2019-05-01 Attitude Magazine.pdf

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This issue May 2019

Travel 89 JUST THE TICKET The latest travel tips and news

90 TRAVEL PREDICTIONS

Remember, in space, no one can hear even the gays scream 98 THREE OF THE BEST Hotels for stargazers 100 HOT HOTEL Eden Bleu, Seychelles

Agenda 13 14 20 22 23 24 26 28 29 30 32

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S LETTER ATTITUDE LOVES What we’re thirsty for this month THE BIG ISSUE Activism in the future RISING STAR “Cyborg” singer ANTIBOY THE RULES For growing old disgracefully BIG IN A WIG Anna Phylactic COLUMNIST — AMROU AL-KADHI Holding on to heritage CULTURE CLUB Attitude at 25 (yes, us!) COLUMNIST — ANTHONY GILET Future of dating CARS HOMES

Active p36

The latest fitness news and tech

p106

106 READY FOR TAKE OFF

Drag Race hunk and aerospace engineer Bryce Eilenberg 110 GROOMING Jellyfish collagen 112 MATT LISTER Fitness in focus 114 A PROBLEM SHARED

Social 118 REAL LIFE 120 122

Features 36 COLTON HAYNES 48 50 58 60 68 72 78 84

The actor opens up about drugs, alcohol addiction and his divorce AVAN JOGIA Why the Now Apocalypse star is going with the flow BEN HUNTE Breaking news with the BBC’s first LGBT correspondent IAN ALEXANDER On how The OA is bucking trends for trans actors HAMED SINNO Mashrou’ Leila’s front man rocks out about gay rights and more QUEER MUSUEM Preserving our rich queer history NEXT GEN Today’s biggest, boldest, bad-arse queer voices FUTURE (IM)PERFECT Crystal ball ready, we make our predictions for the next 25 years BUSINESS PROFILE Google’s Pedro Pino

104 ACTIVATE

p50 p60

124 126 127 129 133

How former trainee priest Owen O’Kane found his true calling LIFE LESSON American Dad!’s Roger the Alien REAL BODIES Drag star Timothie James and pal Tom Taylor size up the queer scene WORD ON THE STREET TABLE FOR TWO BUDDY BRILLIANT REVIEWS Books by Uli Lenart, films by Guy Lodge, music by James Barr HOMO FOMO Festivals, theatre, events and more

Style 136 WARDROBE Staying in

137 WATCH 138 LIGHT SPEED Shimmer and shine

148 CRUSH

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150 FABULOUS BAKER BOY Swimmer Mark Foster stands tall with new Ted Baker clothing line 154 COOL FOR THE SUMMER Suits you, sir 162 FAVOURITE THINGS GQ Style editor Luke Day

MAY 2019

9

Meet the team

Francisco Gomez de Villaboa, photographer

OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU’VE MET, WHO HAS THE MOST ATTITUDE?

My mum is a tornado! She is from Cadiz, Andalucia, where we are known for our cheek and sass, and throw shade constantly. I once took an exboyfriend home and she spanked his butt. “It was so hard it hit me back,” she said. She gets as hyperactive as I do and describes herself as “quality.” Definitely a character!

Cliff Joannou, editor in chief I nominate my mum. Purely ‘cos the guilt she’d serve if I didn’t would eat away at me for ever. Mum stayed strong despite what life has thrown at her, as when dad died unexpectedly. She will go out of her way to help others, but stay outta her way when she’s pissed off. Her balls are bigger than her boobs, and she has an ample bosom. So that’s saying something

Is there a more loaded question? My mum, for sure. My fiancé Tom — hell, yeah. But probably Star Trek’s original Mr Sulu, George Takei (above, right). The attitude he has is channelled with such positivity, despite his own country interning him during WWII, when he was a small boy, because he “looked like one of the people who bombed Pearl Harbor.” To live through that and emerge without hate is surely the greatest attitude of all

Fashion and grooming director Joseph Kocharian [email protected] Junior fashion editor Nick Byam [email protected] Web editor Will Stroude [email protected] Web editor Steve Brown [email protected]

Head of partnerships Mike Buckley [email protected] Commercial manager Andy Goddard [email protected] 020 3598 6741 Account manager Joanna Hill [email protected] 01342 872041 Account manager Sean Lineker [email protected] 020 3598 6743 Managing director Darren Styles. OBE Commercial director Craig Lewis Operations director Nigel Russell Events manager Lesley Harris Production executive Tom Doyle

Attitude, The Cowshed, Ladycross Farm, Hollow Lane, Dormansland, Surrey RH7 6PB [email protected]

Interns Josefina Martin // Indigo Taylor

attitude.co.uk

10

MAY 2019

@attitude.co.uk

ALL HAIL, GRACE JONES The OG diva ruled the TOMMYXZENDAYA show runway, and headlines NYC and Brighton Prides

KIM WOODBURN

DOWN

Art director Gary Simons [email protected] Designer Laurène Pineau [email protected]

UPULENCE! “You… earn… everything!” Mercedes Iman Diamond gives Drag Race S11 its first meme moment

UP & WHAT WE’RE ROCKING AND BLOCKING

P R I N T / O N LINE / TAB LET / M OBILE

Travel editor/staff photographer Markus Bidaux [email protected] Sports editor Mark McAdam [email protected] Editor at large Matthew Todd [email protected]

The Hottest Chris™ shows us how to bottom and we’re feeling things

The Queen of Clean finally joins Twitter to call everyone: “chickenlivered shits”

Darren Styles OBE, managing director

Editor in chief Cliff Joannou [email protected] Assistant editor Tim Heap [email protected] Features editor Tom Stichbury [email protected] Chief sub editor Hugh Sohn [email protected]

BECAUSE YOU’RE HEMSWORTH-IT

Subscriptions Enquiries [email protected] 01778 392005 Warners Subscription Department Freepost, PE211, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9BR Attitude is now available through the RNIB Newsagent service, which delivers the latest news, magazines and stories in a range of formats to people with sight loss. To subscribe to RNIB Newsagent, call the helpline on 0303 123 9999, or email them at [email protected]. rnib.org.uk

Copyright © Stream Publishing Ltd 2019 all rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. Unsolicited contributions must be accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope if they are to be returned. We cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs or for material lost or damaged in the post. Letters submitted to Attitude or its editors are assumed to be intended for publication in whole or in part. The mention or appearance or likeness of any person or organisation in articles or advertising in this publication is not to be taken as any indication of sexual, social or political orientation of such persons or organisations. Newstrade distribution by Intermedia Brand Marketing Ltd, Unit 6, The Enterprise Centre, Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9PE. Tel: 01293 312001. Published by Stream Publishing Ltd. Printed by Wyndeham Bicester

@attitudemag

@attitudemag

PLASTIC NOT FANTASTIC A whale washed up in the Philippines had eaten 40kg of plastic

NO OUTSIDERS? Prejudiced parents at Parkfield School stop students learning about LGBTQ equality

A NO-NO TO BO-JO Says spending police money on investigations into historical child sexual abuse is “spaffing money up the wall.” Awful man

TRANGENDER MILITARY BAN Trans men and women are due to be barred from serving in the US military from 12 April

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Editor in Chief ’s Letter

T

wenty-five years ago there was no equal age of consent, gay people were not allowed to serve in the military, and the law did not recognise our relationships. Section 28 prohibited the discussion of anything LGBTQ-related in schools. Trans people could not change their legal gender. Combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV was still years away. You could be fired by your employer for being gay, and you could be declined service in a hotel, restaurant, shop or any place in the service industry because of who you love. It’s been a tough journey for many, but we’ve come a long way. When Attitude published its first issue 25 years ago, it made quite a splash because of its new, um, attitude towards what it meant to be gay in a fast-changing world. The magazine was loud, brash and unapologetically proud of its sexuality in the face of a homophobic society. It embraced music, film, fashion and travel, and set the tone as the place for people in the public eye to speak to the community with issue four, in which Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant came out. But when anniversaries roll around, it’s too easy to reflect and pat yourself on the back over the things you once did. (The wonderful Juno Dawson does that for us, on p28.) For me, Attitude has always been about looking at where we as a community have come from and who we are today, so that we can envision the best possible future for all LGBTQ people. That means embracing “It’s always been change, whether you are a magazine brand or a proud queer person. To about where we stand still is to be left behind in a continuously evolving world. have come from That’s why we decided our anniversary issue would not be a retrospective of past successes. Our current position as the world’s biggest LGBTQ media as a community, brand is testament to that, and as such here’s a giant “THANK YOU” to every and who we are editor, writer, designer, stylist, photographer, sub-editor, sales person, intern today” and team member who contributed over the years to get us to where we are today. (OK, so that was a little bit of back-patting. Excusez-moi.) But I digress. We are not concerned with reminding people of the many things we have achieved, instead we want this 25th anniversary issue to be the best example of what Attitude stands for today, and has (mostly) stood for in the past. (I say “mostly” because we acknowledge we haven’t always been perfect. We too are human, after all.) This month, we bring you three phenomenal cover stars who deliver what Attitude is mostwell-known for: deep, introspective conversations with people who, by nature of their profile, are helping to present LGBTQ people in a light that isn’t just gold-hot-pants-wearing Kylie fans at Pride. (Although I dare you to try to get me out of my gold hot pants at Pride.) In our 25th anniversary issue, we continue to do what we do best: shedding light on the flaws and vulnerabilities that make us human, as well as uplifting each other and celebrating our achievements. It’s a common theme that runs through our exclusive interviews with Colton Haynes, Ben Hunte and Hamed Sinno. Elsewhere, we examine how queer history has been overlooked for too long, and how it can help us define the future. We look at some of the people who are shaping the conversations of tomorrow through their art and creativity, and also have some fun and delve into two imagined future timelines. I’m proud that this issue of Attitude is diverse, inclusive, adventurous and introspective. It’s an attitude that we should all aspire to. At the centre of it all is a simple question: what are you doing today to help you become the person you want to be tomorrow?

@CliffJoannou

On the covers

Photography Leigh Keily Fashion Joseph Kocharian Colton wears leather jacket, by Diesel

Photography Francisco Gomez de Villaboa Fashion Nick Byam Ben wears top, by AMI

Photography Michelle Helena Janssen and Ade Udoma Fashion Nick Byam Hamed wears tank, by Maison Margiela at MR PORTER

MAY 2019

13

QUEER SPACES: LONDON 1980s-TODAY What defines a queer space and what is the cultural legacy of these under-threat venues? Those questions are posed in this celebratory exhibition combining archival material and original works from artists such as Ralph Dunn, whose photography series Public Toilets pays homage to gay cruising grounds. The event, at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, runs from 2 April until 25 August. whitechapelgallery.org 14

MAY 2019

HANNA QUINLAN & ROSIE HASTINGS AND ARCADIA MISSA

L VES

L VES RON DORFF It’s no secret that tennis has led the sports style stakes in the past: René Lacoste, Fred Perry and Sergio Tacchini were all top players before they established their own ranges. Sportswear (particularly the styles of the Eighties and Nineties) is having a fashion comeback right now, with brands embracing everything from popper trousers, puffer jackets and lots of logos. Ron Dorff has chosen the Eighties and tennis stars such as Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Björn Borg and John McEnroe as inspirations for its new Spring-Summer ’19 collection, which has a cool tricolore palette running through it. There are bushed-cot and “RD” polos for the t tapered short shorts sh retro fashion (we’re sure Complete the look with with “RD” eyelets — and rondorff.com

MAY 2019

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L VES BEOSOUND EDGE Roll into the next wave of the sound revolution with the Beosound Edge, from Bang & Olufsen. It’ll catch the eye of your mates with its coin-like design and can be placed on the floor or suspended on a wall. Another neat touch is that the volume is controlled by rolling the speaker up and down, allowing you to put a whole new spin on songs such as I Love Rock’n’Roll (the Britney version, obvs). But it isn’t a case of style over substance. No, the device delivers room-filling sound courtesy of a 10in woofer. And who doesn’t want 10 inches? Price: £2,900. bang-olufsen.com

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MAY 2019

L VES

MERT & MARCUS 1994 X DSQUARED2 Dean and Dan Caten have enlisted the help of another brilliant fashion duo for their latest project. Fashion photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott have created a capsule collection with the Dsquared2 twins that celebrates the Nineties. Tapping into the hedonistic vibe of the fashion of the time, the Mert & Marcus 1994 x Dsquared2 collection has overalls, bomber jackets, tank tops, hoodies and over-sized tees, with boxy tailoring in bright colours. They’ve even dropped Kate Moss into the collection, with photos from the snappers’ archive finding their way on to the clothes. dsquared2.com MAY 2019

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L VES

ALMA With those neon-bright locks, Alma is hard to miss—– and the powerhouse pop goth is set to grab even more eyeballs (and wiggle her way into many earholes) with her debut album. The singer, from Finland, first made some noise at the age of 15 when she appeared on the Finnish version of Pop Idol. Since then, Alma has been turning up the volume thanks to killer collaborations with pals Charli XCX, Dua Lipa and Tove Lo, not to mention her own late-night hook-up anthem Chasing Highs, released in 2017. Ready to bubble over into the big time, the queer artist, now 23, will unleash more middle-finger-to-the-mainstream bangers with her long-awaited EP Have You Seen Her, out next month. We think it’s going to be to dye for… (sorry!)

