[2] She created and wrote the Minority Reports column for Columbia Journalism Review, is a former syndicated columnist for the gay press, and was the editor in chief of the defunct 365gay.com and a theater critic for the Chicago Reader.

[3] Vanasco grew up in Garden City, New York and attended Wellesley College,[4] where she graduated cum laude in 1994 with a B.A.

After graduating, Vanasco was associate editor at the gay paper Windy City Times in Chicago, worked as a writer for the University of Chicago, and eventually became a freelance writer and journalism teacher.

Her column has been running weekly since its debut in Windy City Times in 1996 (it now runs in the Chicago Free Press) and won three Peter Lisagor Awards for opinion writing from the Society of Professional Journalists' Chicago Headline Club.

[2] Vanasco lives in Washington Heights, Manhattan with her wife, Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Jenny Hagel, and her son.