Indice dei contenuti per August 2019 in OUT

Aug. 24, 1945 Activist Marsha P. Johnson is born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. August 1966 Three years before the Stonewall riots, a group riots at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco. Aug. 24, 1970 A front-page story in The New York Times reports on the growth of the Gay Liberation Movement. Aug. 27, 1980 The B-52’s release their second studio album Wild Planet. Aug. 11, 1981 Larry Kramer convenes the first meeting of what will become the Gay Men’s Health Crisis at his apartment in Manhattan. Aug. 21, 1983 Jerry Herman’s La Cage aux Folles opens on Broadway at the Palace Theater. Aug. 28, 1988 “Fast Car,” the lead single from Tracy Chapman’s self-titled album, peaks at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. August 1993 Vanity Fair’s August cover features…

“YOU HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT THIS,” my writer friend said over our second round of happy hour prosecco. I had employed her to slosh me up as nervous preparation for my evening’s main activity: I was going to an artist’s house where he was going to draw me. Naked. She pitched me my own story angle: Getting drawn nude as an act of introspective meditation. Getting drawn nude, as self-care? This was a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around, seeing as the anticipation of this whole experience left me feeling anything but “self-care.” Like many queer people, I tend to hate my body (a fact I am not proud of). With the muscle-less build of a prepubescent seventh-grader, I fear being naked outside of shower time. Going…

ON AN UNASSUMING TUESDAY AT THE OUT OFFICES, I found myself paging through old issues of the magazine as I procrastinated writing about whatever gender-reveal explosion or gay-baiting straight actor was on my docket for the day. As I browsed the catalog, a 2008 cover featuring Tilda Swinton’s statuesque figure caught my attention. “TRANSGRESSIVE,” read the cover line, which claimed that the celebrated actress was “PUSHING BOUNDARIES” and “BLENDING GENDERS.” Sure, I thought to myself, Tilda has short hair and wears a lot of suits, and she’s definitely one of Hollywood’s great androgynous icons. But then I noticed that another coverline proclaimed this volume to be the “Transgender Issue.” And as far as I know, Swinton is cisgender. With a creeping feeling of dread, I paged through it, beginning to…

Dear Reader, If you’re holding a copy of this magazine in your hands, I hope it finds you in the throes of summer—the sun’s rays tickling your skin, the pink sands of a beach massaging your toes, and sweat seductively swimming down your back. Summer is, for most of us, a beautiful thing—a time when sex, romance, and carefree attitudes get to revisit our bodies. However, for others, the season exacerbates our anxieties: Where do we fit in among the sea of Speedo-clad Instagays? How will we be received or gawked at when our shirts come off? And what the hell is a “beach body,” anyway? For our Body Issue, we tried to capture these highs and lows of queer physicality. Our very own Coco Romack takes a trip to…

Loving your body is optional. You can be in any sort of relationship with your body, and it’s important to acknowledge that, rather than constantly feeling forced to love it or guilty if you don’t. When it comes to the body positivity movement, why do we need to be positive with ourselves? People are not positive with me about my body, that’s for sure. The movement can be such a Band-Aid, especially for anybody who doesn’t fit a white supremacist idea of beauty. For them, if they were to ever say, “I don’t like myself,” folks respond, “Well, you should be positive about yourself.” But that erases the experiences of historically oppressed people. When that mentality co-opts the movement, we leave behind Black and brown fat femmes, people with disabilities,…

AS A 30-YEAR-OLD WOMAN, I CAN DO A LOT OF THINGS. I can vote. I can drink. I can drop hundreds of dollars on therapy to help me work through my deeply self-destructive attachment style and still let men treat me like shit. But there’s one thing I recently learned that I can’t do—put a naked woman on the internet. Let me rewind a bit. It was the last week of April, and I was prepping a print article, “Caught in Their Gaze,” for publication on our site. It was a profile of Río Sofia, a trans woman whose multidisciplinary nude self-portraiture explores the coercive side of gender. Far from the empowerment narratives we’re used to seeing in this post-“Transgender Tipping Point” age of visibility, the figures in her photographs—all…

ASHLEY R.T. YERGENS, DANCE ARTIST “I don’t know where I would be without my foam roller. I don’t always feel comfortable working with a massage therapist, and if I got a massage every time I needed it, then I would be in more debt than I already am. So, I often turn to my foam roller for some myofascial release. It’s an intense way of breaking up and then realigning sore muscles.” GEENA ROCERO, MODEL “When I’m feeling down, I dance. I lean more into uninhibited dancing to remind myself of the light that I have in me. And I think I might have found my summer song; I’m always on the lookout for a catchy beat and feel-good music to dance to, and the song, ‘Wildside’ by Keo Nozari…

