editing
Hinterhaus
Editor-in-Chief, 2022 – present
Hinterhaus is a new, Berlin-based magazine dedicated to the unseen stories of club culture—with a queer and FLINTA* focus. The magazine shares stories from the people who make underground music happen—DJs, promoters, safety workers, door selectors, visual artists, and others whose work often goes unrecognised.
Focused on inclusion and community, Hinterhaus uplifts voices from all corners of nightlife, not just its headliners. The magazine values diversity, creativity, and the idea that cool comes in many forms.
Made in and for Berlin, with love.
EqualPride
Contributing Editor, 2016 – present
Alexander Cheves began at The Advocate in 2016, where he launched “Sexy Beast,” a long-running sex and culture column that became the site’s most widely read editorial series.
He now writes two columns for Out Magazine: “Last Call,” which appears in print, and “Ask Alexander,” a digital sex and dating advice column. He also contributes regularly to other titles within the EqualPride network, formerly Pride Media.
The Saint Foundation
Editor-in-Chief, Researcher, 2019 – 2020
The Saint Foundation is an archival project dedicated to preserving New York City nightlife's visual and cultural history—posters, set lists, vinyl, costumes, and other ephemera often lost to time. An initiative of The Saint at Large, producers of the city’s long-running Black Party, the Foundation holds original work by Mapplethorpe, Haring, Warhol, and others, along with digitised DJ sets from New York’s most iconic clubs.
As editor and researcher, Alexander Cheves contributed to an oral history project for the archive, conducting interviews with men who experienced the city’s nightlife during the height of the AIDS crisis.
Fort Troff
Creative Director, Editor-in-Chief, 2016 – 2019
Fort Troff is a global fetish brand for queer men, originally founded as a sex club in Atlanta and later developed into a major e-commerce company. As creative director, Alexander Cheves helped lead the brand’s transition into a more digitally fluent and youth-facing business.
His responsibilities spanned copywriting, UX design, product development, site editing, customer service, event management, and marketing. He rewrote the brand’s voice and tone, overhauled all web and packaging content, directed promotional video campaigns, and managed social media. He also launched Fort Troff’s first blog, which served as a safe-for-work platform for cultural and educational content—an effective workaround for the platform restrictions placed on adult businesses.
Under Cheves’s direction, the blog featured interviews with artists, performers, and sexual health experts, driving traffic to the site while remaining compliant with content policies on platforms like Facebook. The project was discontinued after his departure.
Gay Chic Magazine
Associate Editor, 2009 – 2016
Alexander Cheves began his media career at Gay Chic Magazine, Chicago’s first all-digital queer lifestyle and culture publication. During its brief run, the magazine profiled local artists, performers, and tastemakers, and published sex-positive content that reflected a broad spectrum of queer life. The publication shut down in 2016 after losing funding.