[14][16][17] He was also an avid singer,[18][19] and considered singing as a career until his junior year of college, when severe gastric reflux numbed the back of his throat.

[20] Attending Harvard University, he became treasurer of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Students Association in 1992, and participated in other LGBT support groups and events.

[31] In hopes of writing another book, after the publication of Gay Haiku Derfner asked his editor what he would be interested in, and was told that since his bio on Gay Haiku said "In an attempt to be the gayest person ever, he took up knitting and got a job as a step aerobics instructor" he should write a book of essays about trying to become the gayest person ever.

[32] This endeavor, also published by Random House, became Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever and What Ended Up Happening Instead (2008), an autobiographical book that is by turns witty, serious, and emotionally self-revelatory.

Derfner offers research and analysis as well as intimate revelations of his own relationship's ups and downs, offset with humor and the details of a reality show he participated in.

[44][45][46] Lambda Literary gave the work high praise, calling it "a compelling memoir of love and family enriched by social history, politics, and sharp commentary on the state of our popular culture", and noting that "[Derfner] defines marriage as: 'an arrangement whereby, in pledging publicly to take care of each other, previously unrelated people become a family.

'"[41] Derfner also collaborated with Jackson Galaxy on his 2012 memoir Cat Daddy,[47] and with Lisa J. Edwards on her 2012 book, A Dog Named Boo.

[48] His articles have appeared in the Huffington Post,[49][50] The Advocate,[51][52] Time Out New York,[53] and Between the Lines,[54] and his original piece "De Anima" was anthologized in the 2009 compendium Fool For Love: New Gay Fiction.

It is the true story of the Theresienstadt concentration camp, which was the subject of a 1944 Nazi propaganda film created to deceive the world by portraying it as a model academic and artistic community.

[61] She brought together Derfner, Schiff, and Ullian, and as the musical took shape it had several developmental readings in New York City from 2003 to 2005, and a series of concerts at Symphony Space in February 2006.

[62] Under its new name, Signs of Life, the musical had its world premiere Off-Broadway at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre, in a limited run from February 25 through March 21, 2010.

[66] Backstage wrote that "The most intriguing contribution comes from composer Joel Derfner, whose music is always memorable and thoughtfully conceived, especially a moving number for the German officer Heindel ... that builds from hymnlike simplicity to full fury as he stakes out his morals.

[71] He has musicalized his memoir Swish (lyrics by Dan Marshall, book by Tim Acito),[72] and it was performed at New York Theatre Barn in April 2013.

He has since publicly criticized the show's producers for their editing and manipulation of statements and sentiments, which sometimes ended up on air as the opposite of fact.