David Benkof

Who is David Benkof?

David Benkof is an American journalist-entrepreneur. He was raised in St. Louis, Missouri and then went to college at Stanford University, where he came out as gay his freshman year. In 1989 he served as the international president of United Synagogue Youth.

In 1995, he founded Q Syndicate, a gay-press syndication service that provides columns, cartoons, crossword puzzles and horoscopes to about 100 gay and lesbian newspapers. In 2001, he sold a majority interest in Q Syndicate to Rivendell Marketing, and served as vice president for two years before selling the rest of the company. In 1997 Benkof wrote Modern Jewish History for Everyone and in 1999 Gay Essentials: Facts for Your Queer Brain. In 2002 and 2003 he wrote the column “Over the Rainbow” for Q Syndicate.

In 2003, he announced that for religious reasons he had stopped having sex with men, and that he was shedding the label gay, preferring not to label his sexuality. He has always been a devout Jew, and says that one reason he changed was because "Gay sex is just inconsistent with traditional religious life." To reflect his change in sexual identity, and to honor his late grandfather, Julius Benkof, David Bianco changed his name to David Benkof. He identifies as bisexual, but abstains from having sex with men.