Michele Forsten

Michele Forsten is a playwright, essayist, public relations executive and co-founder of the New York City Lesbian Cancer Support Consortium.

Playwright
Forsten short plays “Winning?” have been performed in New York City, Provincetown, Boston and San Francisco. “Winning?” was published in Smith & Kraus’ Best Stage Scenes of 2000 and in the 'HLFQ: 'Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly'' (Volume I, Number 2, pp. 71-87, The Haworth Press, 2000).

A full-length play, “Be My Baby!” was a semi-finalist in Playwrights’ Circle’s National New Play Festival in Palm Springs (CA), where it received a staged reading. The play was also a finalist in the Pittsburgh New Play Festival and a semi-finalist in the Moondance International Festival Stage Play Competition and in the London Borough of Newham’s Lesbian & Gay Stage Play Competition. A monologue from “Be My Baby!” was published in Smith & Kraus’ Best Women's Stage Monologues of 2000.

Essayist
Forsten’s personal essays and other articles have been published in Mamm magazine, The Advocate, New York Daily News, The New York Times and other newspapers nationwide, including the Philadelphia Gay News, San Francisco Bay Times, Outword Magazine, Windy City Times, Metro Weekly (Washington, DC) and Watermark (Orlando). Her essay about her cancer support group was broadcast on "All Things Considered" on WNYC-FM in New York City. One of her personal essays was published in a book, A Cup of Comfort for Couples (2010), the only essay of the 48 in the book written by and about a same sex couple. She was honored with the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Media in 2004 by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for a series of article on breast cancer.

Public relations
A City College of New York (CCNY) graduate, she worked for several years in magazine editorial positions before starting her career as a public relations professional at a public relations agency. She went on to hold positions at Lehman College and Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. She is now director of communications for New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York. In 2012, she was inducted into the City College Communications Alumni Hall of Fame.

Advocate for lesbians with cancer
Shortly after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, she attended a mainstream support group in which she was the only lesbian. She didn't feel she could be herself in that group and began searching for a support group in New York City for women who partner with women. After discovering that the city didn't have any such groups, she published an article in 2004 on this situation in Gay City News and sent it to social workers and other health professionals around the city. She then co-founded the New York City Lesbian Cancer Support Consortium, which brought together health professionals from various agencies around the city to do something about this situation. The group met regularly for a couple of years and eventually became a listserv connecting lesbian cancer survivors, health professionals and advocates.

In May 2005, the New York City LGBT Center implemented its first C Word event for women who partner with women, which drew more than 100 attendees. Forsten was one of the main speakers at that first of what has become an annual event. That fall, the Center started support groups for survivors and for their caregivers, which continue to this day. Forsten co-facilitated the survivors group from 2005 to 2009.