Bestselling Author

The tumultuous story of two gay soldiers fighting for love against all odds and forging a friendship to take on the torturous years of Don't Ask Don't Tell.
The "compromise" was designed to loosen their shackles, but Don't Fall in Love draws back the curtain on how it made life so much worse--forcing brutal compromises and pitting their life's calling against happiness with the men they loved.
Born on the eve of Stonewall, their lives tell the story of the liberation of our military and the entire LGBT equality movement, through their eyes.
from HarperCollins
June 2, 2026
GLAAD Media Award
of the Year
My infantry days
Be Notified
Gay Soldiers book
Email 'NOTIFY' in the subject line: dave@davecullen.com
You'll get emails when Don't Fall In Love is available for pre-sale and publication.
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My Story
Dave Cullen has written definitive works on mass murders for two decades, first with Columbine, then Parkland: Birth of a Movement, both New York Times bestsellers. The former gay infantry grunt is completing a book on two gay soldiers 25 years in the making. It depicts the arc of the gay rights struggle through the lens of two extraordinary lives — which he has been immersed in since 2000.
Columbine is the consensus definitive account of the horror that inspired two decades of killers. Parkland focuses exclusively on the March for Our Lives students' response, refusing to name the killer. Dave was with them from the beginning, with unparalleled access behind the scenes.
Columbine made two lists of the best 25 and 30 books of the quarter century, over a dozen Best True Crime Books of All Time, and won several major awards, including the Edgar, Goodreads Choice Award, and Barnes & Noble Discover Award. It made 2 dozen Best of 2009 lists, and been translated into nine languages.
Dave has written for New York Times, Atlantic, Vanity Fair, London Times, BuzzFeed, Politico, Guardian, Washington Post, New Republic, etc., and has appeared on most of the major networks in the US, and across Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.
Dave lives in Chicago and is uncle to 11 cool humans and 1 adorable corgi, Bobby Sneakers.

TV
Dave has been a frequent analyst about Columbine, Parkland, school shootings, gays and soldiers on Today, NBC Nightly News, PBS Newshour, Nightline, Morning Edition, CBS This Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, CBSN, Anderson Cooper 360, Rachel Maddow, All In With Chris Hayes, Katie, Talk of the Nation, Hannity, and numerous documentaries including CNN, NatGeo, Showtime and The Nineties.
My coming gay soldiers book Don't Fall in Love (June 2, 2026) also covers Stonewall; pioneers of the "homophile movement" Frank Kameny, Harry Hay, the Mattachine Society, Daughters of Bilitis (DOB); major movers in repeal OutServe-SLDN, the Palm Center, HRC (Human Rights Campaign), GLAAD, The Rand Corporation and Working Group reports; scholars Aaron Belkin, Nathaniel Frank, and Eric Cervini; "A Brief History of Sodomy;" insights from James Baldwin and Richard Goldstein; key political players Senator Sam Nunn, James Dobson, Bill Clinton, Susan Collins, General Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, Pentagon Press Secretary Admiral John Kirby, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, etc.