Have You Seen Her is released on 5 April 18

MAY 2019

L VES

STAR WARS: GALAXY’S EDGE In a distant corner of the Star Wars galaxy, you’ll find Batuu — home to Black Spire Outpost, an infamous port for smugglers, traders and adventurers. It may sound far, far away, but you will soon be able to visit. Set across 14 acres at Disneyland’s Florida and California resorts, Galaxy’s Edge is the largest single-themed land ever created by Disney. Guests can expect to stumble across familiar faces such as Rey, Finn, Poe, BB-8 and Chewbacca, and even find themselves in a face-off with the villainous Kylo Ren. The thrills come in the shape of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run where you can take control in one of three roles: as pilots, gunners or flight engineers. Meanwhile, in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, guests can join a climactic battle against the First Order, go inside a full-size starship, and even a nearby star destroyer. You won’t have to Force us to go! Galaxy’s Edge opens on 31 May at Disneyland Resort, California, and on 29 August at Walt Disney World Resort, in Florida MAY 2019

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and the LGBTQ rights movement. But if, in the future, one sexuality is not privileged over another, and if defining oneself according to one’s sexual orientation is therefore no longer necessary as a defence against prejudice, then surely the need to assert identity and rights will decline. When no one cares who loves who, or who has sex with who, the need for an LGB identity will diminish over time. A person’s sexual orientation won’t have the social relevance and significance that it has today.

“More people are likely to have samesex relationships”

Will there ever be a non-homophobic future? Despite there being a greater acceptance of LGB people in the UK and society becoming fairer, we can never drop our vigilance or activism, says Peter Tatchell

I

n countries such as Britain, there is ever-greater acceptance of sexual diversity. Public understanding and support for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) sexuality and our rights have soared. But what does the future hold if this trend continues? We know that human culture evolves. Sexual behaviour is part of culture and therefore it too has evolved — and will continue to do so. If we eventually move to a post-homophobic society where being LGB is no longer an issue, how will this affect the expression of sexual desire, behaviour and identity? How will it affect the LGBTQ movement? We already know, through a host of sexual behaviour surveys, that a significant and growing proportion

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MAY 2019

WARY: Peter Tatchell

of the population are open to both opposite-sex and same-sex attraction. As our societies move towards a non-homophobic future, and as taboos around same-sex relations recede, many more people are likely to have those relationships — even if only temporarily or experimentally. Equally, the demise of homophobia is likely to lessen the need to assert LGBTQ identity and to campaign for our rights. Historically, LGBTQ identities are a result of prejudice and repression. They evolved as a self-defence mechanism against homophobia and biphobia. Faced with the persecution we suffered because of our sexuality, we’ve had to assert our right to be LGB. Hence the emergence of an LGBTQ identity

The need to affirm heterosexuality will also become redundant over time. With the erosion of straight supremacy, the desire and rationale for asserting sexual orientation differences and boundaries will decline. As we evolve into a more sexually enlightened and accepting society, homosexuality and heterosexuality will begin to fade as separate, exclusive orientations and identities. The majority of people will be open to the possibility of both opposite-sex and same-sex desires, even if they never act upon them. It simply won’t be an issue. People will no longer feel the need to label themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or straight, because in a postheterosexist society no one will care. A similar transformation is likely to happen with trans rights and identity, although less quickly, given the higher levels of ignorance and prejudice around trans issues. In a society beyond homophobia and transphobia, we will no longer have to fight for LGBTQ rights. We’ll all be free and equal humans. But, we aren’t there yet. There is the threat of a growing Far Right, which has traditionally targeted LGBTQ people. There is no room for complacency. Activism will be needed for decades to come. The price of LGBTQ freedom is eternal vigilance. Peter Tatchell is director of the human rights organisation, Peter Tatchell Foundation petertatchellfoundation.org

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Who is ANTIBOY and where does he come from? ANTIBOY is a trans human/android from a future in which all social constructs — including gender, sexuality and race — have been destroyed. Labels are no longer being used to describe human behaviour and characteristics. We have evolved to a place of true equality away from judgment and preconceived notions. We have become what we choose to reflect, rather than seen as what society has set us to be. This is probably a stupid question, but do you, Harry, subscribe to any labels when it comes to gender and sexuality? I have very strong views when it comes to identity, what it means to be a man or a woman, and what these traits of masculine and feminine actually mean. I also choose to deny the identities of “gay” and “straight.” Everything is on a spectrum. We are not one thing. We can be anything. What prompted you to go down such a conceptual route with your music? ANTIBOY started as a rebellion against what other male pop artists were doing. He also represents the dismissal of damaging social constructs, speaking to those who don’t feel they belong or have a voice in this world. I want to show that you can have a voice with an identity that differs from what is expected. What void do you see yourself filling in the industry? There isn’t a gender-fluid icon, someone who doesn’t abide by labels, who says: “Fuck what the mainstream thinks, or does.” I want to fill that gap in a pop world that seems to have misplaced its values. I want to be the new voice of a new generation that has started to view things differently. Which artists did you have on repeat when you were growing up? I was obsessed with Shania Twain — I used to dance around in my parents’

Future perfect Singer, model and actor Harry Hains, 26 – aka ANTIBOY – fast forwards Attitude into a world free of gender, sexuality and race labelling bedroom to Man! I Feel Like a Woman – as well as Christina and Britney in the early 2000s. I connected with strong female musicians who owned their sexuality. Now, I’m inspired by FKA Twigs and Lana Del Rey. What sparked the idea for your single Devil, specifically the lyric: “You shine the devil into me”? Devil is about someone causing the darkest parts of you to come out, about letting yourself be influenced by another person to the point of your own demise. Some people, or things, can bring you to your knees,

Words Thomas Stichbury Photography Mitchell Nguyen McCormack

and that’s OK. We should be open about our vices and suffering. We should own what hurts us, so that we can evolve into a better version of ourselves every time we feel pain. You also have an album, A Glitch in Paradise, coming out. What was the thinking behind the title? The album is also a TV show that I’m developing about a trans human trapped in a virtual reality who relives their worst memories over and over, as if the utopia that they’ve created has somehow malfunctioned. What would you say is the biggest “glitch” in society at the moment? We are so focused on getting our own needs met that we don’t really consider those of other people. For example, we want women’s rights, and there have been positive strides with the #MeToo movement and the rise of feminism, but sometimes it turns into misandry, the idea that women are better than men. We should be striving for equality, no matter our gender, sexuality or race. We all share the same DNA and should start acting as if we are 99 per cent the same. Let’s start looking for similarities, not differences. How would you describe your sense of style? The clothes we wear tell a story about who we are. Masculine and feminine should never be designated to clothing. Wearing a dress does not make you a feminine person. It’s merely an extended piece of cloth that we have let be influenced by what society currently thinks. Media and culture have dictated what clothes are appropriate for what person, but we should be the ones to define what they mean, not the other way around.

“We should be open about our vices, and own what hurts us”

Devil is out now @theantiboy

for growing old disgracefully

TAKE A LONG, HARD LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR and figure out which parts of your aging mess of a body can be nipped, tucked, squashed, squished, smoothed and stretched. In the immortal words of Ghandi, “Life in plastic, it’s fantastic”

GULP DOWN EVERY OVER-PRICED, OVERPROMISING “ELIXIR OF YOUTH” GOING. It contains the sperm of a snowy owl, you say? Nifty. Just don’t let your new-found beauty go to your head

DON’T START DRESSING AS IF YOU’RE ABOUT TO POP YOUR CROCS — which have a special place in hell alongside sweater vests. Wear. What. The. Fuck. You. Want. But maybe keep those mitts covered. After all, hands are just gesticulating birth certificates

MAKE AN ACCESSORY OUT OF YOUR CATHETER BAG. Don’t let it affect your ability to hit the town, or your pulling powers for that matter. Water sports, anyone?

CRACK ON WITH THAT BUCKET LIST. Swim with dolphins. Tick. Check out the Grand Canyon. Tick. Get inside Nick Jonas’s pink pants and explore his, ahem, purity ring. Pending…

FINALLY GET AROUND TO OPENING THAT ONLY FANS ACCOUNT. Show ’em that Werthers Originals aren’t the only things you’re sucking these days. Turns out that missing a few teeth comes in handy when performing certain, erm, acts

MINCE YOUR WALK, NOT YOUR WORDS. You don’t need to keep up the airs and graces any more. Open that burn book, baby, and let’s start a wild fire. First on the list is Mary Berry — you know what you did!

RINSE THAT BANK ACCOUNT. Make every penny from your pension count… not towards making the closing winter of your life more comfortable. Screw that. Let’s have one final hurrah on Fire Island!

WAIT, MAYBE YOU DON’T HAVE TO GROW OLD AT ALL. Strike a deal with this lovely (albeit worryingly red-faced) chap here. His name is Satan and he says you can stay young for ever in exchange for your soul. That’s a bargain — we don’t have one any way

MAY 2019

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Anna Phylac

bg

Packing star wattage, Anna is an electrifying queen who has given Manchester’s drag scene a huge jolt. Approach the self-described “shock in a frock” with caution – and carry an EpiPen at all times!

JOSE A GUZMAN COLON

What were your rejected drag names? Electra Shock. I also toyed with Dr Von Shockswig — the shame! Describe yourself in three emojis. Describe your drag style in five words. Twisted. Theatrical. Surreal. Artistic. Camp. What keeps you awake at night? The idea that we are in multiple realities all at once, doing different things. Worst pick-up line someone has said to you? “Oh, Anna, Anna, bo-banna, I wanna lick your minge out.” True story – I was taken aback. What’s the worst thing someone could say to you in bed?   “I’ve had a little accident.” What is your safe word? Pomplemoose. What do you look for in a significant other? A pulse. At this point, I’ll take what I’m given and be grateful. If you could be any inanimate object in the world, what would you be? A pink crocheted toilet-roll cover, the ones that have a Barbie body and a ballgown. What would a film of your life be called, and who would star as you in it? Breathless. No one could play

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MAY 2019

“I know hell. I’ve been there. It’s being lost in an underground car park, not being able to find the exit” me as well as I play myself. Apart from Olivia Colman. What does happiness look like? A pug in a blanket. What makes you angry? Having to scan my own food at a self-checkout till. What’s your life motto? “We don’t pay.”