MAGNOLIA POLARIS MULTIPLE FAITHS My spirituality is so individual that I don’t expect anyone to really understand it. I grew up half-Hindu and half-Catholic. When my father was 17, he read The Autobiography of a Yogi and decided he wanted to raise his kids in a faith different from traditional Chrisitianity. My mother was raised Catholic. I was essentially praying to the Virgin Mary, and to Krishna, but I had the ability to navigate through my own spirituality. At 10 years old, I discovered Wicca. My dad was cool, but my mom freaked out. I later found the Self-Realization Fellowship, a religion often called “The Church of All Churches.” It helps you feel peace with whatever you’re going through. My spiritual practices are a part of the way I express my…

IN A WAY, BUTTS ARE INHERENTLY QUEER—a functional body part that’s been otherized by mainstream culture for being reclaimed for pleasure. After all, there’s no place in the body that our people have marked their territory on the way we have with the ass. We finger, fuck, feast, and fist, so we have a heightened awareness of the type of care our derrières require. Still, there’s no shortage of myth for us to unpack in an effort to be the best bottoms, terrific tops, and valuable versatiles we can be. So, being kinder and more understanding when it comes to anal sex, and taking care of ourselves, is not only vital, it’s on brand. From painting and douching to STIs and specialized rim chairs, let’s dive deep into booty knowledge…

Here’s my problem. When I’m with a guy, as soon as my clothes come off, I get very self-conscious about what he’s thinking when he sees my naked body, and I lose my erection due to insecurity. One time was especially embarrassing: I was about to put it in and it went soft. I spent the better part of a few minutes trying to play with it to get it back up to no avail. This lack of security has kept me from dating over the last few years, and I haven’t even attempted sex in about five years. Papi, how do I love my body instead of feeling insecure over it? Signed, Body Shameful Hey there, BS! So I’m going to come right out and say: I don’t think…

SILICONE Silicone cages aren’t the most secure, but they can be comfortable. “If you’re incredibly active or just experimenting in temporary denial, this is an affordable route,” Calin says. Keep in mind that silicone retains moisture, causing hygiene issues, so it’s not ideal for more than a day or two. OXBALLS Cock Lock, $48. shop.oxballs.com METAL If you aren’t comfortable with a belt, a metal cage is likely the way to go for those committed to the lifestyle. “Metal is often seen as the end-all of chastity.” Though it would have to be removed for airport security lines, this option generally proves to be more secure and even more hygienic than others. Mature Metal Jail Bird, from $320. maturemetal.com PLASTIC Plastic cages are quite popular and a good segue into…

MARS HOBRECKER SOMEWHERE Though his first tattoo doesn’t hold much significance, the act of it was world-changing for self-taught artist and Somewhere co-founder Mars Hobrecker. “Being raised as a young woman makes it hard to feel like your body is yours,” he says, noting that he grew up attending an all-girls Catholic school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the strict dress code demanded a heavily gendered uniform. “Getting tattooed when I turned 18 was the first time in my life I felt able to make a conscious decision for my own body.” Starting out by hand-poking India ink with sewing needles onto friends, his process has always been an intimate ritual of collaboration and mutual care. Today, he draws inspiration from kitschy Americana, and his woodcut-style illustrations depict everything from…

IT IS THE FIRST DAY SHOOTING MY TELEVISION SHOW, Special, and I am shirtless, making out with a very handsome and fit actor, Jason Michael Snow. Prior to this, I’d avoided most occasions to be shirtless in public—pool parties are not my friend, especially those that are 95% donut floaties and homosexual—but somehow, here I am, half-naked with my stomach rolls and scars while a crew of 50 strangers huddle around me. Actually, “somehow” is not accurate. I know how I got here. I wrote the scene. I did this to myself. But why? I asked myself that question many times during the filming of Special. I asked it while standing naked in my trailer as a team of makeup artists applied concealer to my ass and back zits. I…

Nearly 125 years ago, the Paris-based brand Berluti was established as a premier shoemaker. In January, newly minted creative director Kris Van Assche looked back to that heritage for his debut collection for the brand. “If my previous work always started with a black suit, I can definitely say that here it starts with the shoes,” he told reporters. In practice, this means everything—down to the brand’s new range of sunglasses—looks back to footwear. This season’s shades encapsulate six different models that riff off Berluti’s signature patina, a unique process for coloring leather. Van Assche reimagines that handiwork for eyewear, with red, yellow, blue, and green hues now saturating the lenses themselves. The frames harken back to the dye-splattered marble that served as workspaces for craftsmen in Berluti factories. Needless…