Born May 13, 1944 in Washington, D.C., United States as Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr., he is an American writer, best known for the "Tales of the City" novels. His parents were Armistead Jones Maupin, co-founder of the Maupin, Taylor & Ellis law firm, and Diana Jane (nee Barton). He graduated from Needham Broughton High School in 1962 and went on to study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He worked for Channel 5 and received a patriotic award that the station's manager, future U.S. Senator Jesse Helms nominated him to. Maupin later renounced Helms' conservative beliefs. He served several tours of duty in the United States Navy. He wrote for a number of newspapers and in 1971 became a member of the San Francisco bureau of the Associated Press. In 1974 he came out as gay, although he claims he had known he was homosexual since childhood. In 1976 he published "Tales of the City", the first novel in a series of nine books. He's been married to website producer and photographer Christopher Turner since 2007.