Table of contents for January/February 2025 in OUT

“I’m in my 40s and sometimes date men who are in their 20s. When there’s a big income gap, I’m willing to foot the bill for both of us to do the things I enjoy and have a good time. But I can’t tell if he’s actually into me…or just into my money. How do I figure it out?” As we age, we discover how we prefer to spend our time and aspire to do those things more often. That’s how it is for me, at least; people will have to pry this Six Flags flash pass from my cold, dead hands, because if going to Magic Mountain means we’ll be waiting in lines all day, then I’m not going. A VIP ticket at twice the price is worth it…

I’ve been to Puerto Vallarta many times for vacations and events — and I thought I’d seen it all from this gay tourism paradise. But I’d never been greeted at the airport by a drag queen with a black car and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. This was my sparkling welcome from the Tryst Puerto Vallarta, a new resort in the Mexican city from the “CEO of Everything Gay,” Tristan Schukraft. A newly minted Out100 honoree, Schukraft had a busy 2024. In addition to buying The Abbey, the iconic West Hollywood gay bar, the entrepreneur is busy expanding his hospitality empire with a chain of Tryst Hotels in Fire Island; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and P.V. All set for official launch in 2025, these properties “invite you to be your…

LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people, are rightly traumatized by the 2024 presidential election results, as are many women, people of color, and anyone who cares about justice and equality. But it’s useful to remember that at other times we faced forces of oppression, we acted up and fought back. From the Mattachine Society to ACT UP to demonstrations for marriage equality, there has been LGBTQ+ resistance over the past century. In the 1920s, Henry Gerber of Chicago was one of the earliest activists, founding the Society for Human Rights to stand up for the queer population. He had been inspired by the work of German scientist Magnus Hirschfeld, who fought for equal rights for the community and ran a gender transition clinic. The Society for Human Rights quickly fell victim…

Christian Chávez, international musical sensation and LGBTQ+ advocate, started out on the Mexican telenovela Rebelde and skyrocketed to fame with the wildly successfully pop group RBD. Among other projects, he’s currently featured in the Disney+ series El Rey de los Machos. The 2023 RBD reunion tour was a global phenomenon that Chávez used as an opportunity to raise his voice artistically and personally. We recently had a chance to catch up with talented singer-songwriter and actor to learn more about his incredible personal journey as one of the few out gay performers in Mexico who has proudly celebrated his identity, entertained millions, and used his platform to advance LGBTQ+ issues. You’ve endured homophobia, discrimination, bad treatment by the media — and then emerged triumphantly in full pink glory during the…

The age-old topic of women seeking eternal youth (at any cost) inspired the 1992 camp classic Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as friends turned eternal rivals. Over 30 years later, Robert Zemeckis’s satirical comedy about those women taking a rejuvenating potion has become a hit Broadway musical directed and choreographed by Tony winner Christopher Gattelli (South Pacific, Newsies) and starring Megan Hilty (Smash) and Jennifer Simard (Company, Hello, Dolly!). Gattelli joined the production a year and a half before its big opening in New York City in November, which followed an earlier acclaimed run in Chicago. Though the musical is a romp packed with laughs, its themes are more timely than ever. The discourse over aging (and anti-aging) dominated 2024. In politics, President Biden stepped down…

During Malta Pride last September, I left the crowd with my new friend from Copenhagen to check out the only full-time gay bar in the country. Café Society is a chintzy dive covered in stickers and purple tinsel. The fact that it’s the only one is surprising — Malta is a gay destination. A small island 60 miles off the coast of Sicily, it’s the smallest nation in the European Union but has one of its densest populations. Known for its history, bright blue water, and year-round sun, Malta has a booming tourism industry, with most visitors coming from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany. But I wanted to see local Malta. Not the parade, but the place I’d go on weekends if I lived there. The bar…

The Advocate was overjoyed to be part of the Out100’s 30th anniversary celebration in December at the NeueHouse Hollywood in Los Angeles. The Out100 is a renowned annual list curated by our sister publication, Out magazine, that highlights some of the wonderful Artists, Disruptors, Educators, Innovators, Gamechangers, and Storytellers who’ve consistently used their platforms to create visibility and equality for the LGBTQ+ community throughout the year. Out100 honorees and other special VIPs socialized and danced the night away, with Wicked star Cynthia Erivo receiving Out100’s Icon of the Year award. The legendary Sheryl Lee Ralph of Abbott Elementary was honored by The Advocate as Advocate of the Year for her decades of allyship to the queer community and HIV causes. We were also very excited to have a few recent…

TIM BAGLEY IS a name that might not immediately ring a bell. But for those familiar with his extensive career, he is an irreplaceable figure in Hollywood’s history of queer representation in TV and film as an out gay actor going back decades. Now he’s weighing in on his game-changing career. “I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been just rolling up my sleeves and going about my business,” Bagley says. “I’ve been out since the beginning, and I always wanted someone to write about me, like anyone else would. But I just figured it wasn’t going to happen … I’ll just continue to do my job and be happy that I’m still a working actor after all these years.” For nearly 30 years, Bagley has been a consistent presence on…

It’s as important as ever these days to reflect on LGBTQ+ history so it can remind us of what we’ve already survived and how we can continue to thrive despite challenges. That said, sitting down to read up on queer history after a long day of work, traffic, and depressing news stories might not be the first thing on a to-do list. That’s where Homo History comes in. The debut book by multi-talented writer, performer, and comedian Aaron Twitchen is a fresh and funny look back on some of pivotal eras and events that helped shape queer culture and advance LGBTQ+ rights. Homo History, now available at Amazon, also celebrates many of the beloved heroes, icons, and divas who’ve inspired, entertained, and stood with the queer community. “I wanted to…

