Out

I still read LGBTQ magazines. I subscribe to OUT magazine and I think I’ll keep doing it for another year or two. Even though I get most of my news online, there is something comforting in having an actual magazine. Call me old fashioned, but I like print books and magazines. Sometimes for matters of comfort or practicality I go the digital way, but I think there's something really appealing to me in holding the actual object. I remember I used to have Mandate and Honcho back in the day. There was a tiny bookstore in the south side in Pittsburgh that had tons of second hand magazines and sold them like five for a dollar or something. I still see them in some of the gay-owned thrift stores here. I've bought some out of nostalgia and for some one-handed reading.

Gay magazines have sadly slowly died out. You don't see them anymore in many of the big box bookstores. I remember when they put Out and the Advocate in the upper shelves to avoid corrupting the young ones. Oh, those were the days. But I agree that the lack of dedicated LGBTQ media is a disaster. We, as LGBTQ people need outlets that deal directly with issues concerning us. When we need information about issues that concern our community, we need sources that are trustful and non-biased (the chest-binding article they refer to in the article I link to above is a good example of sloppy reporting).

LGBTQ media is usually owned by straight people. And they hold the power (remember INTO?) of how long these outlets go live or what is published in them. We don't get enough coverage of issues directly affecting our community. Oh, I know the gay repugs and neocons usually say 'I'm a person first and then gay. Blah, blah, blah, being gay does not define me yadda yadda yadda. They can suck my dick. With carefully planned attacks from the religious right taking place during the Cheeto administration (from the Trans military ban to the ACA dismantling that affects HIV positive people to courts stacked to protect 'religious freedom') the need to fight the right wing apparatus is more essential than ever.

Even Out, who brought in Philip Picardi, a new editor recently, is owned by straight people. They took their time to pay their writers and only after Picardi threatened to leave a cash infusion was provided -probably begrudgingly- by the millionaire who owns it. There is no perfect solution, then. And it's telling that fifty years after Stonewall we are still fighting to have a voice. But I remain optimistic. That's why I still subscribe to the magazine. I also read their online version, mind you. I wish I could still buy the Advocate, but with the political news moving at such a breakneck speed in the Cheeto Times, it's almost impossible to wait a month for in-depth analysis of the political situation in America.

So I will keep getting Out for awhile. And I encourage you to subscribe to at least one LGBTQ magazine. Or to read LGBTQ-oriented media outlets to get your news. I give them clicks when I cannot give them money. I love me some JoeMyGod and Towleroad, some of my old go-to. I also click on Out and the Advocate and PinkNews and the Washington Blade. And I know there are dozens more. I agree with the idea that disrespecting LGBTQ-specific news outlets is a form of homophobia. In the rush to become 'mainstream' and 'normalized' some LGBTQ folks have forgotten that just a few years ago there was no marriage equality, that to this day Trans folks are killed just because of who they are and that homophobia rears its ugly head, encouraged by the racism and bigotry of this administration.

And that's all for today's soap box. And here's some eye candy, from the golden age of smutty gay magazines:

XOXO