Jay Blotcher
Jay Blotcher (born Boston, June 9, 1960) is an American journalist, writer, publicist, film producer, and activist who documented the lives of gays and lesbians. Blotcher's interest in gay activism began early; in 1980, he profiled Syracuse University's Gay Student Association in a pair of articles for his college newspaper, The Daily Orange and college magazine Report.
Blotcher moved to New York City in May, 1982 and began writing for Christopher Street and The New York Native, two publications for the New York City gay community. He was also associate producer for "Our Time," a 13-week TV series on metropolitan gay life, executive-produced and hosted by activist-author-film historian Vito Russo. In 1990, Blotcher and friend Alan Klein co-founded Public Impact Media Consultants, a PR firm devoted to promoting organizations representing gay, AIDS-related and progressive agendas. The organization served many not-for-profits from 1991-1994. That same decade, Blotcher handled publicity for The American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), Michelangelo Signorile, gay authors, the PBS TV show "In the Life," and other grassroots organizations, gay artists, musicians and authors. He was also a founding member and Media Coordinator for Queer Nation/New York and the executive producer of the Anti-Violence Campaign.[1]
In October, 1987, Blotcher joined ACT UP/New York and represented the group at the International AIDS Conferences in Montreal, Amsterdam and Yokohama. He served as Media Coordinator for the organization from 1989-1990 but continued providing media coverage for subsequent demonstrations through the group's 20th anniversary march on Wall Street in 2007. Blotcher has written for numerous gay magazines and regional newspapers from 1981 through the present, including Outweek, Advocate, Out, POZ, The Guide, Bay Windows, Bay Area Reporter, New York Blade, Gay City News and LGNY. Blotcher was filmed in 2009 for a new documentary about Vito Russo by director Jeffrey Schwarz. The film aired on HBO in the summer of 2012.
In 2013, Blotcher was working as a freelance journalist for several magazines in the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York State, including Chronogram, Edible Hudson Valley, VisitVortex and Green Door. He lived in High Falls, New York, an Ulster County hamlet, with husband Brook Garrett and a Yellow Field Lab named Scout.
In October 2005, Blotcher was hired as a publicist at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, in the Continuing Education department. The position was eliminated in January, 2013. He was active in the marriage equality movement, working to attain marriage rights for same-sex couples in New York and across America. Also in 2013, Blotcher was at work as librettist on developing the show "Holding On" with composer-librettist Neil Klein. This original new musical about life in 1960s Harlem, slated to star Broadway musical theatre veteran Terri White, has its own website: http://www.holdingonthemusical.com/
In 2013, Blotcher reunited with his old business partner Alan Klein to reboot their 1990s-era PR firm Public Impact Media Consultants, which originally made its reputation for providing publicity for progressive organizations, writers, filmmakers and activists. Since the reteaming, they have represented authors Sean Strub, Ann-christine d'Adesky, Aaron Fricke, Leslie L. Smith and Lance Ringel, actor Chuck Muckle, Rabbi Joan Cubell, as well as organizations like Big Gay Hudson Valley, dotgay LLC, Queer Nation and Clinton Vineyards. http://www.PublicImpactPR.com/