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
fall 2026
It's gone to copy editing
GLAAD Media Award
My infantry days
My Story
I wrote the New York Times bestsellers Columbine and Parkland. This fall (2026), HarperCollins will publish my gay soldiers book, which I’ve been working on for 26 years. (11 concurrently with the other books, shadowing Army buddies ‘Brett’ and ‘Drake’ the whole time.) It’s the biggest project I’ll undertake in my life.
Don't Fall in Love is the tumultuous story of two active duty combat arms soldiers fighting for love and happiness against all odds. They served 23 years and deployed to three wars in hiding — before, during, and after Don't Ask, Don't Tell. They're courageous, insightful and wickedly funny, and it's been one hell of a ride.*
Columbine won several major awards, including the Edgar, Goodreads Choice Award, and Barnes & Noble Discover Award, and made 2 dozen Best of 2009 lists. It made LA Times' list of the 30 best books of the last 30 years, and Slate's list of the best books of the last quarter century. It has been translated into nine languages, and named to a few dozen Best True Crime Books of All Time lists.
I've worked on several TV project and sold one pilot to NBCUniversal, earning my WGA card. On the media side, I've written for New York Times, Vanity Fair, Atlantic, London Times, Politico, Guardian, Washington Post, New Republic, BuzzFeed, etc., and appeared on most of the major networks in the US, and across Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. I live in Chicago, where I'm uncle to 11 cool humans and 1 adorable corgi, Bobby Sneakers.
* The gay soldiers book began as a magazine story in June 2000, that won the GLAAD Media Award for best online story of the year. To protect them from discharge, we named them Brett and Drake then and disclosed it in they story. They were never discovered. They'll reveal their identities in the book this fall.
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 when it's published.
I never share addresses, and won't spam you.
My Latest
New Edition 2024
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.
![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.
(More in 1st comment)](https://scontent-iad3-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/319469079_175117201828890_7110975310041362999_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=106&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiRkVFRC5iZXN0X2ltYWdlX3VybGdlbi5DMyJ9&_nc_ohc=WbZ_V7V79DsQ7kNvwF-qHHe&_nc_oc=AdktRPKuEugsZiz3VQze1JOWBzTtBJR5w1_WGGUSxZHXjmVsOMwNFI6LC_TYqa8O-ns&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-2.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=26RZg1eTFkBkpokvFX89oQ&oh=00_AfrSj1tTrnIk3HjCRtw6xToI_njND9GamfuWqI5n_mWh7w&oe=696924EC)
My gay soldiers book will coincidentally follow the release of Heated Rivalry, Overcompensating and Boots, each of which shredded me. At its heart, Don't Fall in Love tells two star-crossed gay love stories in tandem: Brett and Drake always have each other's 6, through one tricky maneuver and looming disaster after another.
These series resonated to deeply because they struck the same chords I felt me through my Infantry days and my long, tortured coming out. I lived through very different versions of those with Brett and Drake each boyfriend who tried so hard to make it work.
I was hooked on each series from episode 1, and they rallied my spirits the final round of editing. As soon as Heated Rivalry ended, I binged the book and discovered what a great writer Rachel Reid is. I highly recommend it because it really deepens the story. Then I cried just as hard through The Long Game. Can't wait for S2.
Don't Fall in Love also covers Stonewall, homophiles Frank Kameny, Harry Hay, the Mattachine Society, Daughters of Bilitis, OutServe-SLDN, the Palm Center, HRC (Human Rights Campaign), GLAAD, Aaron Belkin, Nathaniel Frank, and Eric Cervini, James Baldwin, Richard Goldstein, Sam Nunn, James Dobson, Bill Clinton, Susan Collins, General Colin Powell, Admiral Mike Mullen, Admiral John Kirby, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, etc.