Johnny Diaz's Blog

Coming in the near future my seventh novel “The Golden Boys.” Tommy Perez, a sweet OCD Cuban American national journalist who is suddenly single after a divorce in Wilton Manors and is starting over and trying to find his footing. But he finds love and support from his sexy Italian wingman Rico in Boston and his fellow gay Cuban buddy Carlos in Providence who are dealing with their own romantic

Tucked away inside a small building in downtown Fort Lauderdale is the Stonewall National Museum, Archives and Library. For the past five decades, this little library/institution that could has chronicled the history and culture of the LGBTQ history.In addition to gay novels and biographies, you will find more than 30,000 DVDs and artifacts that reflect the LGTBQ community. They include a gold

Last October, as Hurricane Milton threatened Florida, a white bull terrier with dark ears was abandoned off the side of the road along Interstate 75 near Tampa. It was raining and the water was rising. Florida Highway Patrol trooper Orlando Morales was on patrol when he got the call about the dog and checked it out.  To his surprise, he found the dog, gently calmed him and eventually coaxed

In my past five plus years at The New York Times, I've covered a lot of breaking news stories. Some have included animals and a lot of bears which seem to be a regular topic for me. I've writtten about fat bears in Alaska where there is an annual competition for people to vote for their favorite hefty bear. I've written about efforts to restore the grizzly bear population in the Northwest

A lot of people associate me with my late dog Luna who passed away in 2022. She was 17 and had a really, really good life. (Miss Thing loved eating sushi on Friday nights and fresh chicken from Chicken Kitchen. For real!) RIP Luna.But soon after her passing, another dog entered my life. His name is Chuchy, a six-pound cream-colored cotton ball of love. (At first, I thought he was a cat or a baby

December 1st marked World AIDS Day (or month.) I've seen a lot of blog and social media posts in the last few days and I was inspired by a former FIU classmate to repost an old post I wrote about the late Pedro Zamora, who was my contemporary, a fellow gay Cuban-American from Miami whom I never got to meet in person but I admired his HIV awareness advocacy. He empowered the gay, Cuban, Latino,

This past summer, I belatedly treated myself for a big birthday (don't ask) with a new sleek black Volkswagen Golf GTI.  The car was also a reward for a mid-life breakthrough (the opposite of a mid-life crisis which I may write about at some point.)Footnote here. For my loyal readers (all five of you) who have followed this blog since 2006, you may have noticed I tend to switch cars...on

I can't believe that this week marks my fifth year at The New York Times. It feels like yesterday when I nervously walked into the colossal building at 620 Eighth Avenue in midtown New York City and attended my orientation where I got a free T-shirt, a tote bag along with a small notebook/journal for taking notes, which I did a lot of for the first few days.This was taken by my buddy Eric shortly

Growing up in Miami Beach, I was very familiar with St. Patrick Catholic School. Although I attended a public school (North Beach Elementary a few blocks away,) my upstairs neighbors Katheline and Jennifer Cortes, attended the St. Patrick's and I attended their events at the school.  I also took CCD classes there for my communion and confirmation. So I was surprised to learn that Desi

Growing up in Miami Beach as a geeky, curly-haired TV nerd who was often confused as a girl (no joke)  who wore corduroy pants from Sears to school even in the endless year-round summer heat and humidity, I was always drawn to soap operas for some reason (part of it may be because I was lonely and would only see my friends in school, rarely outside the classroom, and these fictional