Mass, Lawrence, 1946-

Lawrence David Mass (b. 1946) is a physician and writer living in New York City. A co-founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, he was the first writer to cover the AIDS epidemic, and the first physician to write regularly for the gay press. In addition to numerous essays and reviews on topics related to gay men, sexuality, and music, he is the author of DIALOGUES OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION, a collection of interviews with writers, artists, and scientists about homosexuality, and the autobiographical work, CONFESSIONS OF A JEWISH WAGNERITE.

Lawrence David Mass, physician and writer, was born in Macon, Georgia in 1946. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1969 and received his M.D. from the University of Illinois in 1973. Following his residency in anesthesiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he moved to New York City in 1979. That same year saw the publication of "Coming To Grips With Sado-masochism," in the Advocate . This became the first of many articles, effectively making Mass the first physician to write regularly for the gay press. When the first reports began to circulate about a rare cancer striking gay men he began regular coverage of what became the AIDS epidemic in the New York Native .

Beyond writing about AIDS, Mass helped organize New York Physicians for Human Rights and co-founded Gay Men's Health Crisis. A grant to GMHC from the NYC Department of Health enabled him to write Medical Answers About AIDS, an informational booklet that has been regularly revised and distributed internationally. He was the medical director of substance abuse treatment programs at Greenwich House in New York City from 1980-1998 when he left that position to become the medical director of substance abuse treatment programs at Beth Israel Medical Center, a position he holds currently (2010). In 2000, Mass was in the first group of physicians to become board certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine.

Aside from his career as a physician, Mass maintains an active vocation as a writer on topics relating to gay men, sexuality, music, opera, and anti-Semitism. In addition to numerous articles, reviews, and essays he is the author of "Confessions of a Mask", based on the confessional memoir of Yukio Mishima; Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution, a collection of interviews with writers, artists, and scientists on many aspects of homosexuality; and the autobiographical work Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite . In 1997, he published We Must Love One Another or Die: The life and legacies of Larry Kramer, an anthology about the AIDS activist and playwright.