John K. Byrne

John K. Byrne (born March 24, 1981) is an American publisher, writer, and non-profit director. He is co-owner of Raw Story Media and AlterNet Media, which publish the online progressive political news sites RawStory.com and AlterNet.org respectively.[1] He is also the founder and Executive Director of Prevention 305, a nonprofit focused on increasing access to HIV prevention drugs in the Miami, Florida area.[2] Prior to Raw Story, he wrote briefly for the Boston Globe and McClatchy Newspapers and has been published in The Atlantic.[3] He is also a published fiction writer.

John Byrne
Born (1981-03-24) March 24, 1981
New York City, New York, U.S.A.
OccupationPublisher, writer, and non-profit executive

Early life and education

Byrne was raised in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts by Cathy and Jeffrey Byrne. Cathy Byrne is a circuit judge of the Massachusetts District Courts and Jeffrey Byrne is a family physician.[4][5]

Byrne attended Concord Academy and graduated from Oberlin College in 2003. At Oberlin College, he founded The Grape, which remains the college’s alternative student newspaper.[6] He was also editor of the Oberlin Review, where he wrote an exposé about steroid abuse on the football team.[7]

Career

During college, Byrne worked as a stringer for The Boston Globe Northwest, a discontinued suburban section of the newspaper, and for McClatchy Newspapers as an intern in Washington, DC.[8]

Byrne founded RawStory.com, which was first published on February 1, 2004.[9] The site was originally conceived as a liberal version of the Drudge Report. In the early years, Raw Story focused on national security issues, American politics, and reporting on anti-gay political figures who were themselves closeted gays. Byrne founded Raw Story when he was 23.[10] Byrne interviewed political figures and authors of the day, including former House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and historian Howard Zinn.[11][12] His reporting also focused on civil liberties, including articles critical of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama's warrantless wiretapping program.[13] In 2010, Byrne stepped down as editor of Raw Story. He remains the company's CEO.[14]

Byrne and his business partner, Michael Rogers, acquired the progressive news website AlterNet and TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com in 2018.[15] AlterNet was acquired from the nonprofit Independent Media Institute. The sale was covered by The Wall Street Journal.[16]

Outing of political figures

Byrne and Rogers outed as gay numerous politicians and political staff who voted or advocated against gay rights in the mid-2000s. Among the first was former Republican Congressman Ed Schrock (R-VA). Rogers and Byrne reported that Schrock, who once disparaged gays in the military, had left two advertisements on a gay phone sex line. Schrock resigned August 31, 2004, after the recordings were revealed and posted online.[17]

Byrne also reported on the campaign manager for President George W. Bush, Ken Mehlman. The site, along with Rogers, outed Mehlman in 2004. Mehlman was targeted because the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign issued anti-gay flyers in Ohio and because of the anti-gay marriage amendment Bush supported.[18] A proxy denied that Mehlman was gay in 2005.[19] Mehlman, however, admitted that he was gay in 2010, and eventually went on to campaign for gay marriage in New York.[20]

Writing

Byrne published his first fiction piece in the Baltimore Review in Spring, 2013. The piece, titled, “I’m Going to Let You Go, Okay?” mentioned his early work on Raw Story.[21] He has also been published in the Chicago Review.[22]

HIV prevention advocacy

In 2015, Byrne began advocating for the promotion of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) after a false positive HIV test.[23] His first campaign on South Beach was covered by The Miami Herald, “I AM PrEP,” in November 2015, which involved posters created for bars and clubs and brochures for health centers.[24] Byrne wrote an article about his in a long-form piece for The Atlantic in December, 2015. CBS News 4 Miami covered his PrEP advocacy in March 2017.[25] Byrne is also an at-large board member of Arianna's Center, a Ft. Lauderdale-based nonprofit focused on serving and empowering the transgender community in South Florida.[26]

In 2017, Byrne founded an HIV prevention nonprofit, Prevention 305, which focuses specifically on linking Latinx immigrants to HIV prevention medication in the Miami, Florida area.[27]

References
  1. Raw Story. "Masthead". RawStory.com. Raw Story Media. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  2. Prevention 305. "Who We Are". Prevention305.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  3. Byrne, John (1 December 2015). "When Condoms Aren't Enough". The Atlantic. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  4. Ballotpedia. "Catherine K. Byrne". Ballotpedia.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. Chelmsford Family Practice. "Jeffrey Byrne, M.D." ChelmsfordFamily.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  6. Issuu. "The Grape". Issuu.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  7. Boeglin, Rosemary (25 April 2014). "John Byrne, OC '03, Former Editor-in-Chief of the Review, and Founder of The Grape and The Raw Story". The Oberlin Review. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  8. Boston Globe. "Globe Northwest". Boston.com. The Boston Globe. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  9. Byrne, John. "The Editors' Blog". RawStory.com. Archived from the original on 24 May 2004. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  10. Ireland, Doug (23 September 2004). "The Outing". LA Weekly. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  11. Byrne, John (25 May 2005). "Interview transcript: Veteran Democrat says country's direction raises red flags". Raw Story. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  12. Byrne, John (9 September 2005). "Howard Zinn calls for Iraq pullout, 'Same arguments for Vietnam are being made now in Iraq'". Raw Story. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  13. Byrne, John (16 December 2010). "Federal court blocks Obama Administration attempt to spy on cell phones without a warrant". Raw Story. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  14. Raw Story. "Masthead". RawStory.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  15. Raw Story (11 April 2018). "Raw Story Partners Announce Acquisition Of AlterNet.org And The New Civil Rights Movement". PRNewswire.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  16. O'Reilly, Lara (10 April 2018). "CMO Today: Zuckerberg's Congress Hearing; P&G to Build Cross-Holding Company Creative Agency; Movie Theaters Go Upmarket". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  17. Byrne, John (31 August 2004). "Rep. Schrock resigns after 'gay phone sex call' surfaces on web". Raw Story. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  18. Schroeder, Audra (11 October 2013). "How a gay blogger is tweeting politicians out of the closet". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  19. Byrne, John (17 March 2005). "GQ Magazine inks major spread on gay Republicans; Bush official denies RNC chief Mehlman is gay, contradicting earlier reports". Raw Story. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  20. Ambinder, Marc (25 August 2010). "Bush Campaign Chief and Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman: I'm Gay". The Atlantic. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  21. Byrne, John. "I'm Going to Let You Go, Okay?". The Baltimore Review (Spring 2013). Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  22. Byrne, John (2014). "Unknown Title". Chicago Review. 18 (2014). ISBN 9781499625998. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  23. Byrne, John (1 December 2015). "When Condoms Aren't Enough". The Atlantic. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  24. Rothaus, Steve (13 November 2015). "Facebook album: 'I Am PrEP' HIV prevention campaign launches in South Beach". The Miami Herald. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  25. Florida Department of Health in Broward County (20 March 2017). "HIV Activist Becomes Advocate For PrEP". CBS Miami. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  26. Arianna's Center. "About". TransEqualityFlorida..org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  27. Prevention 305. "Who We Are". Prevention305.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
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