A graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program of the California Institute of the Arts, Tony Valenzuela is the Executive Director of Lambda Literary, the nation's largest LGBT literary nonprofit organization. He is a longtime community activist and writer whose work has focused on LGBT civil rights, sexual liberation and gay men’s health. His previous positions include Manager of Research and Administration at GLASS (Gay & Lesbian Adolescent Social Services) in Los Angeles, the largest and oldest LGBT child welfare organization in the country serving abused and neglected LGBT youth; Administrative Director of the Lesbian and Gay Men’s Community Center in San Diego where he spearheaded campaigns ranging from anti-gay hate crimes awareness to the needs of LGBT youth in schools; and Director of VOICES ’96 (Voters Organized in Coalition for the Elections).He is credited with having ruptured the conventional wisdom in HIV/AIDS prevention among gay men by launching an international debate regarding responsible sex without condoms and continues to this day to be a leading voice in the gay men’s health movement. Out Magazine has listed him among the “Out 100.”He wrote, produced and performed his acclaimed one-man show, “The (Bad) Boy Next Door,” a second generation AIDS narrative which toured in a dozen cities in the U.S. He has continued to publish essays, fiction and journalism and is currently working on a memoir. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Rob Ferrante and pit bulls Scarlett and Chauncey.