Table of contents for March/April 2024 in OUT

The special California edition of Crotch has Sam Smith to thank for its existence. Frank Strachan, the magazine’s editor in chief, is a London-based stylist and creative director who was touring with the “Unholy” singer through the West Coast last year when inspiration struck. (Others among Strachan’s creative collaborators include Kylie Minogue and the Pet Shop Boys.) While on tour, Strachan contacted the photographer and Crotch collaborator Ramon Christian, arranging for him to follow Smith’s bus from San Francisco to Los Angeles — with stops in Big Bear and San Diego — and take pictures of beautiful men along the way. It was a homecoming in a sense. Crotch, which published 10 issues before this special, was born in L.A. several years ago as a men’s underwear and swimwear magazine…

When Carlos Munez came out to his wife Ella as a trans man, the future of their family was his biggest concern. “At the start of my medical transition, I made the decision to not keep my eggs,” he says. The couple have been together since they were teenagers; now both 31, they’ve had two children using donor sperm and hope to have more in the future. For Munez and his wife, who live in Cheshire in northwest England, gaps in National Health Service policies for transgender patients led to delays and the need for additional petitioning. The couple estimates they’ve spent around £50,000 to conceive their two children, debt they’re still paying off since starting their journey over five years ago. “For some transgender people, keeping a job can…

We’re Here, HBO’s Emmy-winning series about drag performers traveling around America, is one of the most important shows on TV now for LGBTQ+ visibility. It debuted in 2020, and since then, drag has emerged as a divisive political issue, with the far right demonizing and even banning queens and kings from public performances. This season features a new cast: Sasha Velour, Priyanka, Jaida Essence Hall, and Latrice Royale. But its mission of creating a platform to spread queer love and hope remains the same. Below, We’re Here’s co-creator and executive producer, Johnnie Ingram (an Out100 honoree, along with his husband, We’re Here co-creator Stephen Warren), talks about the show’s essential mission and new season in his Hollywood Hills home. The big news this season is that we have a new…

photographer ANTHONY BARRIOS @anthony__giovanni photographer’s assistant JORDAN FRAME @_jordanframe photographer’s assistant ANDREW BARRIOS @andrewbarrios1 stylist EDWIN ORTEGA @edwin.j.ortega stylist assistant KAREN VELIZ groomer for Satya and Mark JOSÉ FIGUEROA @josefigz groomer for Joel and Daniel TRACY RAFFELSON @tracyraffelsonmakeup videographer ROBERT MARRERO @itsrobertmarrero location COURTHOUSE SQUARE, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS BACK LOT @unistudios All TV shows — HACKS, LOOT, CHICAGO FIRE, and SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF — are produced by Universal Studio Group. Interviews are condensed. JOEL KIM BOOSTER Apple TV+’s Loot / Nicholas @ihatejoelkim Congratulations on the Emmy nomination for Fire Island. How did it feel to be there — and to kiss your boyfriend on the red carpet? It was so surreal being at the Emmys. I have been watching the Emmys since I was a little boy. Like the better part…

FOR OVER HALF a century, The Advocate has remained dedicated to bringing the latest news and stories to our community to help keep each other safe, inspired, and informed. As the decades have gone by, we’ve evolved alongside the LGBTQ+ movement and the world at large. This special Entertainment Issue also marks an exciting change in our history — the launch of our new Out|The Advocate flipbook! Now you can read all the latest exclusive content from both brands in one publication. (Read equalpride CEO Mark Berryhill’s note on this page for more details.) We couldn’t be more excited about the two queer icons gracing our spring covers. On The Advocate side, we catch up with effervescent showman Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters fame, who chats with us about his…

Hate crimes have been going up across the board, but a new FBI report is shining a light on a setting that’s seen a particularly alarming rise in violence in recent years — schools and college campuses. The Federal Bureau of Investigation findings, released in January, show that elementary, secondary, and university campuses accounted for 10 percent of all hate crimes documented in 2022. They were also the third most common site of reported incidents between 2018 and 2022, after homes and roads. In the same period, the most common victims of hate crime offenses at schools were Black students. The second most common targets were Jewish students, followed by LGBTQ+ students as the third most-victimized group. There were 700 offenses in 2018, compared to 1,336 in 2022. The most…