What’s your spirit animal? Jill Tyrrell, from Nighty Night. What would your own fragrance be called, and what would it contain? Amyl Nights. It would contain the scent of sex, with undertones of smoky dancefloors and just a hint of regret.

You can banish someone to an island. Who are you sending packing? Kirstie Allsopp. Just imagine the fabulous Christmassy knickknacks she could come up with alone on an island. You’ve been told you have 24 hours left to live. How do you spend your day? Doing all the bad things. You’re dead (sorry). What would it say on your headstone? Here lies the legend, Anna Phylactic. She had a lovely time. What does heaven look like? The final scene in Titanic – except I’d descend a staircase into a fabulous nightclub filled with my loved ones, lost in euphoria and music. And hell? I know hell. I’ve been there. It’s getting lost in an underground car park for hours, not being able to find the exit! If you could make contact with a dead celebrity, who would it be, and what would you ask? Oscar Wilde. I’d want all the scandal. You can turn back time. Where do you travel, and what do you do? If I could turn back time, if I could find a way, I’d take back all the words that hurt you, and you’d stay. [Is Cher in the house?] What would you put into a time capsule of your life? A bottle of gin. When was the last time you went into shock? When I found out that a strawberry isn’t a berry, and a banana actually is. Nothing makes sense any more! @annaphylactic1

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In my view

#INSTAMAN @patrick.cout

WE’D LOVE TO PICK THE BRAIN OF BRAZILIAN HISTORIAN PATRICK COUTINHO, 26. LET’S DISCUSS ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS OVER A GLASS OF RED AND SOME PRIME SOUTH AMERICAN BEEF...

THIS ISSUE

AMROU AL-KADHI

MOBEEN AZHAR

OWEN JONES

I had to look to my past and heritage to be truly happy Drag is, in many ways, about looking to the future. Through make-up, costume, wigs and whimsy, you can build a new identity. This is, I suppose, the power of escapism. When I started drag at the age of 20, all I wanted was to escape. I was in a horrible situation with my family who just couldn’t come to terms with my sexuality (or the way I was choosing to live my life). I was one of the only people of colour at my university, which led to feelings of isolation, and I hadn’t even begun to undo the layers of gay shame I had inherited from being raised Muslim in the Middle East. Out of drag, I was an intensely anxious, fragile person severed from my family and my Arab heritage. In drag, I constructed my own queer family and built a character who was fiercely confident, fully Western, completely in charge, and had absolutely no shame when it came to their queer identity. I was using drag for the same reason people get hypnotherapy: to trick my brain into believing things about myself that I wanted to believe. In drag, I was no longer a scared Arab person, certain of their eternal damnation. Instead I was in heaven, and invincible. But I soon came to learn that I was practising an unhealthy kind of escapism, where I denied what I was actually feeling.

Whenever a night in drag came to an end, I felt a sharp disorientation and even deeper lows — the highs of drag seemed like an illusion, only reminding me of how vulnerable I felt whenever the wig came off. And although drag inherently rejoices in artifice, my early drag was emotionally inauthentic. Instead of addressing the lost relationship with my mother, I assumed the role of the fully sorted drag mother to everyone else. Instead of investigating my Iraqi heritage, I put on blonde wigs and dressed in looks I borrowed from Western pop stars. I was using drag to eradicate all traces of my heritage, erasing the entire semblance of the person I was. Did this tactic work? Fuck, no. It wasn’t until I looked back to my heritage, that I found some peace. Instead of searching Vogue for inspiration, I turned to pictures of my mother, who wore ensembles to rival any Drag Race contestant’s. Instead of looking to Western ideology, I went back to Islam, and discovered that there are male Muslims who wear skirts when praying. Through the memories that I had buried away, I was able to connect to my upbringing in a wholly queer way. My past became a whole treasure chest of things I could use for my drag. Reclaiming the past has been a way to create a happier future, where all aspects of me can co-exist peacefully.

“I discovered male Muslims who wear skirts when praying”

Need a study buddy, Pat?

The poor dear has forgotten to do his trousers up — don’t tell him!

Looks as if the sun isn’t the only thing rising…

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DEAN ATTA

Experience more on a short break.

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CELEBR ATING 75 YE ARS

Bubbling hot tubs | Spa resorts | Romantic escapes

CU LT U R E C LU B

Culture Club by Juno Dawson

Attitude led the way for 25 years – and still does

T

his one is meta. It’s the Scream of Culture Clubs because, this issue, I’m exploring the cultural significance of this very publication. Back in the early Nineties, it was very difficult to access a plethora of free porn, or indeed make your own at home. For many a young queer man, growing up back then, their earliest experiences of clammypalmed self-frottage (aside from the underwear models in their mum’s Next directory) was quite possibly Jambo from Hollyoaks covering his giblets with a boxing glove on the front of Attitude. If not that, it could well have been Lee from Steps soaping his bare bum, or Max Beesley, or Brookie’s Tinhead. Launching in 1994, Attitude was sort of, on reflection, a gay version of FHM, Loaded, GQ or Sky magazine. Stuff that interests gay men, but also a stack of dishy eye candy. To be fair to the fledgling magazine, the wank-bank material actually came later: the first cover star was Boy George, who was joined on other early issues by thinking gay-man’s crumpet Brett Anderson of Suede, and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, who came out in an exclusive interview. As time went by, it evolved into a host of gay-appeal divas (Geri Horner née Halliwell has been on the cover four times) and, there’s no polite way to say this, boybands with records to flog via the medium of their arses. But all this unfairly ignores the true impact of Attitude. I was a confused wee queer in 1994, and just seeing Attitude on the shelves of WHSmith in Keighley (that’s West Yorkshire) offered a clue that somewhere, out there, there might be other people asking the same big questions that I was.

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Over to you... Your thoughts on Attitude

When I finally plucked up the courage to buy a copy once at university in Bangor (with Ivan Massow on the cover), it was a further surprise to find a plethora of writers — older and wiser than me – acting as distant mentors. I’d survived coming out… but now what? There was a whole world out there, and here were a bunch of role models showing me the way. Attitude showcased the most relevant

“Issues took centre stage: mental health, poverty, addiction...” voices from the community: Patrick Strudwick, Matthew Todd, Paul Flynn, Paris Lees. The Nineties saw unparalleled change for gay representation in the media. Reality TV dawned and with it a host of affable gay men — Brian Dowling, Will Young, Rylan Clark-Neal — became very, very mainstream, having thrived on the fringes for decades. Attitude too, perhaps, went less

salacious and more legit. So flagship, in fact, that political leaders and royalty, from Justin Trudeau to Prince William, graced the cover. Times changed, and the brand evolved. LGBTQ people woke up to the exploitation of the pink pound, and issues directly affecting our community took centre stage: mental health, chemsex, Grindr, addiction, poverty, eating disorders, racism on the scene. It was no longer sufficient to slap a beefy heterosexual rugby player on the front of magazine because he had a calendar to flog. The audience demanded role models from within the community and greater diversity in terms of skin colour, gender and sexual identity, and body shape. The rights that gay people fought for in the 1990s are under threat in 2019. Right-wing politicians all over the world seize upon unease around globalisation, dressing it up as an attack on “traditional masculinity.” Attitude remains at the forefront of visibility and activism, is still proudly visible on the shelves of WHSmith and continues to let young queer men know there’s a place for them in the future.

I have an almost complete collection. Keep them because otherwise gay culture gets lost. @KeithWinestein I remember it always being on the top shelf, and waiting till there was nobody about, to grab it and quickly shuffle over to the till. @riotbug I could never afford magazines when I first moved to London but I bought Attitude because it made me feel closer to my community. @RyanLanji I remember mostly pleasuring myself looking at the ads! @mdlcsquared

Get involved Next month, Christina’s Beautiful Tweet your thoughts @junodawson

In my view

THIS ISSUE

ANTHONY GILET

GARETH JOYNER

MAX WALLIS

JONNY WOO

GUILLOTINA MUNTER, Glasgow’s first lady of drag, spills the tea on the queens’ latest exploits

The future of dating is, in reality, the same old story

Season 11 is here and SILKY NUTMEG GANACHE has found herself in hot tea already. The plus-size queen clashed with season nine’s SHEA COULEÉ’S boyfriend Dan Polyak who had asked Silky to host an event in Chicago. After declining on the basis that the fee offered was too low, but then trying to play the “don’t you know who I think I am” card to blag free entry at a later date, the shade started flying on Twitter and the receipts came tumbling out. Phew! Elsewhere on social media, All Star MONIQUE HEART came for “real-life Bratz doll” ARIEL VERSACE, saying that some queens were only built for Insta. The season 11 queen defended herself, reminding Miss Heart that they got on the show for different reasons and that she’d spent five years building a career before being cast. Lastly, the Haters Roast Tour in the US recently lost both All Stars four winners! Initially, MONET X CHANGE pulled out of one show to feature in Madonna’s new music video. The tour promoters Murray & Peter then got petty and pulled her from the remaining tours — a move that backfired when good sis TRINITY THE TUCK quit out of solidarity. That’s no way to treat royalty, boys!

“Why don’t you re-download Grindr?” Darren suggests, and we break into roars of laughter. “Oh my God, can you believe that’s how we used to meet men?” We laugh again. But it was bitter-sweet: it’s not that we didn’t enjoy virtual-reality cruising but there wasn’t the same thrill as freezing your nads off on Hampstead Heath back in the day. And in many ways, VRCRUZ is the new chemsex: Grindr zombies have evolved into creatures of the night, locked into their headsets and bashing themselves brainless. But it’s like the old saying goes: “It’s all fun and erotic video games, until you’re missing work to get sucked off by a hologram.” We are just a couple of traditional guys who miss the simpler times of swiping right on two-dimensional nudes, and meeting real men. We are at the newest, sexually fluid, gender-queer lounge, which ironically hates labels. We’re here for my divorce party, with the intention of getting me laid. Make one joke about renting a sexbot, and your friends are staging an intervention. As if I’d ever let bionic dick tell me my taxi is outside. A cocktail emerges from the centre of the table, it’s been electronically complimented by a guy at the bar. And I know him! He was in the row in

@ladymunter

front of me at Cher’s Beyond The Grave world tour when I spilt a drink down his neck. We end up chatting for hours, until the lounge closes, while butterflies whirl in my stomach. So, when he invites me back to his, my friends vigorously nod their heads… and I agree. “Great,” he smiles. “One sec…” I assume he’s going to get his jacket, but he re-emerges with a procession of men. I remember when open relationships were frowned upon, nowadays octouples are the new norm. But waking up with seven strange men standing over you sounds like the scene in Snow White that was edited out when political correctness was fashionable. All I want is to be curled up on the sofa with one man, watching Drag Race season 36. A lot of people believe that dating is hardest when you’re older because of the physical signs of ageing. But it’s less because you’ve changed, and more because everything around you has. One minute you’re arranging dates through an app, and the next you’re meeting in sexual simulations in cyberspace. (Sex without the STIs, as the marketing phrase goes.) Dejected, I walk back to my apartment and as I open the door, I catch the eye of the new guy next door. He smiles and says hello. And just like that, I don’t need a new-found solution to age-old love.

