Attitude Magazine

Taylor Miller PHOTOGRAPHER When going to the theatre, I love nothing more than seeing one of my personal gay icons in a leading role. This past June, I saw Sarah Jessica Parker in Plaza Suite and she was so incredibly talented and hilarious; her performance brought me to tears multiple times. A true legend. Joseph Kocharian ATTITUDE’S FASHION DIRECTOR I’m very specific with my trips to the theatre. I have never met an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that I didn’t loathe, so I tend to avoid those, but I do love a beautifully crafted classic by Rodgers and Hammerstein, such as Carousel and The Sound of Music, or Stephen Sondheim (see West Side Story). Most recently, my favourite has been the phenomenal Cabaret, which Callum Scott Howells, on this month’s cover, is currently starring in.…

It’s a grim time, but glimmers of hope are breaking through. An emboldened minority begins to assert itself, seeking to reject traditional ways of living as they seek to blur gender binaries, pulling apart the rigid constructs of what society says a man and a woman should be, and how they should behave. Women are speaking out and making greater strides towards forging their own path in life. There’s a long way to go before we achieve a fairer world, but there is hope in sight that the rigid confines of a straight/male-dominated society can be dissolved and a new one envisioned. Through the arts and on the fringes, sexuality is also being celebrated and embraced in a way that’s never been seen before. However, all is far from rosy. For every…

June 2004, Jake Shears On page 133 of this issue, we throw it back to 2004 with a retrospective of the Scissor Sisters’ blockbuster self-titled first LP. So, we dug out the band’s Attitude cover suite from the same year for a further sashay down memory lane. Jake Shears, rocking skin-tight leather trousers, told us: “People always think I’m on drugs — I’ve come off stage before and people have said: ‘Wow, how much blow did you have to do to get through that?’ And I’m like, ‘None.’ Because my eyes are really poppy, they think I’m rolling on ecstasy all the time!” Jake and co.’s effervescence helped them score a total of four top 10 studio albums in the UK. “I don’t know [what ‘Laura’ is about,]” added Shears of…

SET THE TONE After a successful inaugural collection, Uniqlo have teamed up once more with Marni to create a vibrant range inspired by the kaleidoscopic 60s. Reflecting on the line, Francesco Risso, Marni’s creative director, said: “I wanted to investigate the aesthetic perception of the 60s, flirting with cliches.” As a result, you’ll find the Marni aesthetic in patterns on Uniqlo’s impeccably designed LifeWear, as well as psychedelic prints and colour-block designs on HEATTECH outerwear. The tonal palette means you can mix and match your pieces and really get your 60s groove on. Available from 1 December. uniqlo.com/marni LIGHT MY FIRE Curators of fine homoerotic male imagery, BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! proudly present their debut candle, teasingly entitled BUM, by Timothy Han/Edition. Meticulously crafted, its fragrance has wild top notes of aromatic white florals that…

May 2000 Eminem’s early music is absolutely littered with homophobic content. The most extreme example is on ‘Criminal’, from The Marshall Mathers LP. In one part, he reels off a string of offensive terms for LGBTQ+ people, before ending with “hate fags? The answer’s ‘yes.’” Disgusting. February 2001 Elton John performs monster hit ‘Stan’ — the expression comes from this song — with Eminem at the 43rd Grammy Awards. The pair even join hands, forging a lasting friendship. GLAAD — then known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation — call the duet “hurtful” and “embarrassing”, to which Elton responds: “I’d rather tear down walls between people than build them up.” December 2004 Em gives Elts a diamond-encrusted sex toy as a gift to mark the Rocket Man’s civil partnership to David Furnish. For…

Since I read Tom Rasmussen’s excellent book, First Comes Love, LGBTQ+ relationships have been on my mind. In the book, they question the origins of marriage from a queer perspective, and suggest replacing ‘love is love’ with ‘Give us our fucking rights, you fucking fucks.’ ‘Love is love’ doesn’t make sense. As Bobby says in Bros: “It’s just something we told straight people so they’d like us.” Our love has never been the same as straight love. Our love held us together in the HIV and Aids epidemic when lesbians and allies cared for gay and bi men and trans people as they died. Our love exists in the kindness of charities like elop, who offer mental health support for LGBTQ+ people, and in Rainbow Migration, who work to keep queer refugees…