WHEN MUSHER APAYAUQ (pictured above) competed in the 2022 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race through Alaska, it was an epic journey both physical and emotional. Apayauq had recently come out, becoming the first and only openly trans person to compete in the race; she proudly and bravely flew a trans flag from her sled. Apayauq’s breathtaking quest, both across the frozen tundra and through ignorance and self-doubt, is chronicled in the short doc, Apayauq, directed by award-winning filmmaker Zeppelin Zeerip and executive produced by punk rocker Laura Jane Grace and Princess Daazhraii Johnson. “I wanted to make something for my four-year-old self, who said she’d be a girl when she grew up and nobody believed her,” says Apayauq, who shared more thoughts on her achievement and identity. In the film,…

NASHVILLE-BASED MUSICIAN MORGAN Isaac Karr, better known as Morgxn, is best known for his viral duet “Wonder” with Sara Bareilles and his distinctive vocals on two Tiësto tracks. With soaring hooks, alt-pop production, provocative lyrics, and powerful vocals, his new album, Beacon, confidently says that Morgxn is a voice in indie music you need to pay attention to. The album was recorded in Tennessee, after Morgxn decided to return home after living in L.A. for a few years. The title track was even recorded on his childhood piano. For him, recording in his home state, where queer and trans rights are on the line, was an important statement. Why do you feel it’s important for queer artists from places like Tennessee to be putting out music right now? I won’t…

These words resonated with me. Scrolling through social media nowadays can indeed feel like a heartless deluge of AI and algorithms. Where is the authenticity, the realness in a world increasingly dominated by the artificial? In the face of this crisis, it is with so much joy that Out welcomes the heart of LGBTQ+ media, The Advocate, in this new flipbook. During an election year in particular, it is so important for queer voices to be heard, a mission that The Advocate has been bringing to readers for over 50 years. After all, a heart has two halves, and this marriage of the political and cultural will create a louder voice for change and a brighter light in the darkness, which we hope illuminates the topics near and dear to…

“LIKE TRUMP SAYS ALL THE TIME, ‘I AM YOUR WARRIOR’ — BUT WHAT’S MOST INTERESTING FOR ME, AND I SAY THIS IN THE BOOK, THEY PRETEND TO BE FIGHTING AGAINST THE MAN, TO BE OF THE PEOPLE — BUT THEY ARE THE MAN, THESE RICH PEOPLE ARE ALL THE MAN.” Kara Swisher doesn’t like all the things lesbians are allegedly supposed to like — that’s if you listen to all the stereotypes. She loves a nice hotel (like the luxurious Aman chain), and she appreciates fashionable apparel. But really, she just laughs at the tropes anyway. And that’s the Swisher I spent time with: droll, thoughtful, frabjous, straightforward, and self-reflecting, all in real time. Throughout her career, the out media maven didn’t need a newsy item to be in the…

Emmy winner Jim Parsons was a freshman in college when he was introduced to playwright Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz. In that play, a sister imagines the European odyssey she’d have made with her terminally ill brother, Carl, as she keeps vigil at his hospital bedside. The piece was, in part, the playwright’s love letter to her brother, Carl Vogel, who died of complications from AIDS in 1988. In the dedication she wrote, “To the memory of Carl — because I cannot sew,” a nod to the panels of fabric people created for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in honor of loved ones they lost. “There’s a magic about [The Baltimore Waltz]. It’s kind of a fairy tale in the way it lays out,” says Parsons. “[I] was so taken with…

WHEN I FOUND MY TRUE TRIBE, WHAT WE HAD IN COMMON WAS THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX. WE WERE BOHEMIANS WHO RECOGNIZED THAT THE EMPEROR WASN’T WEARING ANY CLOTHES. OUR CREED WAS ‘DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE SUPERFICIAL, GET TO THE REALNESS.’ RuPaul is the world’s most famous drag queen, with a reality competition queendom beloved by millions of viewers internationally. But his first and most important audience, as he reminds himself during his dressing-room rituals, was a party of one. “My mother loved it every time I performed for her,” RuPaul writes in his new memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings, which recounted how his first stage was in his childhood living room with impersonations of Tina Turner and Carol Burnett. “When I go onstage now, I remind myself, like…

