Table of contents for November - December 2020 in OUT

The Tom Ford Ocean Plastic Timepiece ($995) is the first luxury watch with components made of 100 percent ocean plastic. With every watch sold, the equivalent of 35 bottles of plastic waste is removed from our oceans. It comes in three additional strap colors for spring in addition to the current black and is in recyclable packaging. “Our products are not meant to be thrown away; they are made to hold onto. Our products are of the highest quality and are produced in factories where the workers enjoy excellent working conditions, benefits, and holidays. Our products are timeless. Our customers hold on to our products for years and when they no longer want them, they go on to vintage resale shops where they often actually sell for more than their…

THOMAS BEATTIE Athlete & Entrepreneur “Since coming out I have had the opportunity to speak publicly on the importance of LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion in professional football and sports at-large,” says Thomas Beattie, who made history earlier this year when he became the second professional soccer player from the United Kingdom to come out. Since an injury forced him to retire, the brawny athlete has been living in Singapore, where he’s created companies that span sectors from health to mobile technology, real estate development to e-commerce. “This year has been one of the most significant of my life so far,” he says. “If we are ever going to tackle the issue of the closet in [soccer], we must address the institutional and systemic issues head on. I’m committed to being…

DASHAUN WESLEY King of Vogue It’s been a legendary year for Dashaun Wesley. After portraying Shadow Wintour on Pose, the “King of Vogue” burst onto the reality television runway as the master of ceremonies on HBO Max’s Legendary, a competition between eight voguing houses. Wesley is no stranger to this scene; he has danced and commentated in the New York City ballroom arena since he was a teenager. He’s since showed off his moves on America’s Best Dance Crew, BET’s Hit the Floor, and Magic Mike XXL. Wesley describes his job as being “one of the best pilots in the flyer’s seat for the style of voguing” who helps “guide passengers on the path of success with performances, education, and knowledge of the underground ballroom scene.” His most recent productions…

MATT BOMER Matt Bomer is a beloved and celebrated actor known for his roles in television, stage, and film. Starring in USA’s White Collar elevated him to the A-List and since then, he’s appeared in shows like Glee, American Horror Story, Doom Patrol, and The Sinner. He’s also had acclaimed roles in films like the Magic Mike franchise, Ryan Murphy’s The Normal Heart, and Netflix’s The Boys in the Band (he also starred in the 2018 Broadway revival of the latter). Bomer is a proud LGBTQ+ rights activist, and lives with his husband Simon Halls and their three children in Los Angeles. In this issue, he pays tribute to writer, activist, and icon Larry Kramer, who died in May (page 99). @mattbomer ALEXANDER CHEVES Alexander Cheves is a writer, editor,…

Out: This collection is so much fun. How did you begin the creative process? Christian Cowan: We first collaborated at the 2019 Video Music Awards and it was sick. Then when it came to Fashion Week, I wanted to do a collab with someone. It had to be Lil Nas, because I’m so inspired by so much that you do. You’re not only blending these music genres but you’re also a proud trailblazer, which is everything we live for. It felt very natural on my end, and then we just created. I felt like we didn’t hold back and we had you in pink glitter and just serving all the different fantasies. Lil Nas X: 100 [percent]. I feel like with the shoot, it wasn’t super held back. I hate when…

REGGIE GREER LGBTQ+ Engagement Director, Biden-Harris Campaign Before becoming the first Black disabled gay man in history to lead LGBTQ+ outreach for a presidential campaign, Reggie Greer already had an impressive résumé as deputy director of public engagement at the U.S. Department of Transportation during the Obama administration. These days he’s basking in gratitude after spending nearly all of 2002 speaking directly to queer voters about their concerns and hopes for the future. “The LGBTQ+ community is extremely diverse — spanning the complete spectrum of America’s social, racial, and cultural landscape,” he says. “It was important to me that our campaign lifted up every segment of our community, reflecting Vice President Biden’s desire that every American be seen, heard, and included.” Through the Out for Biden initiative, which is made…

ALEX THE ASTRONAUT Singer-Songwriter “I make songs about the things I see around me. It’s strange to me that it’s my work now, it was something I did when I was little to understand those things happening around me.” A rising Australian singer-songwriter, Alex the Astronaut’s music doesn’t fit into a specific genre as much as it creates vivid worlds for the listener to live in. “Music and story-telling is such a powerful way of connecting everyone and I’m really proud to be able to do it every day.” Their first album, The Theory of Absolutely Nothing, which debuted earlier this year, captures growing pains in song, as an angsty yet jubilant exploration of identity and self. But while they were celebrating the release, much of the world was thrust…

It’s impossible to overstate the importance and impact of Larry Kramer in the LGBTQ+ community. His years of tireless advocacy, organization, and, yes, acrimony, effected changes in our collective landscape that we are all the beneficiaries of today. From being one of the founding members of Gay Men’s Health Crisis to starting ACT UP, which has been responsible for the development and release of almost every lifesaving treatment for HIV/AIDS, Larry truly changed the world. Larry, who died in May, was a pioneer in our march toward equal rights, and I believe we would all be at a different place today if it weren’t for him. To see his fire on full display, I highly recommend the documentary How to Survive a Plague. It was through his art that what…