FORCE FOR GOOD Over 600 people gathered in October at the Miami Convention Center for the National LGBTQ+ Task Force Gala, an annual celebration that raisesd over $600,000 for the nonprofit’s vital work serving South Florida’s LGBTQ+ community. With the theme of Roots of Progress, Blooms of Hope, the Task Force honored Queer Eye’s Karamo with its 2024 National Leadership Award, and Jim Tyrrell and Roger Thomson with the 2024 Eddy McIntyre Community Service Award. THE NEW CREW NewFest, New York’s leading LGBTQ+ film festival and the country’s largest, screened 141 productions in October, included opening-night film A Nice Indian Boy and closing-night film Emilia Pérez. Other notable films were Bird, High Tide, Liza: A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story, Ponyboi, Layla, and Queens of Drama. There was even a…

In the new Las Vegas-set season of Netflix’s Queer Eye, the Fab Five walk into the home of a former showgirl, Paula. The scene is “sponsored by microplastics,” jokes Jonathan Van Ness, a nod to the now-seamstress’s materials spilling around her living room, including plastic flowers on the walls. Making over Paula’s home was the inaugural challenge for Jeremiah Brent, who stepped into the shoes of Bobby Berk following the design guru’s departure last season from the hit reality TV show, which seeks to improve the lives of its “hero” subjects. Through their initial meeting, Brent noted how the light of the retired Vegas entertainer had “dulled down a bit,” which was reflected in her environment. To bring back her sparkle, he worked to find the things that brought her…

talent ALAN CUMMING @alancummingreally model KIRILL KABACHENKO @kyrylo_k with Q MODEL MANAGEMENT @qmodels photographer ARNALDO ANAYA-LUCCA @arnaldoanaya with DE FACTO @defactoinc digital tech NORMAN NELSON @normannelsonphoto first assistant HANNAH MAYNARD @hannahemaynard stylist SAM SPECTOR @samspector first stylist assistant KATIE VAUGHAN @kvaughan1 second stylist assistant KATE MILLAR @katemillarr grooming MICHAEL MORENO @michaelmorenohair with THE ONLY AGENCY @theonly.agency videographer STUART SOX @sox_andthecity Alan Cumming wanted to channel Tom of Finland — the gay Finnish artist who began creating depictions of exaggerated masculinity amid the rise of Nazism in Europe — in his Out cover shoot. So a mustachioed model in full leather regalia posed on his hands and knees as Cumming placed his own foot on his back. It was a real-life display of the kinky power dynamics that crackle within the…

“At the top of the world during Midnight Sun” sounds like something I made up as if I were an emo poet. Yet I found myself this August on the Arctic Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard before boarding the MS Trollfjord. A life-altering trip organized by Hurtigruten Expeditions (www.hurtigruten.com) on the Svalbard Line South, this sojourn was not a queer trip, per se. But considering Norway’s progressive LGBTQ+ and gender politics, and that I flew 4,500 miles from Los Angeles to Longyearbyen in Svalbard where the sun never dipped below the horizon, I was struck with true awe and a delightful queerness in my out-of-time romantic surroundings. After a night near the Oslo airport, our group of eight flew to Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen in the Barents Sea, where…

MERE DAYS BEFORE the 2024 presidential election, we sent our year-end issue to print with hearts full of hope and anxieties running high. And with the results now known, we at The Advocate are just as devastated as you. While we cannot say we are shocked, to know that our nation will once again be at the mercy of Donald Trump is deeply troubling — even more troubling is the fact that this is what our neighbors and fellow citizens have chosen. There are countless disastrous policies threatening our LGBTQ+ community and the very concept of journalism itself, and this administration has the means to pass them that it didn’t eight years ago. But we at The Advocate are not going anywhere. We have brought you queer journalism since 1967.…

WHILE THE RECENT presidential election results were disappointing to most Democrats and members of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s important to note that several queer and trans politicians did win their races in 2024 and will represent our community in their respective roles. In addition to our cover star, Congresswoman Sarah McBride (check out our exclusive interview on page 10), meet 13 other newly elected LGBTQ+ government officials: Ritchie Torres When elected in 2020, Ritchie Torres became the first out LGBTQ+ Afro-Latine person elected to Congress. As the incumbent U.S. representative for New York’s 15th Congressional District, Torres is keeping his role after winning big in the 2024 election. @repritchie Tammy Baldwin When Tammy Baldwin was first elected in 2012, she made history as the first out LGBTQ+ U.S. senator of…

Trusting that they know who they are, standing up for them, and not supporting anti-LGBTQ+ politicians are among the best ways to support transgender and nonbinary youth, says a recent research brief from the Trevor Project. And it’s based on information from the young people themselves. The brief uses data from the 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People. “With more knowledge about supportive actions and their possible impacts, TGNB youth can be better cared for by parents, caregivers, friends, and community,” the brief says. This support can also help decrease suicide risk, it notes. When asked how people in their lives can best show support, the top 10 ways reported by respondents were: • Trusting that I know who I am — 92%• Standing…

THE ADVOCATE SAVES lives. I know because it saved mine. In 2016, I began my transition during a time when it felt like the world was turning against people like me. As a Black trans woman, I was bombarded daily with alarming stories: heart-wrenching news of violence, harassment, bans, and political attacks. Every step of my journey felt overshadowed by these threats. It was a time when hope felt like a distant luxury and fear a constant companion. But then, I found a light. The Advocate became my guide. Since 1967, The Advocate has stood as our nation’s most trusted source for LGBTQ+ news. Through the Stonewall riots, the HIV crisis, the fight for marriage equality, and now the ongoing battle for trans rights, The Advocate has been there. A…