OUT July/August 2022

There is a photograph that my partner loves to show others at parties. It’s from March 2011, when we began dating. In it, we’re fresh-faced and smiling, leaning close to one another in a brightly lit art gallery. My hair was short (it’s long now). It looks like us, but different versions of us. “Babiesff” is one typical response to the image. And indeed, we look younger, but also new, if that makes sense. We took another photograph on our anniversary in 2020. We’re seated a few feet from one another at Hunters in Palm Springs, California, on a trip we had planned for the occasion. “Social distancing,” read the caption on social media — a not-so-great joke about the then-new health recommendations tied to the growing pandemic. By the next…

To understand Out and its legacy today, you have to understand LGBTQ+ media history. In professor Rodger Streitmatter’s 1995 book Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America, he wrote that our earliest queer publications (including The Advocate), were “written and edited by the same women and men who organized and marched in the picket lines” and “those publications of the mid-1960s articulated the political philosophy that fueled the new defiance. The publications of the era directed this dramatic change from conforming to the dictates of society to building a national gay community with values often in conflict with those of heterosexual America — and proudly so.” As our world went from the “g ay” community to one that reflects the real diversity of the LGBTQ+ world (what…

Diesel and the Tom of Finland Foundation have joined forces in creating artful apparel. The clothing company, known for its designer jeans, has released a new capsule collection emblazoned with the work and signature of the famed Finnish artist, whose homoerotic drawings have influenced queer culture for decades. The capsule collection includes underwear, jackets, tote bags, shirts, socks, and accessories. It also showcases the work of other queer artists influenced by Tom, such as Florian Hetz, Silvia Prada, Palanca, Tank, Heather Benjamin, Peter Berlin, and Michael Kirwan. Additionally, as part of the collaboration, over 70 LGBTQ+ artists from the ToF archive were featured in an “AllTogether” exhibition staged internationally throughout Pride Month. These pieces, co-curated with the Community art collective, are usually shown at the Tom of Finland House in Los Angeles. In the following…

In kink, I’m a panty fag. When I bottom, I like rough, degrading sex while wearing lacy, feminine lingerie. I still feel a twinge of something negative — embarrassment, shame — when I tell people this. I use these words intentionally — “panties” and “faggot” — because they are erotically charged words for me, but both elicit strong reactions in queer men, each for different reasons. I won’t go into the debate over “faggot” — a word containing such cultural weight it needs space to unpack that I don’t have here (though I will in my next book). This article is about panties: Are cisgender men allowed to fetishize women’s underwear when it’s used as a marker of subservience? I think the answer is: Yes, absolutely. I love my fetishes, and my…

Facial brightening and lightening of dark spots have been a trending hot topic that produces billions in consumer sales. While this phenomenon isn’t particularly new, science and technology have effectively caught up to this ageold dilemma. Masks and “maskne” (acne caused by masks) have made “un-spotting” a year-round necessity, and the problem is serious enough that it has left many not leaving the house for days — me very much included. This quest for clear, unmarked skin has also been wrongfully confused with skin “bleaching,” which generally brings thoughts of an all-over, head-to-toe skin pigment lightening. Rock on if this is you. Today we’re focusing on hyperpigmentation, or dark spots often caused from erupted pimples or shaving over them, ingrown hairs, razor nicks, and menstrual cycles, coupled with blue light (devices’…

FROM GAY SEX SCENES TO PARENTHOOD, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS IS COMFORTABLE IN HIS SKIN AND KEEPING THE AUDIENCE GUESSING Neil Patrick Harris woke up at 6 a.m. the day of his conversation with Out. No, it wasn’t for the interview. The actor and his husband, David Burtka, roused their 11-year-old twins, Gideon and Harper, for a shower and breakfast. Then he drove them to school. On the call, Harris ticks off an expected afternoon itinerary that includes an appointment with the dermatologist, picking up the kids, a homework session, and packing for a family trip. “Our life — our singular life, David and my life — is dedicated almost uniformly to our family and being parents,” explains the 48-year-old actor, whose partner of 18 years has been sober for about five. “We…