Ray-Ban goes queer with the latest edition of Ray-Ban Studios (their series of limited edition music-inspired product collaborations), this time with DJ Patrick Mason, who co-created the brand’s first custom made product. This reinvention of the State Street model taken from the Ray-Ban archives comes from Mason, the influential club kid, DJ, artist, and half of SRVD (the band inspired by New York’s vogue scene), who’s at the forefront of Berlin’s dance music, fashion, art, music, and LGBTQ+ scene. Inspired by “oblivion and the creation of the universe,” according to Mason (left), his design includes obsidian black upper and amber lower frame, lightly mirrored photochromatic lenses, magnetic balls at the temples (with an oversized link chain) and an egg-shaped packaging. This limited edition may be sold out by the time…

Photography by Luke Fontana @lukefontana Hair by Adrien Alcantar @adrianalcantar_ Styled by Max Cadillac @itsmaxcadillac It’s a typical Hollywood story. A bright-eyed young man from Rockford, Ill., makes it to Los Angeles with high hopes, big dreams, and the talent to take him all the way to the top. Not everyone can say they’ve had two huge blockbusters in a single summer, but if you know Joe Mantello’s backstory, you’ll know the actor and director is no overnight success. Mantello’s body of work in theater over the last two decades is nothing short of legendary. His award-winning performance as Louis Ironson in the original Broadway cast of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, a two-part play about HIV in 1980s New York City, is still revered and discussed in acting classes…

MICHAELA MENDELSOHN CEO, Pollo West Corp. Back in 1986, Michaela Mendelsohn founded Pollo West Corp., which now operates six fast-casual chicken restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Admittedly, 2020 has been a tough year, but “a focus on drive-through, takeout, and delivery helped us make a comeback,” she says. “We have also added patio dining to all of our stores, so customers have a safe way to dine out.” Mendelsohn, who was the first transgender board member for the Trevor Project, says her nonprofit work hasn’t seen the same kind of bounce. After recognizing an opportunity as a business owner to hire other trans people, she founded Trans Can Work to develop opportunities for prospective gender-diverse workers. But she acknowledges that now a “considerable amount of our time is spent…

PARIS BARCLAY Director and Producer In 2013, Paris Barclay became the first Black and the first gay president of the Directors Guild of America. Though he stepped down in 2017, his work toward creating a safer work environment and growing opportunities for artists of color has only expanded. Alongside director Steven Soderbergh, Barclay cochaired the “Return to Work” negotiations, in which major unions and producers determined a way to reopen film and TV production under new safety guidelines amid the pandemic. In short, he helped get Hollywood back to work. “I have two families: the one I have at home with my husband and sons, and the one I have at work with the cast and crew of Station 19,” he says of the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off that showcases two…

BRIGETTE LUNDY-PAINE Actor In November 2019, Atypical star Brigette Lundy-Paine made headlines when they came out as nonbinary on Instagram. In their life and career, Lundy-Paine has been a guiding light to LGBTQ+ young people. Their Atypical character, Casey, is a queer teen navigating coming out and young love. Thousands have lauded the positive impact of Casey’s relationship with classmate Izzie (Fivel Stewart) in the #CazzieNation hashtag. On the big screen, Lundy-Paine continues to break the mold in films like Bombshell, about sexual harassment at Fox News, and Bill & Ted Face the Music, the surprise hit of the socially distanced summer. As Billie, the daughter of Ted (Keanu Reeves), Lundy-Paine brought a “genderlessness” to the part that defied tropes while literally representing the next generation of Hollywood. This representation…

LEO ROCHA Journalist Leo Rocha, a reporter at KOMU TV in Columbia, Mo., gives voice to the voiceless, especially those whose experiences tend to be ignored, like queer BIPOC and those with HIV. Currently working on a documentary about the late MTV star and activist Pedro Zamora, the gay Colombian-American journalist has worked in local news, digital media, and print. “No matter where I go, it’s my personal goal to make sure marginalized people are properly represented both in newsrooms and in the content we produce,” he says, arguing that Gen Z journalists should break outdated traditions in the newsroom. “We don’t believe in the traditional notion of ‘objectivity,’ which inherently punishes journalists who belong to marginalized groups for speaking up against racism or homophobia. Every day, I wake up…

Monica Roberts 1962 - 2020 Ten years ago, the pervasive violence against transgender people was not an issue recognized outside LGBTQ+ circles. We can thank Monica Roberts for elevating that conversation. Before her death in October at age 58, the Houston-based activist-journalist tracked the grim milestones of anti-trans violence on her blog TransGriot. Launching in 2005, the website was an essential source for coverage of the lives — and sadly, the many deaths — of transgender people particularly trans women of color, who face shorter lifespans and much higher rates of violence. Roberts’s reporting pushed back against deadnaming and challenged erasure by law enforcement and the media alike. In addition to her groundbreaking, award-winning reporting, she cofounded the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition and organized Louisville’s Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference in 2005 and…

There are some scary truths about weaves and hair extensions, but nothing is scarier than being demonically possessed by them. That’s the major anchor in director Justin Simien’s latest horror comedy, Bad Hair, now streaming on Hulu. The film, set in 1989 is a long-overdue project that is an allegory about how false beauty standards placed on Black women can have a lasting effect. The campiness of Bad Hair is as delicious as its log line sounds. The film follows an ambitious young Black woman named Anna Bludso (played by Elle Lorraine), who, after being criticized for her hairstyle by Vanessa Williams’s character (Zora with the “good hair”), gets a weave in the hopes of succeeding in her job at Culture TV, an MTV-like channel. Laverne Cox plays Virgie, the…