Boyd McDonald (1925 – September 1993) was an American writer, editor, and publisher of the long-running gay pornography and erotic literature zine S.T.H., or Straight to Hell.
He explained that the main advantage of homosexuality was the opportunities it provided for sexual encounters with many men, which promiscuity he endorsed and celebrated.
He was as contemptuous of monogamous gay couples as of straight ones,[8] and opposed so-called Castro clones who were "determined to take homosexuality out of the toilet" and "introduce their lovers to Mom and Dad.
[12] In 1992, he wrote in Lewd that "as the years have gone by and it has become more difficult than it was in childhood to find men to molest me and perpetrate crimes against nature, I have come to love abusing myself more and more."
"[20] McDonald died in September 1993 as a result of a pneumococcal infection complicated by emphysema, two months after completing his final book, Scum.
"[25] In 1985, his reviews were collected into the book Cruising the Movies: A Sexual Guide to 'Oldies' on TV, published by Gay Presses of New York.
"[27] Material deleted from an unspecified book at the request of Winston Leyland, owner of Gay Sunshine Press ("Cole Porter a cocksucker, Brooke Shields's and Tyrone Powers's [ sic ] shit-holes"), was restored in Cruising the Movies.
[29] McDonald was opposed to the politics of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, stating that "beneath their misleading smiles, have hearts of pig iron, which finds expression these days in bullying the minorities, the poor, the sick, the hungry, the old, and, for all I know, the lame, the halt, and the blind.
"McDonald was mentioned as a prominent figure in the golden age of gay literature by Felice Picano,[33] John Waters has also expressed his enthusiasm,[34] and his picture (with Billy Miller) appears in issue 53.
as a "formative influence,"[36] noting that "Boyd McDonald was for me one of the keys to a grown-up, unashamed gay life, one who not only disentangled me from my own hypocritical knots, but showed me the hypocrisies in the world's mendacity about sex".
[41] In contrast, gay author John Preston, who openly admitted writing pornography, called STH and its writers "dirty", "filthy", "sick", "kinky", and "twisted".
[47] The San Francisco gay bookstore A Different Light held "Straight to Hell: A Night of Readings from the Cum-Drenched Pages of S.T.H."
[49] The Cornell University Library holds a collection of McDonald's papers, photographs, correspondence, and computer files produced from 1988 to 2003.