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
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.
I never share addresses, and won't spam you.
My Story
Dave Cullen wrote the definitive account of Columbine, plus 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 has made two lists of the best 25 and 30 books of the quarter century, over a dozen Best True Crime Books of All Time, won several major awards, including the Edgar, Goodreads Choice Award, and Barnes & Noble Discover Award, and made 2 dozen Best of 2009 lists. It has been translated into nine languages.
Dave has written for New York Times, Atlantic, Vanity Fair, London Times, Politico, Guardian, Washington Post, New Republic, BuzzFeed, etc., and has appeared on most of the major networks in the US, and across Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. He 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.
![Please remember the Newtown families. And then channel your anger.
My NY Times essay is linked in my bio. I argue that your anger is actually changing the game in gun politics. (And I’ll be discussing on Chris Hayes’ MSNBC show tonight.)
Meanwhile, some have asked to see the original version of the essay. I can’t publish it all mixed together, but here are a few bits from the editing room floor, starting with my conclusion:
There are so many ways we can save our children. Safety resonates with gun owners because it’s a core value. Owners actually founded an organization in 1871 dedicated to safety and marksmanship. They named it the National Rifle Association. It went rogue in the 1970s, pitting gun owners against controllers. Owners finally returned to their safety roots this summer, and a new alliance is our best hope.
Anger can be power—when directed at the real villains. So let’s double pressure on spineless politicians, and extend our hand to surprising new allies. Because gun owners love their children, too.
--- [My version of the 1st person paragraph with my history and personal feelings]:
Until the Parkland uprising, I was a doubter, too. When I published Columbine, the body count was escalating, and I could see no way out. Sandy Hook crushed my spirit, also—and five years later, I was still skeptical of the fledgling safety movement. But then I spent a year with the Parkland kids, watching them team with Giffords and Everytown, supercharging their efforts with rocket fuel. Watts told me her army tripled from 2 million to 6 that year, vaulting past the NRA.
--- [Other outtakes I liked.]
{The new gun safety movement…} And they’ve driven those ideas home: Safe schools, safe streets, safe kids.
…
The game changed so gradually and so far below the political surface that the public has gone largely unaware. And the media, focused exclusively on the 30-year blockade of gun legislation in Congress, has kept beating the hopeless-narrative drum. False narrative. It made sense ten years ago, but since then, a sea change quietly upended the rules of gun politics …
Our kids don’t have to die.
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