Born This Way

Paul Vitagliano is DJ Paul V, a renowned club and radio DJ in greater Los Angeles, who created the blog  in January 2011 as a simple and sincere way to celebrate the awkwardness and acceptance of growing up gay.  His modest blog became wildly popular among people from the LGBTQ community and today has achieved more than 4.3 million views since its debut.  In addition, it has been featured on NPR, Salon, CNN, The Huffington Post, The Advocate, and ABC News.  Paul's blog doesn't just limit itself to growing up, there are stories of childhood, a shared history of the gay community, and lots of photos.  The photos are priceless.  Not only are these photos worth a thousand words they inspire just as many smiles. 

Recently, Paul Vitagliano has added another talent to his repertoire: author.  Inspired by the blog, his new book, Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay, is a collection of adorable childhood photographs accompanied by sweet, funny, and at times heartbreaking personal stories of those who grew up LGBTQ, (the acronym for lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer). Feeling different is, for many LGBTQ people, a central part of the experience of growing up.  Born This Way features 100 photographs submitted by participants from around the world, dating from the 1940’s to today, and paired with personal narratives about the images and about each contributor’s unique perspective on growing up LGBTQ. Their warm, inclusive stories give people the courage to say, “Yes, I’m gay. And I was born this way. I’ve known it since I was very young, and this is my story.”

Among the diverse entries are contributions from Rep. Barney Frank; columnist Michael Musto; Erasure’s Andy Bell; celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, actor/drag performers Miss Coco Peru Jackie Beat, Sutan Amrul (Raja, winner of the reality TV series, Ru Paul’s Drag Race); Grammy-nominated singer Sia Furler; acclaimed photographer Mike Ruiz, and award-winner composer Marc Shaiman.


*Author and DJ, Paul Vitagliano will be at the West Hollywood Book Fair, Sunday, October 29th. He will be available in the LGBT Lounge at 3:30pm as part of a panel discussion on LGBT memoir writing.

Click on the following links to follow, for more information and to purchase your copy of the book today:

Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay

Writer Darrell Fusaro and his wife, Lori, have known DJ Paul V since 1997 when he sent them a fan letter regarding their then public access TV show, "Psycho Dance Party".  They reciprocated by inviting him on the show to join the party and they've remained friends to this day.