Kevin Naff
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Kevin Naff

Washington Blade Editor

b. October 11, 1970

“Not a week has gone by … that I didn’t think of the generation of gay men before me who didn’t live to see all of this progress.” 

Kevin Naff is an award-winning American journalist and the editor and co-owner of the Washington Blade, the nation’s oldest and most acclaimed LGBTQ news outlet.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Naff earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from Pennsylvania State University in 1992. He received a master’s certificate in public policy from the Legislative Studies Institute, a collaboration between Columbia and Georgetown Universities. 

Naff started his career in business development for the Verizon Wireless data group. He subsequently worked for The Baltimore Sun, where he launched its website in 1996, and served as an editor and business reporter for Reuters in New York. 

In 2002 the Washington Blade hired Naff, aged 32, to serve as its editor. Founded in the aftermath of the Stonewall uprising in 1969, and circulated initially as a newsletter, the Blade evolved into the LGBTQ community’s acclaimed “newspaper of record.”

In 2009, when the Blade’s parent company filed for bankruptcy, the publication nearly went under. With an outpouring of support from the community—and as far away as Europe—Naff, along with Blade publisher Lynne Brown and sales executive Brian Pitts, assumed ownership. Today, Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia also runs ancillary enterprises, including the Los Angeles Blade and a full-service ad agency.

Under Naff’s 22 years of editorship, the Blade has won numerous prestigious awards, including GLAAD’s highest honor and a commendation from the White House Correspondents’ Association. Naff helped the Blade secure the first dedicated seat for an LGBTQ outlet in the White House briefing room. 

Naff’s journalistic work has been published in The Washington Post, the HuffPost, The Baltimore Sun, and other leading outlets. He has been honored for 10 years running for his editorial writing by the Society of Professional Journalists. 

Naff serves on numerous boards, including the D.C. Chapter of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Maryland Corporate Council, and Live Baltimore. He has appeared on national cable news channels, including CNN and Fox, and is featured in the award-winning documentary “Outrage,” about the hypocrisy of closeted Washington politicians who support anti-gay legislation. 

In 2023 Naff published his first book, “How We Won the War for LGBTQ Equality: And How Our Enemies Could Take It All Away,” an inside look at a 20-year span of unprecedented progress in the LGBTQ civil rights movement and the disturbing trends that now jeopardize it.

Naff lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with his husband of 25 years, Brian Buebel.