“All I want is to be curled up with one man, watching Drag Race season 36 ”

MAY 2019

29

CA R S Words Darren Styles

Jaguar I-Pace

wanted, free of constraints, to house all the usual metal. With the battery packs set within For our future-thinking anniversary issue, the all-electric, newly the floorplan, we start, essentially, with a skateboard, and can push the wheels to the crowned European Car of the Year points to the direction of travel corners for the benefit of both styling and accommodation. It’s as clean a sheet of paper as you could ever hope for,” he says. performance, consider this: this SUV-shaped ’ve been writing about cars for as long as To drive, the I-Pace is pleasingly normal yet car will hit 60mph from standstill in just 4.5 Attitude has existed. And every new arrival simultaneously quite different. The primary seconds, which is Ferrari fast. is lauded by its maker as a breakthrough controls are light, throttle response is instant, The interior is a light and lovely place to — the next best thing since the last best progress is Rolls-Royce silent and — should be, especially with the optional sports seats thing was the next best thing. But the Jaguar you wish — absurdly swift. lifted from the Jaguar F-Type and when I-Pace, just named European Car of the Year, is The battery weight beneath delivers a low specified with the full-length glass roof. And, genuinely one of those once-in-a-generation centre of gravity in a fairly tall car, which is since a lot of conventional hardware is no cars, maybe even a once-in-a-lifetime car. reassuring, and so when pressing on, the car longer needed (no engine, no gearbox, no It’s the first all-electric product from a feels planted and is blessed with both grip transmission tunnel), there’s as much space premium European brand, and its breadth and composure. as a Jaguar XJ limousine, but within the of capabilities — on and off-road (our Prices start at £64,495 before a government footprint of a car a size down. Portuguese test drive included wading along a contribution of £3,500 reduces that to £60,995. Five can go anywhere in comfort, as Enid river bed and climbing a mountain) — throws That’s cheaper than an equivalent Tesla by a Blyton might have said. off many of the known Electric Vehicle (EV) healthy margin, and is the product of a The exterior, meanwhile, is one sharp shortcomings of old. It will, for example, major premium-car brand with a suit of clothes: identifiably Jaguar, travel almost 300 miles on a single charge, big dealer network. Plus, there’ll but cut from 21st-century comparable to the range of a conventional be no more trips to the fuel cloth. Designer Ian Callum petrol car on a tank of fuel. Jaguar I-Pace pumps and the Wild Bean points to echoes of the “cab Charging, on a public 50kw charger, to 80 // 90kWh battery // 394bhp // Café, no more road tax, forward” CX-75 supercar per cent of its capacity will take 85 minutes, 513lb/ft torque // 0-62mph in no congestion charges, concept, and talks of the but upgraded 100kw chargers are coming on 4.5 seconds // top speed 124mph and service intervals that I-Pace being one of the stream which will pretty much cut that in half. // 298-mile range // 0g/km CO2 are two years apart. The most exciting projects of About as long as a coffee and comfort break. // From £64,495 (£60,995 after battery technology has an his stellar career. The I-Pace has an electric motor on government grant) // eight-year warranty. “From a design each axle, which means four-wheel drive, jaguar.co.uk Welcome to a greener perspective, we were able for optimum traction, acceleration and future. It works. to do almost anything we performance. And since we’ve mentioned

I

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MAY 2019

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Th e h u r t i ng a n d t he h e al i n g He’s had to hide his sexuality, battle anxiety and an addiction to drink and drugs, as well as cope with the death of his alcoholic mother and the break-up of his marriage, but Arrow star Colton Haynes has come through the other side and is looking forward to the future Words Cliff Joannou Photography Leigh Keily Fashion Joseph Kocharian Location thanks to Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, Vancouver

Co l to n Hayn e s

Colton wears denim shirt, by Rufskin, shorts, by Gucci at MR PORTER

Colton wears top, by Balmain

Co l to n Hayn e s

olton Haynes wants to talk. To be precise, he’s ready to talk — and there’s one heck of a lot of ground to cover. It’s a gloriously sunny morning in Vancouver as the fresh spring air bites, teasing the end of winter. A packed shooting schedule on the current series of Arrow means Colton’s given up his Sunday off for this month’s Attitude cover shoot. I meet him in the foyer at the magnificent Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel. He’s waiting patiently, alone. He’s rather bizarrely early. Attitude’s usual cover shoot experience is that the talent often arrives late, accompanied by an overenthusiastic (read: opinionated) press person, and an agent in tow, who spends most of the shoot sitting in the corner of the room on their phone, occasionally glancing up to nix an overly edgy outfit choice. There’s none of that here today, Colton’s flying solo and his rather pleasant team who I’ve communicated with by email have left him to it. I almost don’t recognise him in his cap and the giant puffer jacket that obscures his face. As I approach to say hello, I notice he’s looking for Pokémon on his phone. He looks beyond adorable. And, yes, I’m a little smitten. I introduce myself and we exchange pleasantries as we make our way up to the grand Chairman’s Suite on the eighth floor. I ask him if he’s excited about the shoot. “Absolutely, and boy have we got a lot to talk about in the interview,” he says. There’s an apprehension in his voice that surprises me. I learn later that it’s not because he is nervous to share, but because he is now ready to close a dark chapter in his life. When Colton came out in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in May 2016, the news wasn’t exactly revelatory. It was more an affirmation of what many suspected. When he came out, he did so to unburden himself of the pain of living a double life, and to help other actors in the same position. It’s easy to underestimate the impact Colton’s coming out had, but his action had a domino effect in Hollywood. These days, hardly a week goes by without an actor coming out as gay, non-binary, queer or bisexual. A few months after that interview, Colton told Out magazine how his father committed suicide after finding out his son was gay. Little more than a year later, Colton was married to floral designer Jeff Leatham. They separated after six months, and the on-off marriage is now definitely over, with a divorce pending. During that time, Colton’s mother Dana died from kidney failure, caused by cirrhosis of the liver. Our shoot takes place two weeks before the first anniversary of her death. His eyes glaze over and he works hard to hold the tears back when we talk about that time. He’s visibly shaken and his voice breaks when he reveals how he was drinking heavily as he watched his mother slowly slipping away. “She could smell the alcohol on my breath,” he tells me as he shares the memory of her last days. Colton was coming to the end of his own road to self-destruction. The past decade’s rise to the top of Hollywood’s A-list came with a heavy price as he battled his demons. In a 10-year period, there were only a handful of days in which he didn’t touch a drink, and his downward spiral extended to drug abuse and hospitalisations, and ended with time in rehab, which he completed just six months ago. Now sober for the first time in as long as he can remember, Colton exudes the kind of selfawareness that rehab can give a person after an intense re-evaluation of their life. “This interview is a long time in coming,” he says when we discuss the fact that a shoot with Attitude has been on his radar for a while. “I guess I just had to be ready.” >

MAY 2019

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Your return to Arrow, as news that the show is coming to an end, also represents the end of a major chapter in your life. After Teen Wolf, I started Arrow in 2012 or 2013, I was asked to do three episodes, then it turned into six. I came out in the middle of shooting, and so much has happened since.  How do you feel, looking back at your public coming out? It was tricky because there was a team of people telling me that coming out would ruin my career. I had this crazy amount of shame. But there were a large number of images floating around of me with other guys. And the amount of support after I came out was crazy, such as Elton John posting a picture of us together congratulating me. I screen-capped every text. I had hundreds of messages from people I didn’t know who had my email somehow. That wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be career ending. Now it’s not getting in the way of my career, thank God. I put a lot out there on the internet and a lot has gone down in the past couple years that I’ve retracted. But what I’ve learned is that being out, you’re thrust even further into the spotlight because you’re the next gay representation. Thankfully, I’ve made my way through it. Is there anything you regret? No. Every single thing, my over-sharing, my mistakes, things I’ve done have got me to where I am now. I’m in a really good place. I’ve had to make a lot of mistakes to learn how to become a better person and what not to do. I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching, so I can finally make solid, sober decisions. 

I was seeing a psychiatrist who said I was suffering from PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder]. I was wondering why I couldn’t walk, and thought: “Oh because I’m drinking two bottles of tequila every day and drinking mouthwash because it’s 26 per cent alcohol,” and spiralling out of control to the point when I ended up in hospital for a long time. Then I was able to finally get my shit together. What was the most dangerous thing about hiding your identity? The fake persona I built. Always lowering my voice, being told to be seen with this girl or that actress. It was evident that I was hiding I was gay. At the beginning of my career it was really important for me to be in the closet. When I came out, I got all these offers then when my destructive behaviour took hold, it was like, “Woah!” I’m lucky I didn’t get fired from Arrow. It was that bad. It was the fake persona that I built before, then building all these other fake personas, until I got down to the root of my problems, and that was me. Did your drinking and drug-taking snowball from occasional use? In 10 years there were maybe 25 days when I didn’t drink.  Is that just having a single drink on some days, or drinking heavily regularly? I remember when I started, it was a couple glasses of wine, and it regressed into really dark times. I used to blame it on my anxiety or depression issues, but really the root of all my problems was the alcohol and drugs. What drugs were you taking? A lot of bad stuff. We’ll leave it at that...

“I’ve had to make lots of mistakes to learn how to become a better person. I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching”

Is there anything you would have done differently? I don’t think so. Now I can just learn from all the mistakes and try not to make the same ones again. I did it not just for myself but because there were so many other people struggling. A lot of people knew just how much I was struggling with it, with depression and anxiety, and how I was constantly being told I couldn’t be public with who I am. Once that happened, I felt that I lost this other person, there was this weight off my shoulders. I couldn’t believe how freeing it was.  It became the first step on an emotional journey for you, like when you pull a piece of string and all these other things unravel. I came out and in a way my downward spiral started. I felt extremely free but at the same time the amount of attention I was getting was making me spin out of control. I got married, and that didn’t work out. That was extremely public and heart-breaking, and right when that was going on, my mom died. That was only a year ago. At that point, I completely fell apart. My brain broke. I was doing this massive comedy for a studio, showed up to work and got fired on the first day. They said I looked as if I had “dead in my eyes”, and I did. I think it was the best decision in the world to fire me. I got so heavily involved with drugs and alcohol to mask the amount of pain I was feeling that I couldn’t even make some decisions for myself. I was drowning in my own shit. I thank God I was given the gift of going to treatment and finally realising that I’d had this crazy problem for so many years that I couldn’t handle any more. 40

MAY 2019

In that respect, your story is no different to many other gay men who bury a part of their identity for so long. Then when they find joy in the release of coming out, it’s the greatest gift but that release can also go in the wrong direction and the drink and drugs can take over because they haven’t really dealt with carrying that shame for all those years. Except you were doing all this in the public eye. I thought I was building this life that had this amazing structure but what I realised was that it was built on a highly unsteady foundation. I was just so unhappy with the way my life had gone as a child, my upbringing, choosing to be in this type of world. I was so fogged over. I ended up in hospital a bunch of times, but I think one of the worst was after my divorce started and my mom died. I locked myself in a hotel room at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills for seven days and was found in my room with these insane bruises all over my body. It looked as if somebody had beaten the shit out of me. I couldn’t walk, so I was falling everywhere. I almost ruptured my kidney, ended up in the hospital, ended up in 5150 psyche hold [a way to keep someone in hospital involuntarily for up to three days when there is a “serious need”]. I was on such a destructive path that I could not function. If anybody else had told me to get help, I would be like, “Fuck you! You have a problem, I don’t have a problem.” I don’t know how I recovered from that, I had to make that decision on my own. I was ready to stop running from my problems, and stop the “woe-is-me” bullshit, and start owning my shit. Once I went to treatment, I found this amazing amount >

Co l to n Hayn es Colton wears jumpsuit, by Mert & Marcus 1994 x Dsquared2

MAY 2019

41

Col ton Hayn e s

“I found th i s t ru e love for myself, without t hose v ice s”

