year career in LGBTQ journalism included leading roles in the founding of both Gay City News in New York and the Los Angeles Blade, died in his Los Angeles home on Dec. 11.
A native of Gallatin, Tennessee, Masters was born on April 13, 1961, and was 63 at the time of his death.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide.
In response to that finding, Tammy Masters said that her late brother lived proudly for his entire life as a gay man, and had the support of his entire family.
And the tragedy of Masters’ passing does nothing to obscure the passion and unending determination he brought to LGBTQ journalism and service to the community — particularly on matters of healthcare access — or the significance of his publishing achievements in the nation’s two largest media markets.
Nor can those who knew Masters forget his seemingly effortless charm, his good-natured but irreverently disarming mischievousness, or his boundless curiosity for meeting new people and winning them over as friends and, often, colleagues.
Masters is survived by his mother, Josie Kirkland, and his sister, Tammy Masters, both of them of Greenbrier, Tennessee, as well as his father, Jimmy Davis Masters, of Gallatin, and his former partner and friend of 23 years, Arturo Jiminez, of Los Angeles.
Masters’ beloved dog Cody is now in Jiminez’s care.
In a written statement, the family said, “We are shocked and devastated by the loss of Troy. He was a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ community and leaves a tremendous legacy of fighting for social justice and equality.”
Tammy Masters asked for prayers particularly on behalf of her mother, who is experiencing serious health challenges and now the trauma of an “unthinkable loss.” And she reiterated that her brother, from an early age, rejoiced in his embrace of being a gay man.
After his graduation from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Masters worked several years for the educational entrepreneur Chris Whittle and, later in New York City, for PC Magazine.
In 1989, Masters joined the advertising sales team at Outweek, a brash publication that vividly captured the zeitgeist embodied in the direct action grassroots groups ACT UP and Queer Nation. When Outweek shuttered in 1991, he went on to launch QW magazine, which published for 18 months until the death of his principal funder, Bill Chafin.
Less than two years later — and working initially out of his East Village apartment — Masters founded Lesbian and Gay New York, or LGNY, which published biweekly issues from 1994 until 2002. That year, LGNY was relaunched as Gay City News under the ownership of John Sutter — the publisher of The Villager and Downtown Express — with Masters retaining his publisher responsibilities.
Masters remained with Gay City News — through another ownership change that brought the newspaper into Les and Jennifer Goodstein’s Community News Group citywide collection of publications — until mid-2015, at which time he decided to seek new journalism opportunities in Los Angeles.
As he prepared to leave New York, Masters told Gay City News he was “thrilled” to strike out anew in Los Angeles, adding, “Not every publisher has quite as much luck as I have had over 30 years. The progress for my media operations and the trajectory of gay rights have both been a sharp upward curve.”
On the West Coast, Masters partnered with the Washington Blade, the nation’s oldest LGBTQ newspaper, to create a sister publication, the Los Angeles Blade, where he served as publisher until his death.
Andrew Beaver, who worked for several years at the Los Angeles Blade, recalled how Masters leveraged the newspaper’s influence during the 2022 mpox outbreak to ensure that the limited number of available vaccine doses were distributed in communities most at risk when it became clear the city was verging on a major crisis.
“Nobody wanted to take the issue on,” Beaver said, describing how in short order the Blade put together two town hall meetings focused on the outbreak — one in predominantly white West Hollywood and the other in Monterey Park, a neighborhood more accessible for Latinos. At the time of those town halls, the Blade reported, roughly half of Los Angeles County’s mpox cases were among Latino men who had sex with men.
“Troy used the political capital of the Blade and himself and forced county public health officials to stay on stage until they worked out how the county would change the way the vaccine was being distributed,” Beaver said. “He never, never stopped his willingness to put himself on the line.”
The Blade management team, in a statement issued Dec. 12, stated, “All of us at the Los Angeles Blade and Washington Blade are heartbroken by the loss of our colleague. Troy Masters is a pioneer who championed LGBTQ rights as well as best-in-class journalism for our community. We will miss his passion and his tireless dedication to the Los Angeles queer community.”
