2008, where they were among the 18,000 same-sex couples who were legally wed before the passage of Proposition 8 banned same-sex marriages, and the state grandfathered them in. That same year, Blotcher was one of the organizers of Join the Impact, a global online effort to organize for LGBTQ marriage equality, and attended the group's Lake Worth, Florida demonstration to protest Florida's Amendment 2, a measure that would have constitutionally defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The day after the New York state legislature voted to make same-sex marriage legal in 2011, Blotcher said, "I'm dancing in the streets about what happened last night, but I'm very mindful of what work has not yet been done." Blotcher was referring to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and other remaining legal federal obstacles. Blotcher is the co-founder of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center, and volunteers for the New Paltz LGBTQ Pride March and Festival. Journalism and book editing After moving upstate, Blotcher turned to journalism full-time, and found work as a stringer for The New York Times, writing four stories, and contributing to three others between 2001 and 2003. During a 2004 review of the newspaper's part-time staffers, Blotcher's past work as a spokesperson for ACT UP and AMFAR came to the attention of editor Susan Edgerley, who Blotcher said "blindsided" him when she dismissed him in February 2004, "...to protect against any appearance of conflict of interest." After the dismissal was reported by The Washington Post, activists Larry Kramer and Michael Petrelis criticized the decision, citing the apparent conflicts of interest of other Times' reporters. Blotcher was the editor of Rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker's posthumous memoir Rainbow Warrior: My Life in Color. Blotcher said the work was the fulfillment of a promise he had made to Baker in 1997. Blotcher also edited Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power by Michelangelo Signorile, Animal Factory by David Kirby, and Impresario of Castro Street: An Intimate Showbiz Memoir'' by Marc Huestis, among others. As of October 2022, Blotcher had edited 75 literary projects, including memoirs, fiction, nonfiction, history, plays and podcasts. References American gay writers American LGBT rights activists Living people American activist journalists 1960 births Writers from Boston Culinary Institute of America people