Colton wears hoodie, by Fendi at Matches Fashion, shorts, by Emporio Armani

of true love for myself, and started figuring out who I am without those vices, and recognising the people in my life who lifted me up instead of tearing me down. I figured out where I fit, not having to struggle, and making sober decisions.  Was that experience at the Waldorf your rock bottom? I hit so many branches on the way down. It started when I was in hospital with my mom and the doctor telling me she had two months to live. At that point, I was already in a dark place. I was drinking tequila out of a water bottle. My mom knew and she was dying from alcoholism. I wasn’t hiding it from her, I was breathing alcohol all over her face. Looking back at those decisions, and not being completely present with my mom when she was dying, that’s something I deeply regret. I was there with her every day, every second, until she passed away. But it was a slap in her face, she could see I was going down this dark path.  What did she say to you? My parents had a difficult time with dependency issues. She said, “You do not want to end up like me, you do not want to end up like this.” She left me a note when she died that said, “Colton, if you don’t clean your act up and pursue your dreams, I’m going to come back and haunt you.” It took me four months to start the process to clean up. The hardest thing I ever had to do in my life was look at my mom telling the doctors, “Oh, I haven’t had a drink in two months, I can wait another four months to get a new liver.” They replied: “You can’t. That’s not going to be your outcome, you’re going to die.” It was

most excruciating thing I’ve experienced until I realised that I don’t need to be perfect all the time. It’s not my goal. You then started that process of healing at the hospital. I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t see. I lost partial sight in my left eye for a while. My brain and my body broke. I couldn’t function. I ended up having two seizures. My time at the hospital was a rude awakening. I didn’t know any of this was happening until I was sober enough to remember it. I looked back to concerts or birthday parties I’d been to, and I was blackout drunk, or bawling my eyes out and blaming that on other things. I was fucked up. Did you put yourself into treatment? I did. I was in treatment for four months. I came out six months ago. It’s just a different life now. It’s the best gift I’ve ever been given. I was ready to try to live an authentic life because most of my life was so fucking fake. I loved to blame other people, and other situations, until I started dealing with the fact that I was the root of all these problems. And admitting that I was the problem. That was difficult. When I started doing that, everything started lifting. It’s like this rebirth. I now feel things, which is something I’d not done for a decade. I was numb. Everyone’s like, “Oh, this is all just spiritual shit,” but when you no longer have this filter stopping you feeling, it really is a wonderful thing. I’m always going to be in recovery. There are so many people struggling out there, but not a lot of them talk about it. Life is much more beautiful than I could have imagined. It’s freeing.

“ I was s l owly dy i ng an d was de ad b e hi n d t he eye s . I r uin ed a lot of thi n gs a nd di d s o m uch da mage”

like looking at my mom as a child, and this crazy feeling of having to take care of her the way she’d tried to take care of me growing up. I had so much respect for her at that time because she wanted to give it another fight, but she didn’t have any more time. That should have been when I started cleaning up my act, but it just led me into a whole darker other time.  You mentioned shame. What stands out as the thing you are most ashamed of? There are so many things. I think just being so public with every post and every move. I was subliminally crying out for help. It was something I did not notice until after. There are interviews and photos where I gained tons of weight because my body was rejecting everything. I was slowly dying and I was dead behind the eyes. I took everything in my life for granted — my relationships with my friends, my marriage — until it all left me. I lost almost all my friends, and rightfully so. I ruined a lot of things in my life, I did so much damage, but luckily I can now move forward and try to clean up a lot of that. I didn’t understand the disease. I just thought my original thing was like a lot of other people’s, it was dramatic. But it’s a serious disease that no one prepares you for, especially in this industry. I do think there should be a lot more psychiatric appointments, more mental-health checks because you are a product and there’s no smoke and mirrors around that. You have to look this way, you have to act this way, you have to do this or else they’ll find someone else. Trying to be perfect all the time is the 44

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Acting, being in Hollywood, is such a devastating industry because you are dealing with rejection, then suddenly riding these amazing highs. Reading some of the things online was so heart-breaking. As public as I can be, I’m really a normal person. I say what I want to say, I’m open about issues but people love when things fail, when they don’t work out, because it makes them feel better about themselves. It was disheartening to see how excited people were when I was failing. But I chose this life... What drew you to acting? My mom put me in West Side Story when I was a kid, and I caught the bug. I loved theatre and performing. Would you describe yourself as emotionally stable enough to handle fame? I’m emotionally stable for that now without vices, but nothing can prepare you for certain things. I don’t think anyone is prepared for it. It depends how grounded you are to help you in the peaks and valleys of this industry. Are you still in therapy now? I live in therapy. I’ve been in therapy since I was a teenager. But it’s not until you truly want help that you start the growth.  What’s the biggest lesson therapy has taught you? Feelings are not facts. You can feel all these things but most of the time you’re wrong. We all have our shit. With articles like this, mine’s going to be a little more public, but it’s not any different. Trying to be as genuine as possible is my goal for life now.  >

Co l to n Hayn e s Colton wears denim shirt, by Rufskin

Colton wears hoodie, top and sweatpants, all by Moschino

GROOMING Melanie Neufeld @Lizbell Agency FASHION ASSISTANTS Nick Byam and Josefina Martin

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What part did your father’s suicide play in your struggle? Something I didn’t realise until recently was exactly what I’ve talked about. “Blame this or that person, this is everyone else’s fault.” But nobody is perfect. My father had a lot of pain, he was a two-time cancer survivor. I’m a product of parents who had substance issues. I remember in first grade not wanting anything to do with him or anyone. I wanted to be on my own, do whatever I could to move forward in my life and start a new chapter. But what I was really doing was shutting everyone out and not letting people have a chance to know who I truly was. Did you find some friendships fell away after rehab? There were a lot of issues that I hadn’t dealt with in my friendships. There are a lot of people who don’t understand why somebody could be sober. A lot of people decided they didn’t want anything to do with me any more.  It shines a mirror up to their own life. Something that was crazy for me to realise is that I used to make my mom feel as if she was a virus. The way I used to talk to her only aided her demise. She was so upset with me all the time because I was being so vocal. What did you blame her for? I was mad all the time because she was drunk, I was like, “She’s being dramatic.” But it’s a disease, and I ended up the exact same way. I wish that I could have been there to help her instead of being a fucking terror when I was a teenager.

going to be friends and in each other’s life. What that’s going to look like in the future, I don’t know. We’re not putting too much pressure on it. I have so much love for our relationship. The good thing that came from me being in a relationship, even though it very publicly didn’t end the way we wanted, was that I was able to find myself. He was always supportive and made me feel special. How did you find dating? Is it difficult to meet people? Besides all the people sliding into my DMs and stuff, I hadn’t been on a date in ages, I had no idea how to meet people. When people meet me, they think I’m going to be this 6ft 2in Instagram person. I’m modest despite what people think. Yes, I’ll do a sexy photoshoot but that’s part of my job, that’s just my shit, it’s something I have to do. But it’s not easy to meet men. I can’t go to gay bars. I won’t be able to have fun, you see the whispering, people take secret pictures. It was never fun when I was drinking and it’s not fun now. To be honest, all I wanna do is play Pokémon Go.  That’s cute. In your career, you’ve mostly played straight characters, except in season six of Teen Wolf when you kissed Charlie Carver. And I played gay in American Horror Story with Billy Eichner and Evan Peters. I had to get fucked by both of them!  The question that’s very topical right now is gay people playing gay roles. Is there a worry that gay actors would only be cast in gay roles? The fact is it’s not a level playing field, gay actors aren’t getting the opportunities that straight actors do. It’s great to see show runners such as Greg Berlanti and Ryan Murphy going out of their way to

“Wh en I was younger, I tho u ght th at’s what yo u needed to do to get ahe a d: t a ke s exy p hoto s ho ots”

Is it difficult to live with those feelings? Not now. I still feel her all the time. I know people think that’s crazy. I got to be with her the time she needed me most. I didn’t speak with her for almost four years because she couldn’t clean her act up and I wanted nothing to do with her. We only started speaking three years before she passed away, but at least I got to have that time with her. Another challenge of the past year was your marriage and divorce. I will always love Jeff [Leatham]. He’s an incredible person. The most talented person I’ve ever met. So loving. You know, people grow apart. There would never be a bad thing I could say about him. I just had to fall in love with myself and put myself and my life first. We rushed into a lot of things, and it was extremely public which was a massive, massive problem with our relationship. But that’s not anyone else’s fault, that’s our fault. We put it out there, we became that Instagram couple, and we weren’t able to keep it going. When Jeff met you, he must have known about your problems. Was it difficult for you to work your way out of your difficulties while in that relationship? Yes, he did. It’s crazy to even think about the answer to that. There was no cheating, nothing bad happened. It was two people at a point in their lives who couldn’t be together to be better for themselves. I don’t know. It’s heart-breaking because the love we have for each is something special, you don’t have that type of love often.  You’re still in contact? Yes. The divorce is not final yet, but it’s in process. We’re always

cast people who are gay and people of colour and show support for people who aren’t your standard straight white male. Do you feel the industry is changing? I do, but it has a long way to go. We can’t just cover the #MeToo movement and say, “We did that, we gave female directors a couple opportunities and black females opportunities to direct and be in a couple movies.” It has to keep going.  You mention the #MeToo movement. Have you ever been in a situation in Hollywood where you’ve felt a producer or director has made untoward advances to you? Oh yeah, especially when I was younger. I thought that’s what you needed to do to get ahead, take all these sexy photoshoots. That was a part of my story going back to the XY [magazine] shoot when I was under age. it happens all the time but I have more positive experiences of people wrapping arms around me and actually taking care of me. The fancy dress Halloween stuff you do is genius. Where does that side of you come from? That’s my normal personality. I can be weird. I’m just goofy and have stupid moments that I have to put to life. I didn’t do it last year because I was in rehab, I was in treatment.  Can you be that weird person again, minus the drugs and alcohol? There was a part of me that was worried, thinking: “where’s my creativity?” But now it’s back. I’m getting to do things again. I’m looking forward to the future. MAY 2019

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The journey of Ulysses

Canadian star Avan Jogia tells Attitude about his role in gay director Gregg Araki’s dark yet humorous vision of sexuality and identity Words Steve Brown Photography The Riker Bros

Entertainment

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ince joining the Nickelodeon show Victorious (which gave Ariana Grande her big break) in 2009, Avan Jogia has landed successive TV and movie roles across a range of genres that have seen him transform from Teen Choice Award nominee to certified prime-time star. His projects have seen him playing young pharaoh Tutankhamun in the miniseries Tut, and appearing alongside James Franco, Zachary Quinto and Charlie Carver in 2015’s gay-conversion-therapy drama I Am Michael. Now 27, Canadian-born Avan has joined queer film auteur Gregg Araki’s original series, Now Apocalypse, which recently premiered on US channel Starz. After watching half of the series in advance, I spoke to Avan and found myself nodding firmly in agreement when he described it as a “visual onslaught.” There’s sex, drugs, Teen Wolf’s Tyler Posey having an orgasm, and — a TV first for me — reptile creatures fucking random people in alleyways. Now Apocalypse follows gay-identifying but sexually fluid millennial Ulysses — a role specifically written for Avan after he worked with Araki on a short film — and his liberal-minded friends as they pursue love, sex and fame. But Ulysses is tormented by dreams that make him suspect the presence of a monstrous conspiracy. Sounds great, right? “It’s flattering to have a part written for you,” says Avan, who will also be seen on the big screen later this year in the comedy-horror sequel Zombieland: Double Tap. “Anything that Gregg wants to do, I’m happy to be a part of.” But how does an actor get into the mind set of a drug-taking, hallucinating, tormented, gay millennial? Well, Avan — who does not label himself on what he calls the sexual spectrum — found he was more like Ulysses than you might imagine. Do you relate to your character, Ulysses? He’s such an adventurous person and so am I. I love that he believes in true love and that’s interesting. He is motivated by fate, and finding your one true partner while still having casual sex and a great time. We are very similar in the fact that we both believe in destiny. The show explores how dating and hookup apps have changed society. Do you think finding true love is more difficult today than in the past? With this connectivity, you can find someone to hook up with at any time. With apps, you can order sex [as easily as] a sandwich. That’s the case with all this sensory overload. Between hookup apps, porn and Instagram, how does anyone fall in love? I think that’s what [Ulysses] is asking. Sometimes fun can turn into true love. I don’t think there is one way to arrive there but it’s interesting and it’s definitely different to how it used to be. One of my favourite lines in the show is: “I’m a millennial, sexual fluidity is a must.” Do you agree with that? Sexuality is a spectrum and identity is not just one thing. It’s your racial background, religious beliefs, where you grew up… Your identity is built by so many things, not just one. Gregg has been talking about fluidity since the 1990s, and culture has finally caught up. His characters have never been updated for

the modern world, the modern world has updated itself around Gregg’s characters. The show also touches on the #MeToo movement — do you think it’s important to acknowledge those struggles? People in power have been allowed to abuse their position for millennia. We have to do everything we can to fight against these people. There are a lot of things that have evolved from that; there’s not just one element in play, but there are lots of facts that make it the world we live in. We have to do everything in our power to bring it down and to fight against people who really abuse their power to take away the power of others. You have very intimate moments with Tyler Posey. How was it shooting those scenes? [Laughs]. Sex scenes are always funny. There’s no “dark sex” on Now Apocalypse.

