In response to recent allegations that Modern Love, the popular relationship essay column in the NYT, has always been a bit hetero and bland (babies and divorce, basically!), today we're publishing real-life relationship essays from the Gays. Our next Gay Modern Love essay comes from commenter BettyCrocker, in which he emerges from dating hell to fall in love - with a cop! "Late winter 2002 could pretty much count as an "Annus Horribilus" - I was laid off from my i-banking compliance job, I dumped my BF of 2 years, and my prospects for meeting someone nice seemed well-near impossible. I met an ex-Marine with an extensive doll collection, followed by an amiable bearish type who pounded 6 cocktails and jumped merrily into his car to drive home. Things were looking grim..."

Our Gay Modern Love Essay Contest continues! In this essay, by Gay Matt, our hero finds, and leaves, love on a Newark-to-Los Angeles red-eye: "My twenties were about as romantic as taking steel wool and rubbing it on your balls, then soaking them in grain alcohol. Sure, I had a long-term relationship, but it ended with even more than the usual gay drama..."

It's V-Day! We prefer to think of that as Venereal Day, as well as the day we publish the winners of our very first Gay Modern Love Essay Contest! The first essay is by The Gay Recluse: "Thanks to Stephen, I came out twice. First as gay, then as a recluse..."
"It's late November 1998. I'm 30 years old and a total closet-case: it's past midnight and I'm scrolling through the men-seeking-men listings of Web Personals. During the day, I still like to tell myself that—although I'm not exactly a virgin in the same-sex department—whatever homo tendencies I have are basically a minor health problem; in short, as soon as I meet the right girl, I will be "cured" of the desire to say, head out to Prospect Park at 11:30 on a Tuesday night or—as I have been doing more and more as the days grow shorter—take a walk through the virtual hallways of the internet..."