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Adam Rhodes

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journalist, data nerd, dog dad

(any pronouns!)

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About Me

I am a queer, first-generation Cuban American, and I devote my work to uncovering corruption and wrongdoing in our nation's criminal legal systems.


My reporting has shined a light on struggles to access HIV treatment, numerous homophobic murder trials, and this country's history of criminalizing queerness.

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Right now, I'm a training director at Investigative Reporters & Editors Inc. — out of the University of Missouri's school of journalism — where I train newsrooms across the country on investigative reporting techniques.


Over the course of my career, I have investigated racism in Chicago's Boystown neighborhood​, a racist, homophobic law that criminalizes HIV in Illinois, controversial surgeries on minors, anti-gay criminal cases, and how access to HIV treatment in Puerto Rico has been impacted by colonialism, natural disasters, a multibillion-dollar debt crisis and now, the pandemic.




My Expertise

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Public Records

FOIA, open data portals, you name it! I am a seasoned public records hound.

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Long form Writing

I pride myself on telling dynamic, complicated stories with care and nuance.

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Data

Analysis

I'm skilled using data (public or otherwise) to add crucial context and depth to my work.

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Social justice Journalism

I specialize in work that focuses on how systems impact our most vulnerable.

My Writing Samples

  • Chicago Reader: Activists say Illinois’s law that makes it illegal to expose others to HIV is racist and homophobic. Now they’re close to changing it.


  • Chicago Reader: Bernina Mata’s attorneys say prosecutors used homophobic rhetoric to secure a death sentence in 1999. Now they’re asking the governor to set her free.


  • The Appeal: Some states have banned a controversial homophobic legal defense, but other efforts, including at the federal level, are facing challenges.


  • BuzzFeed News: With the coronavirus spreading and natural disasters intensifying, HIV-positive Puerto Ricans are having to decide to flee — or stay and fight for their lives.
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Let's Work Together

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