“If you see discrimination, apathy is a problem. Your silence is violence” The sex scenes are just beautiful, fun and joyous. It’s mostly comical, like: “Raise your ass cheek a little so we can hit that lighting.” It’s all a laugh. Do you identify as straight in real life? My personal feeling on the idea of labels… I feel there is so much at play when it comes to sexuality. Sexuality is a spectrum. It’s unceremonious and a

bit slap-dash to label myself or anyone in a category like that. I have never felt comfortable with those kinds of absolutes and extremes. You co-founded a charity called Straight But Not Narrow. What’s the aim of it? The idea was to tell straight people to stand up for their friends who were being bullied because of their sexual orientation. I was on a Nickelodeon show, and I was thinking: “I don’t really care for attention if I can’t use it to say something that I actually want to say.” It’s a movement to educate straight people that apathy is the biggest problem. It’s the apathy of the majority. I wanted to teach straight people that if you believe that everyone is equal and you see [discrimination], your silence is violence. It’s as loud and as big a problem as the

FATEFUL: Avan (right, as Ulysses) with Tyler Posey, who plays Gabriel

bully doing it. That’s what prompted it. I haven’t been involved with the charity for a while but I still believe that straight people have to stand up, they have to be critical of other straight people, they have to be loud and tell others that if they believe in real equality then they have to speak up against aggressors. Have you seen a change in attitudes towards the LGBTQ community? I’ve noticed nowadays that it’s not cool to not speak up. The importance of speaking up and defending people is a prevailing trend in youth culture. It has not gone away by any sense of the imagination, but now it’s uncool to offend people and cool to defend their rights to be the person they want to be. Now Apocalypse is on Starz Play every Sunday, available via Amazon Prime and Virgin

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W

ill and I first met Ben Hunte when he covered our podcast Homo Sapiens for the BBC. The podcast is our pride and joy, the favourite child of our jobs. It really started because Will and I are mates and we felt there was no space out there to hear queer people chatting about every-day life in the way women can on shows such as Woman’s Hour or Loose Women. It received a great reception and has grown to be an inclusive and diverse space where we have chatted to incredible people from transgender rodeo queens to Sam Smith and Troye Sivan. I’ll confess that the first time we met Ben, neither of us knew he was gay for most of the interview. I suppose we are so used to assuming that when it comes to news, it’s usually told from a straight man’s angle. So his being the first BBC News LGBT correspondent — the vanguard of creating a space for LGBTQ people in mainstream news and media — feels like an incredible achievement. All three of us feel strongly that more space is needed in the mainstream for diverse lives, not just ours but anyone’s in the wonderful spectrum that is being queer. Ben, 27, is incredibly funny and warm and he exudes positivity. He does something that all really clever people do: he questions everything that we assume to be fact, from the realities of LGBTQ racism to what his role as an LGBT correspondent means. And if any of you follow him on Instagram, you will see that he can certainly lift a weight or two in the gym. I’m normally eating a croissant while I watch him bench press. Our chat with him was an absolute joy and we covered everything from why we’re all too woke these days to why “Barbara in Northampton” is always on his mind. 50

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Our man at the Beeb

Will Young and Chris Sweeney, co-hosts of the Homo Sapiens podcast, meet Ben Hunte, BBC News’ first LGBT correspondent Photography Francisco Gomez de Villaboa Styling Nick Byam

Will: You could be the new Alan Whicker, who in the 1970s would be standing there saying, “And this is apparently called an orgy.” That could be you, “And this is a chemsex party.” Ben: [Laughs.] I actually like the idea. For all of the stories I’m into at the moment I’m remembering what is, in my head, a mythical version of Barbara in Northampton. I think about Barbara from Northampton and whether she would know what I’m talking about. I’m channelling Barbara in every story at the moment. I think, “What does she need to know about the LGBTQ community?” Aside from that, I am hoping that the BBC is going to give me an LGBTQ platform, such as a podcast, so I can tell stories tailored to our community that don’t require a definition before each one, if that makes sense. >

Ben Hunte

Ben wears shirt, by Levi’s

Ben wears shirt, by Levi’s, vest, by Ron Dorff, joggers, by Acne Studios, socks, by Puma at Sockshop, trainers, by Converse

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W: It does. Welcome to my pop career. I channel “What will Barbara want to hear?” If not, it’s in the bin. What stories are you coming across? B: Well, I have only been in the role since the end of February. I’m trying to re-form the connections I had with people when I was an investigative journalist for BBC London and Channel 5 News. At the moment, it’s mainly me coming up with the stories. I need to jump on a few trains, get up north and meet the community. I just I moved over from BBC Africa. Having been a children’s TV presenter there, it’s quite an interesting leap. I feel I need a rebrand and to get out into the different communities, to speak to people about their stories. I had my YouTube channel before BBC Africa, and they asked me to close it down when I started. They asked me to shut down my social media and start new ones to be phasing in Africa. In my first piece in this new role, a few weeks ago, about LGBT History Month, I championed six of my LBGTQ heroes. When I went to Brighton, nobody I met who was queer knew of any of them. [As well as news stories], we also need to put on a platform and be like, “Look, we do have role models in our community.” Chris: That reminds me of Andrew Moffat, the assistant head at Parkfield School in Birmingham who is coming under fire for teaching LGBTQ-inclusive lessons. We interviewed him for the podcast. The work he is doing is extraordinary. B: If you look at that story from the outside, you would think that Andrew was trying to teach horrific, horrible stories to these children. He was just trying to bring them up to speed with modern life. As an LGBT correspondent, this is almost where it’s a difficult line for me to tread because I’m biased. It’s personal. I can’t sit down with one of the parents at that school and say, “Well, I completely understand where you’re coming from,” because I don’t. In my understanding, it makes no sense that your child wouldn’t be aware of it already. If they’re not aware of it, then why are you holding them back from joining a modern society? I think what I could also do is add a positive voice to the mainstream media agenda. Attitude, Pink News, you’re all doing it really well, but I don’t think mainstream British media is doing that. As I said, I’m coming from BBC Africa where I was asked to shut down my social media

“I can’t sit down with a parent from Parkfield school and say I see where they are coming from because I don’t”

because there were concerns about how African audiences were going to see me, being an out gay man. That as an example says there is a story there about being a black presenter facing an African continent, a show that was broadcast in nine countries where being gay is illegal, but here I am receiving positive messages every day from young people saying things like, “Wow, it’s so nice to feel represented on the screen.” It’s great that these stories are being told, but they are being told within an echo chamber. We’re patting ourselves on the back, but Barbara in Northampton also needs to see that trans women are doing great things. People need to see that gay men are doing more than just being entertainers. We need to see that lesbian women are adopting children, and they are doing it very well. There are different choices outside the mainstream agenda that ultimately need to come in from the larger space. C: How did you feel about having to shut down your social media? B: I was asked to, but I didn’t. I have had to almost look at how I can align my social media now

with this new role, and what is essentially a new life away from children’s TV because I couldn’t do anything for BBC Africa. It was an incredible programme and it was such an incredible role to have but it was difficult because it was like being silenced. I understand why that was because obviously there are people living within those countries and you don’t want to put them at risk. You don’t want the show to be taken off the air, it has been a challenge. W: It’s making me think of when Chris and I interviewed Skin. She said a great thing which was, “give people a minute.” She was talking about how she lived in the countryside and they probably hadn’t met a bisexual woman or a black woman, and probably never a bisexual black woman. When you talk about Barbara in Northampton, is there a sense of you being in the mainframe now so, “let’s just give people a minute?” Let’s not presume that they know everything to begin with, that they have seen everything. B: I had the same conversation last week. We were talking about the fact that people are now so woke that they are almost offended when people ask them questions. I think this is especially the case in the LGBTQ community because we spend so much time now being so proud of ourselves, and rightly so. But there is an opportunity for learning. When you speak to some of these people, maybe LGBTQ media isn’t on their agenda, LGBTQ voices aren’t on their agenda, not > MAY 2019

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because they are excluding them, but they are just not where they commonly consume the news. I want to try to educate some of these people because if you look at, say, the idea of being cisgender, I don’t think many people really understand that term. It’s something that we as a community have taken on. I still remember the day I had to google it because I was hearing people on podcasts talking about it. I thought, “What is cisgender and what does that even mean?” Now, a few years later, we can’t leave people behind where we are talking in one language and they are talking in another, and they are almost afraid of asking us questions. Another example with that is chemsex. When you drop it into every-day conversation and someone just gives you that look, it’s like, “Well, let’s take a moment. Do you know what chemsex is? Do you understand it?” There is an opportunity for us to step back and define things. Then once we have defined things, if people are still ignorant then that’s on them. That’s when we can say, “Look, we have put it out there. The information is there and you just ignored it.” C: We get a lot of messages from listeners saying we need to talk about racism within the LGBTQ+ community because it’s a real problem, particularly with Grindr profiles that say things such as no black people, no Asians. How can we tackle that? B: I’m going to spin it. I’m going to give a different perspective because 54

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“When I was living in Asia, I could not date an Asian man. They saw me as a kind of foreign criminal”

I am yet to face racism here. When I was living in Asia, racism was a day-to-day occurrence. I could not date an Asian man. It was interesting. They saw me as some kind of foreign criminal who was in their country, and they didn’t want anything to do with me. In four years in Asia, I didn’t date a single Asian person. Coming back to the UK, I didn’t suffer racism in that traditional respect of the no blacks, no Asians. What I did get was a lot of fetishising — a lot of people who wanted to be with me because I’m bulky, because I have a deep voice, because I look and act a certain way. That presented its own difficulties, especially when you’re out there just trying to find comfort in the community and you just want to feel loved, and sometimes you go to that negative person who wants you for a certain thing. In this role, I am going to be trying to shine a light on things like that because we do hear a lot about the racism in the traditional sense, but we don’t hear a lot about the fetishising. C: Where were you born and where did you grow up? B: I was born and grew up in

Walthamstow, East London. I moved to Malaysia to study at university, then on to Dublin and I worked across Europe before moving back to London to work for the BBC. W: Why did you go to Malaysia? B: I was outed at school and felt the UK was a very small place. I felt everybody knew me. Obviously, they didn’t but I felt like no matter what university I went to in the UK, someone would know me and know my story. I wanted a fresh start so I applied to NYU (New York University) to study medicine and got a scholarship. A few months before I started — I’d already thrown my leaving party to say that I was going to New York — they withdrew the scholarship because of the financial climate, so I started looking elsewhere. I basically fell in love with the idea of studying abroad. I managed to find a university in the middle of a jungle in Malaysia where I could study my medical thing and nobody would know me. It just so happened that they liked me as well, so they gave me an all-expenses scholarship. I didn’t pay for anything. I had all of my flights, food, accommodation and the course covered for all the years of my degree. I ended up leaving with a neuroscience degree, and started a magazine at an events agency in Malaysia. It did quite well and I fell in love with business and I went to study business. I got picked up by Google and that was that. It was a bit of a journey but I didn’t know that it was illegal to be gay in Malaysia until I got there and I was already out. I didn’t google it carefully enough before I went there. If I had, it probably would have put me off but I had the best four years. Now, I’m always trying to chase that good time because it was incredible. C: Really? Were you accepted and did it feel like it was illegal on the ground? B: It felt very illegal. My university was a small campus. One of my friends, their dad was a part of RELA, the Religious Enforcement of Law Authority, or something like that. Their task was to go around hotels within Kuala Lumpur and knock on people’s doors, checking who they were, if they were a couple, that they were married, that there weren’t two men sharing a bed. If they found something, they would take you out of your hotel room, put you in a van and have you for the next >