Duncan Osborne, a Gay City News contributing editor and reporter who wrote for all of the New York publications that Masters helmed, echoed the praise Beaver and the Blade had for his dedication to LGBTQ journalism and the community’s well-being.
“Very few people were as committed to maintaining an LGBTQ press outlet in New York City as Troy Masters,” Osborne said. “From his first efforts at Outweek magazine to his work at Gay City News, Troy spent a great deal of time and money making sure that LGBTQ New Yorkers were getting the stories that they needed and were not being covered by the mainstream press. Our community owes Troy a great debt.”
Author and journalist Michelangelo Signorile, who hosts a daily radio show on SiriusXM and writes a widely-read Substack column, met Masters at Outweek, where Signorile first became a leading voice in LGBTQ politics and culture. The two were friends over the 35 years since.
“Troy was a tireless pioneer for queer media,” Signorile said. “He published several influential publications that fostered the kind of journalism desperately needed in a movement fighting for its rights and beating back bigotry. In a business that was often economically challenging, Troy was committed to creating and maintaining platforms for LGBTQ journalists to do the work that is sadly lacking in the mainstream press. He was also someone with a big smile who extended his hand to many in the community who were in need. This is a terrible loss.”
Masters’ accomplishments and character also won praise from colleagues on the business side of newspaper publishing.
John Sutter’s financial support for the launch of Gay City News in 2002 was critical in keeping alive the mission Masters forged eight years earlier with LGNY.
Sutter told Gay City News, “Troy was a pioneer of the gay press in America and the heart and soul of Gay City News and, later, the LA Blade. I loved him dearly.”
Todd Evans, the president of Rivendell Media — the national sales representative for most of the LGBTQ media niche — knew Masters through many of his journalistic endeavors. Based in northern New Jersey, Evans enjoyed a personal as well as professional friendship with him.
“I’ve known Troy for over 30 years and not many people can take credit for founding or co-founding four LGBTQ titles plus working on others and with other LGBTQ publishers,” Evans said. “Always helpful and kind. I know Troy best from his work in New York City as an activist and when he founded LGNY. We bonded immediately. I know Troy would want to be best remembered as an LGBTQ activist first and animal lover second and everything else third. Troy will be missed by many and deeply missed by myself as a smart, handsome, and loving individual.”
LGBTQ activists in New York and nationwide reacted with sadness and affection online when word of Masters’ death surfaced. Allen Roskoff, who wrote the nation’s first gay rights law and leads New York’s Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, recalled the decades of friendship he enjoyed with Masters, who each year created Roskoff’s eye-poppingly provocative Holiday Party invitation.
“Troy was a close friend for 35 years,” Roskoff told Gay City News. “He was in the vanguard of the LGBTQ community from the early days. A true pioneer. Incredibly dedicated, sharp, informed, an in-depth writer, and the most loyal friend one could have. I will miss his intellect, his smile, his humor, his energy, and his die-hard progressive politics. Troy was a dedicated fighter for justice.”
I worked alongside Masters every day for 20 years beginning in 1995 as editor of LGNY and Gay City News.
We were always in total agreement that the work we were doing was important and that any story we delved into had to be done right. There were always new lessons I learned from him about the forces driving the media market and the ways in which LGBTQ culture was evolving and diversifying. On those scores, Masters had an innate and special kind of genius.
Working side by side in an unforgiving industry facing crushing economic realities, there were issues on which Masters and I sometimes famously crossed swords, and I have no doubt but that some of our epic rows were a wonder for others to witness.
But I will always remember Troy’s sweetness and gentleness. Five days before his death, he texted me birthday wishes with the tag, “I hope you get a meaningful spanking today.”
That devilishness stays with me. Everything else above are things I wish I never had to write.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, call 911 or 988 for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
