Troy Masters

Troy Masters (April 13, 1961 – December 11, 2024) was an American journalist and editor, most active in LGBTQ news publications.

Life and career Masters was born in Gallatin, Tennessee, on April 13, 1961, to Josie Kirkland and Jimmy Davis Masters. He was raised in Nashville, where his stepfather worked as a musician, and spent summers in Dothan, Alabama, where his grandparents lived. He grew up in an environment which had "bile racial invective and raw hatred of liberal ideas", which he characterized as "a Fox News household before Fox News". Around age 12, Masters realized he was gay after becoming obsessed with musician David Cassidy and attending his concert in Nashville. His family also caught on to this fact, and his stepfather and his friends often taunted him with slurs and derogatory names. He was first credited in the magazine in issue 21, released November 12, 1989, as advertising account executive. He was a senior account executive by the magazine's final issue in July 1991. At OutWeek, Masters published stories about HIV activism and research, and anti-LGBTQ violence. In February 1995, Masters founded Lesbian and Gay New York (LGNY).

Masters moved to Los Angeles in 2015. but left the publication in mid-2016 over political disagreements. During the 2022 mpox outbreak in California, Masters "leveraged the newspaper’s influence...to ensure that the limited number of available vaccine doses were distributed in communities most at risk".

Masters died in Los Angeles on December 11, 2024, at the age of 63. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, he died by suicide.