Ben Hunte

Ben wears t-shirt, by AMI

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Ben wears jacket, by Levi’s, jeans, by Lee Jeans

GROOMING Kristopher Smith, using MAC Cosmetics and Bumble and bumble PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Tariq Walsh FASHION ASSISTANTS Will Simons and Josefina Martin

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few weeks. You’d always hear stories like that. But I also became the president of the students’ association, so I was completely accepted. I learned quite a lot, and I think I was accepted because I didn’t make it a thing. A lot of people who went over to Malaysia — British and gay — tried to change things, and they tried to force it in people’s faces that they’re LGBTQ. They would go over with rainbow hair, they wouldn’t wear shoes around the city, and they would force LGBTQ on a country that was very against them. For me, I went over as myself and was open about the fact that I’m gay, and for a lot of people I was the first gay person they met. They had only ever seen Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother. They had seen him in shows, then learned that he was gay and turned against him, but they had never met an actual out gay person. By putting that in real-life terms, there wasn’t anything that people could hate me for because it was just like, “Well, you liked me before you learned I was gay, and now I’m gay and nothing has changed.” W: You’ve lived one hell of a life. I was waiting for you to tell me that you’d won the Nobel Peace Prize. B: No, not quite. I just appreciate different experiences. I jump in and enjoy them. With this role, people have almost made it more of a thing than I have. I’m excited that the BBC [appointed me], and I think it’s great, but I’m going to jump into it. I’m going to try it out and we’ll see how it goes. C: Let’s talk about when you were outed at school. B: I fell in love with my best friend and we agreed that we were going to come out together and be a couple in public — we both had girlfriends at the time. I went into school and a person had printed out our secret MSN conversation but had removed his part of it, so it just looked like it was me dedicating my life to him and wanting to be with him. I walked into school and people had read that. It was the worst thing. W: It really does sound like the worst. How do you feel that someone did that? B: I feel like in some ways, I’m glad I survived it. That’s all I can really talk about with that because if I had known a way to get out of that situation, as gruesome as that sounds, I would have taken it. It wasn’t on my mind. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I just had to flow with

“The same day a friend of mine came out to his parents, he was found hanged in his room”

it. I think an interesting point on this is within my school, there have only ever been three out gay people. One of them was Kele Okereke from Bloc Party, who left the school and came out as bisexual many years later, so he wasn’t even out at school. There was me, and there was also a guy who was one of my friends in school, who followed the same route as me. He went to medical school. He wasn’t out in school but he came out later. The same day he came out to his parents, after saying that he had been in a relationship with a guy he met at university where he was studying medicine, he was found hanged in his room. W: That is cruel. B: The idea that coming out is this wonderful thing and we should all do it, doesn’t apply to everybody. I have been on such a ridiculous journey, through being out to going to a country where it was illegal to be gay, to moving back to the UK and starting up a YouTube channel about my relationship and stuff. Nothing can be as bad as some of the things that I’ve experienced. W: There’s nothing worse than being silenced and vilified. Given your

journey and given what you’ve just shared, becoming BBC News’ first LGBT correspondent, it’s rather poetic. B: It is, in some ways. We’ve all got our own struggles. We’re all on our own journeys. For me, it’s important to reflect but it’s also important to look at where I am going. I don’t [look back] often because I don’t like it. My journey was dark. There’s not that much positivity that came out of my younger years. I was confused about what I was. I was dating girls. I was bisexual for the longest time, and I continued to date girls. I only came out because I was outed. Looking back isn’t a positive thing. I posted about it just a few weeks ago, about the 10-year challenge. How wonderful it must be to look back 10 years and feel, “Oh, it was great. I had a wonderful time. This is me back then!” Ten years ago, I was so broken, I didn’t know what to do. A few weeks ago, when my first piece for BBC News went out, I received a lot of [racist and homophobic] comments. Even if I attract haters along the way, or people that don’t like my sexuality, nothing will ever compare to my feelings when I was growing up. Nothing will test me in that way. I am out there representing young people who may not have the best coming out journey, but in the future they may be blessed with greatness. If I can uplift those people, then my job is done. @BenInLDN MAY 2019

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As sci-fi thriller The OA returns to our screens, Ian Alexander reveals how it feels to be the only Asian-American trans actor on our screens, what’s in store for his character and his hopes for the future Words Tim Heap Photography Luke Fontana

BUCKING THE TREND

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he second season of sci-fi thriller The OA has finally made it to Netflix more than two years after the first series ended. And, as before, the action focuses on co-creator Brit Marling’s character Prairie, a dimension-crossing angel aided by a motley crew of high-school misfits. Among this band of outsiders — including misunderstood bully Steve, grieving teacher BBA, and high-achiever French — is Buck, a trans teenager played by Ian Alexander. At the time of filming the first series, Ian was 14 and had to be chaperoned on set by his mother. According to GLAAD, he was the only AsianAmerican trans actor on screen in 2016. It was also his on-screen acting debut, having auditioned for the role via Tumblr. “I saw the open casting call for the first season, and it seemed so specific to me that I just felt an obligation [to audition],” he says. “With some encouragement from friends, I thought: ‘Why not go for it? If something happens, it happens and if not’… When I got a reply, I was so amazed that it was real and not some sort of weird fever dream I was having.” Alongside acting (he recently moved to LA to focus on his career), Ian, who turns 18 in April, is also dipping his toes into the world of activism. He’s outspoken on Twitter (his bio includes “NO TRUMP NO KKK NO FASCIST USA”), he’s worked with queer youth organisations to help promote LGBTQ rights, and is not short of an opinion on what it’s like to be a trans teenager in contemporary America. How much more does the audience get to know Buck and the rest of the group in the new season of The OA? There are two episodes of the new series that focus on Buck and the boys and their journey, so there’s a lot more screen time for Buck and a lot more opportunity for viewers to get to know him. There’s a lot more dialogue, too [laughs]; a lot more lines to learn. There’s also much more action between him and the others. You get to know his intentions and understand his trust of OA and desire to help her. In part two, the group believes that she’s in danger, so they’re trying to help her but they don’t know how. It’s a physical and mental journey for them, especially for Buck. You get to see different sides to him.

Were you prepared to come out as trans on a Netflix-wide level? We filmed in 2015, and I had come out about nine months before I auditioned. I was in that early phase of thinking I wanted the whole world to know so it’s been sort of the perfect opportunity for me to tell everyone that I am who I am and I’m proud of the fact that I’m trans. I didn’t really consider any negative consequences because I had already faced a lot of rejection from my parents. I was hoping that if I played a trans character on a show, maybe it would help them come to terms with my identity a bit better. Did that turn out to be the case? My parents are very religious, so the fact that I’m trans and queer does conflict with their beliefs. It’s been very difficult

ONE OF THE GANG: Ian as Buck, with the rest of the high-school misfits

for them. They still love me very much and they’re extremely supportive of my acting career, just in a way like, “Oh, you’re such an amazing actress, you’re going to win best actress at the Oscars,” or whatever. But my mom went to the set with me because I was only 14 when we started filming, and it sort of forced her to start using my correct name and pronouns, at least around other people, because on set everyone just knew me as Ian and would say “he” and “him”. When she used my birth name and female pronouns, everyone was confused. My heart would flutter every time she called me Ian or used male pronouns. It struck me that Buck’s “transness” is quite downplayed in the first season. Does that feel like progress to you — to not focus too much

“My heart fluttered when my mom called me Ian or used male pronouns”

of his storyline on his gender identity? Absolutely. When I read the scripts, I was blown away by how his transness doesn’t define his character. He’s still part of the story, not just because he’s trans but because he happens to be there. I thought that was amazing. More shows and movies should include trans characters just casually because we do exist. There are little hints to Buck’s identity but it’s not all he ever talks about, which is great because you get to see his development as a character and not just as a trans person. Did the writers consult you about Buck’s character development as a trans man? When part two was being written, they called me to ask if I was comfortable with a potential plot line, and they were open to suggestions and asked me to speak up if I felt anything was wrong or if the wording needed to be changed. But that’s been the case for every one of my projects so far, and I’ve been so grateful that the directors I’ve worked with want to put my experience as a trans man into my character so that it’s an accurate representation. Do you hope that in the future you’ll be able to play roles where your character isn’t necessarily trans? When I start taking testosterone in April, I’ll be able to pass as a cis man, so that’ll open up the world to me playing roles where I’m just a man and a teenager. The industry’s progressing and I’m sure one day there’ll be opportunities for trans actors to play not only trans roles. How do you feel as a trans teenager in America today? What are your views on the future, during and beyond Trump? As a trans person, I have found his presidency horrifying. But with all of this negativity and darkness, there is an even stronger push of the opposition towards light and unity, and it’s given me a lot of hope to see people standing up for all minorities who are being targetted by his administration. Everyone has taken a stand on issues they may have ignored in the past, and I feel this generation is going to be in the textbooks of history in the future. The OA: Part Two is on Netflix now MAY 2019

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Leading the charge Mashrou’ Leila front man Hamed Sinno lifts the lid on why he’ll never stop pushing for LGBTQ rights, the band’s darkest days and his resemblance to a certain pop legend… Words Thomas Stichbury PHOTOGRAPHY Michelle Helena Janssen and Ade Udoma FASHION Nick Byam

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Hamed wears tank, by Maison Margiela at MR PORTER

Hamed wears jacket, by Palm Angels at Selfridges, top, by Amiri at Selfridges, trouser by The Kooples, boots, by Camper

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e are sitting across from each other in an Italian restaurant burrowed away in London’s Hackney, deep in conversation, when suddenly his mobile phone shudders into life. There’s a familiar flash of magenta pink: a Tinder message notification. This would be a potentially awkward hiccup in proceedings were I detailing a date. However, this is a strictly professional tête-à-tête with Hamed Sinno, the charismatic and unabashedly gay front man of indie-rock outfit Mashrou’ Leila, the biggest band to come out of the Middle East. I tell him to read it. “I’m all right. I have no idea who that is, better to avoid,” he replies sheepishly, turning his phone over on the table. We return to our conversation and the Lebanese singer-songwriter continues in his attempt to put a finger on why he thinks the group — completed by violinist Haig Papazian, drummer Carl Gerges and

guitarist Firas Abou Fakher — has struck such a chord with music fans all around the world. Last month they celebrated their 10th anniversary and, hot on the heels of that milestone, released The Beirut School, an album that includes the latest single, Cavalry. Not bad when you consider the band’s name translates into English as overnight project. “I still don’t understand why anyone gives a shit about what I have to say. Maybe it helps that my violinist has great arms and my drummer is beautiful,” he smiles. “I think the world cares about the Middle East right now. We’re all increasingly connected and starting to fight the same stuff. It’s easier to identify common enemies. “I feel just as invested in Lebanon being like ‘Fuck you, Theresa May’, and ‘Fuck you, Donald Trump’ as someone [in the UK] would be. We meet the day after the quartet’s roofraising gig at the Roundhouse in London, one of the stops on their European tour. Hamed, it transpires, has a real affinity with the capital as he embarks on a trip down memory lane. “London was really formative for me. After my dad died, for three years when we were touring Europe, I’d take an extra week at the end, just to come here basically to do whatever drugs I could get my hands on,” he recalls. “[It was] a coping mechanism, but also just what I needed to do at that point in my life to feel comfortable being in my body around men. I’m not a very confident person and drugs just made it easier for me to take my clothes off.” These days, Hamed, 31, has embraced sobriety and doesn’t miss the hazy highs one jot. “I don’t like partying all the time, I don’t think I should be partying all the time.