FIRE ISLAND’S FLAME IS LIT THE BEST OF KEY WEST FROM SWIMMING TO SLAYING ISLAND ADVENTURES The Channel Islands Natural wonders and a glimpse of pre-colonial Southern California await BY DONALD PADGETT THE CHANNEL ISLANDS National Park, off the coast of Southern California, is composed of five islands – Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, and Santa Rosa. It’s the least visited of the California national parks, but its isolation has preserved it as an example of life before the arrival of European settlers. Archeological evidence of Indigenous human settlement goes back over 13,000 years on Santa Rosa Island, although most island settlements date from up to 10,000 years ago. The first encounter with Europeans took place in 1542 when the Spaniard Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo visited the island chain…

SUIT SHORTS (OR NO SHORTS AT ALL) If you don’t know me by now, I am the first supporter of slipping on a pair of short-shorts, if the weather permits. Well, it seems like the fashion gods are pushing this notion well into fall/winter! Marine Serre and Louis Vuitton showed baggier shorts at or below the knee, but brands like Dior, J.W. Anderson, and Louis-Gabriel Nouchi dared to show thighs! There were also some looks with no shorts at all at Loewe, GmBH, and J.W. Anderson. FEATHERED FRINGE AND FABULOUS FUR Although a common staple in many a gay man’s wardrobe (through different variations), the world of feathers, fringe, and fur has hit the menswear mainstream in full force this season. Louis Vuitton took Paris on a wild western ride,…

What’s a key ingredient to hosting Top Chef in Wisconsin? A love of dairy. “I started thinking about all the cheese and I was like, ‘I think they’re all my favorite,’” Kristen Kish smiles. “I don’t love super stinky cheeses, but…there’s really a cheese for every application that you could possibly want. So I won’t turn down a cheese.” Kish replaces Padma Lakshmi as the first new host of Top Chef in 19 seasons. This year, the beloved Bravo cooking show takes place in the unique (and curd-loving) culinary scene of Wisconsin. But Kish is far from being new to the show. In 2012 the Korean-born chef became the second woman ever to take home the Top title, winning season 10 in Seattle. But hosting the reality competition is an…

When Willy Chavarria was a child in California’s Central Valley, he would ask his mother to buy him address books from the dollar store. Afterward, “I would draw dresses in them, because I thought they were ‘a dress’ books,” he recalls with a smile. The drawings reflected an early fascination with clothes as a means of expression and identity. “I was just really obsessed with the way people would dress to define themselves, to show themselves aligning with a certain group or a certain culture,” he reflects. Those dollar investments paid off. Today, Chavarria is a star of the fashion world. In 2023 he was named CFDA’s American Menswear Designer of the Year, a top honor in the industry. (In addition to founding his eponymous label, Chavarria is the senior…

Self-care has come full circle. Decades ago, the majority of our bathroom cabinet was stocked by the five-and-dime or drugstore. As fragrance and grooming brands became more sophisticated, we sought department store excellence in our skin care outcomes. These days, most organics and scientific branding usually has big pharma behind it. Which takes us right back to the pharmacy and drugstore. And you know what? Everything we need to get the job done is right there. I shopped the largest national drugstore chains and came up with very affordable solutions that rival some of the most expensive brands right now.…

Model and adult content creator Kyle Krieger announced on social media in December that he’d be donating money earned from his OnlyFans page to AIDS/LifeCycle 2024, as well as participating in the arduous 7-day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The annual fundraising event is coproduced by San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “Raising money for AIDS LifeCycle 2024 — EVERY dollar spent on my Only Fans from December 20 to Jan 1 will be donated to the charity. My goal is $50,000 in 11 days!” Krieger wrote on his Instagram. “This includes every subscription and every purchase on my page.” As of press time, Krieger had already raised over $51,000 and continues to work toward a total goal of $100,000. He’s currently…

EVEN THOUGH QUEER people are often known to be creative and ahead of the curve, they’ve been blocked from positions of power in Hollywood since the dawn of the film and television industries. Studio and network reticence — and even the public’s disdain — towards gay, bi, and trans actors, musicians, and executives can be blamed for the pink ceiling. While the closet remains a force in the entertainment industry, its power is waning. Not only are more openly LGBTQ+ celebrities and behind-the-camera talent creating content than ever before, many bring their experiences as part of a marginalized community to their work. DAN LEVY After a brief stint as a host at MTV Canada, Daniel Joseph Levy first achieved international attention and critical acclaim for his role as David Rose…