“I’d just end up doing drugs so I could party all the time. “A couple of days ago I had dinner with a friend who I met back when I was using, and who I used to have inebriated sex with, on and off, for a few years. “Now we’re both sober, eating together and talking about adult things!” Hamed casually mentions that he has also given up eating carbohydrates — in a bid to control his anxiety. “A ketogenic diet is

“I don’t like partying all the time. I don’t think I should be” where you don’t do any carbs and you try to get your body to process fat instead of sugar,” he explains. “They use it to alleviate autism and epilepsy, and for some reason it has an incredible effect on anxiety. I’ve been less anxious for three months.” He has no problem mapping where his mental-health issues began, following the most difficult chapter of his career. On 22 September 2017, a performance in Cairo took a deeply troubling turn when two >

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concert-goers were spied flying rainbow flags in support of Hamed. The show of solidarity sparked a witch hunt, as the Egyptian authorities clamped down on LGBTQ people in the region. Seventy-five people were arrested, others fled the country in fear, and there were reports of forced anal examinations. “It feels almost wrong to say anything about how it affected us but we’re still not over it. The band broke up for a good eight months… basically I sent in a letter of resignation saying that I couldn’t do it any more because we ended up fighting all the time afterwards. “It fucked with all of our heads,” Hamed explains. “It was not an OK amount of hate to be exposed to. I grew up visibly gender-nonconformant in a culture that is not down with that. I know what hate is. This was not that. This was unprecedented.” Revered for their politically pumped anthems about everything from religion to being LGBTQ, it is no surprise that Mashrou’ Leila have been banned from performing in certain places in the Middle East: Jordan (twice) and, most recently, Kuwait — where LGBTQ rights, in particular, are restricted or, worse, non-existent. “It feels horrible being told you can’t perform but at least the bans have sparked a conversation about the horror that is institutionalised homophobia. People don’t talk about it when you arrest one person off Grindr because it’s not this major story.” Being attacked online and bombarded with threats is sadly just par for the course, a part of the job that Hamed has learned, with difficulty, to shrug off. “I wish I could say that

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the positive stuff made the negative OK but one comment such as: ‘Fuck you, fag’, will break me. It is what is. “When we’re touring in the States, we ask for bomb-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at the door because everyone in the US has a gun and that shit is scary, especially after Orlando. “[But] I’m not going to stay at home and stop my life because of some bullshit Islamist, or bullshit white supremacist,” he maintains. “I am scared, I’m just not discouraged. In the past 18 months, I’ve had to experience being discouraged and what that did to me, and it’s not an amount of power I’m going to give these people any more. They don’t deserve it.” Championed as a spokesperson for the Arab queer community, Hamed admits there is a pressure to speak out. “There is this expectation that Arab artists need to rise to that political expectation. People have that with black people [too]. If you’re making rap, it needs to be political, otherwise why are you making this music, unless it is resistant. It’s not a rule break that is applied to non-musicians of colour. “It’s not completely annoying because I’m that kind of person. I do care about these things. I’m so happy, honoured and shocked to be given a platform to talk about my opinions. That said, I don’t think it’s possible to speak for anyone else. I can speak for myself. I would hate it if someone decided to come and speak for me. We can’t paint gay people with one broad brush,” he warns. Press coverage in the Arab media about Mashrou’ Leila is devoted to Hamed, as a rare “out” figure but he insists more column inches should be given to his band mates, all

of whom are straight men thrust on to the front line of fighting homophobia. “This is business as usual for me. I’m a gay man in the public eye, of course people are going to hate me. Their position is fucking phenomenal,” he exclaims. “Three straight men who actually have to get a taste of what the rest of us have to live through. “If I were to write a dissertation, it would be about the possibility of embodying someone else’s oppression temporarily.”

“I know what hate is. This wasn’t that — it was unprecedented” As the band enjoys more success in the West and with plans to release songs in English, Hamed is keen to challenge outdated, and inaccurate, views of the Arab world. “There is no argument, we are so far away from where we need to be when it comes to human rights. But in a lot of ways so is the rest of the world. Don’t get me started on the States. “Our career is always framed with so much sensationalism and exceptionalism, it makes it look like [what the band represents] is >

Hamed Sinno Hamed wears jacket, by Dsquared2, shirt, by Comme des Garcon at Matches Fashion, trousers, by Fendi

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Hamed wears jacket, by Y/Project at Matches Fashion

HAIR AND GROOMING Sven Bayerbach at Carol Hayes Management, using Murdock PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Marysia Swietlicka FASHION ASSISTANTS Josefina Martin and Will Simons

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unprecedented and it’s not. There is such a long history of feminist movements, a billion things in the Middle East that continue to be ignored by the arsehole men writing our history books. “It’s only made worse when the rest of the world acts as if it didn’t exist,” he frowns. During his stay in the UK, Hamed managed to miss the controversy surrounding Parkfield Primary School in Birmingham. So, I fill him in: the school suspended their

“I need to live in a place where I can hold my boyfriend’s hand if I want” LGBTQ education programme after furious protests and a petition signed by parents of predominantly Muslim faith, incensed that the lessons were “promoting” gay and transgender lifestyles. “What most of us know about Islam is actually the version that is accepted by the Islamic institution, which essentially means it is accepted by straight man. “There is a whole fucking history that goes back as far as Islam itself, of reform

movements within the faith. So much has happened that is never taught to us because we receive this one version that is inherently homophobic, bigoted and shitty. “My friend had a religious wedding, a Muslim wedding, a religious gay wedding. There are schools of Islam that are OK with this. I’m not of faith myself, [but] if there is a god, who the fuck are you to tell me that I need to behave in a certain way that contradicts how that god made me? “That’s rubbish. If that’s how you want to live your life, then by all means,” he adds. “But if that’s how you’re going to raise your kids, then someone needs to call child protection services.” Reflecting on his own childhood, Hamed says: “I grew up in a religious household and for so long I hated myself for [being gay]. “If I had known that it was possible for gay men to get married — not that I think marriage is right — had I just heard that little factoid when I was kid, that there was such a thing as a Muslim gay wedding, it would have saved me a great deal of suffering.” Looking ahead, the former art student bubbles with nerves and excitement as he unveils his plans to move from Beirut to New York. “I’m starting to get to a place in my life where I’m stagnating. Beirut isn’t an easy place to grow up. It’s very difficult to hide and it’s only become worse with the band’s success. “I’m not a socially comfortable person,” he confesses. “I need to live in a place where I can hold my boyfriend’s hand in the street if I want to.” The search for a boyfriend has yet to yield any results, mind. “I find it difficult

to date. I just get ignored. More often than not, people are looking for a particular “type”, which I’m not. “You’re either a white twink, soz,” he winks, motioning to me (I’m actually an ageing twink, thank you), “or a buff gym rat, and if you’re neither of those, you tend to get ignored. “My job doesn’t help, neither does my brain – a lot of the people I meet in Lebanon are very intellectually unstimulating.” Perhaps Cupid will strike in the form of that unopened Tinder message, but alas we’ll never know. It’s time to wrap the interview but I’ve got a final question — one he must be asked a lot: do you ever get compared to Freddie Mercury? “All the time,” he chuckles. “I see the comparison but I think it’s mostly that we’re brown-looking, moustachioed and very gay.” Like a lot of people, Hamed, who has an interest in acting, believes the under-baked, but Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody missed an opportunity to do the Queen legend justice. “What that man meant to a lot of us is much bigger than anything that movie had to show. “I get why Rami Malek got the Oscar because they’re about a very particular school of acting — if you replicate something believably enough, then bravo — but [although] it was a good movie, it was just so typical and sterilised.” Well, if the Hollywood gods ever answer our prayers for a re-do to tell the real story, we know just the man for the job. The Beirut School is out now

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Histor in the making As plans for a queer-history museum in the UK begin to take shape, Cliff Joannou looks at the sort of items that could be housed there – and reveals how you can help build the archive

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PAST present FUTURE

Past present future

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE

M

oving home after eight years was never going to be easy. Determined not to be left in a last-minute panic – and pressurised by Marie Kondo’s perfect existence — I began clearing my life out. I’d accumulated a lot of stuff in the time I’d lived in the flat. It turns out I have a sentimental attachment to nonsense, neatly tidied away into lots (and lots) of plastic boxes. A lot of this nonsense went to Boutique, the THT charity shop in Pimlico, for people to buy and inadvertently perpetuate my fabulousness while supporting a good cause. The rest of it went in the trash. Sure, they were all memories in one way or another, things I accumulated in what I would like to think has been a colourful existence, but I’m not sure how much I needed a lava lamp (circa 2003) in my intended minimal life of 2019. At the back of the utility room next to the washing machine were four large boxes of CDs, otherwise known as the medium through which young people once experienced music. I don’t think I ever opened those boxes after moving into that flat in 2010, so they needed to go. I kept some of the more sentimental

ones. I had a Mariah collection stretching back to Vision of Love. I also kept first singles by Britney and Christina, and my early Janet and Mary J Blige albums. Basically, the divas. As I sifted through them, I came across mix CDs from the many gay clubs where I’d lost endless weekends. In the Nineties and Noughties, clubs gave out a free mix CD at Christmas or when they celebrated an anniversary. They were from classic gay nights such as Crash, DTPM, Fiction and Action. I stacked them in a pile destined for the bin. I couldn’t imagine anybody in a charity shop would want them. In another box were clubs flyers I’d saved, and early issues of Attitude and other gay magazines such as QX. They all went in the stack to be thrown out. I was on a mission to de-clutter and I didn’t need them, as much as I cherished the memories. But the trip down memory lane was a welcome one. These weren’t just club nights. Those parties were where I came out, discovered the joy of my queerness, celebrated my identity at a time when society frowned upon it and the law said I was less than equal. They were where I met the two loves of my life and most of my best friends. And this

experience wasn’t unique to me, it was one that I know many gay men share. They may have just been CDs, flyers and magazines but it seemed tragic to just discard them. Isn’t the club and bar scene as much a valid part of our queer history as a David Hockney painting, a Turing machine or Oscar Wilde’s prison door? After all, when the LGBTQ community has lived on the edge of society for so many centuries, isn’t our history and culture one that comes from the streets and the fringes of society? Without Frankie Knuckles at the Paradise Garage there would be no house music. Without Larry Levan at Studio 54, there would be no disco, and no Grace Jones, Sylvester or Donna Summer. Without the New York Ball scene of the 1980s and 1990s, there would be no RuPaul’s Drag Race. Certainly Madonna’s Vogue video would have looked very different. Surely the UK’s queer street culture deserved the same level of respect? How much of our queer history has been lost because it hadn’t been documented? It’s a sad fact that for many gay men, pre-1967 when homosexuality was illegal, the very idea of preserving gay culture was tantamount to an admission that you were a deviant. > MAY 2019

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“It gives us the opportunity to look back, to understand who we are now so we can then also try to imagine what the best of all possible futures could be. It exists in the sweet spot between heritage, art and culture” Physical examples of gay history before the mid-20th century are few and far between. What would we preserve? Copies of Physique Pictorial and perhaps the glory holes found in cottages around the country spring to mind. But what about the personal diaries of closeted every-day gay people living hidden lives. Less tangible is Polari, the discrete language that gay men used — often to communicate about having sex. In the years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, the language virtually vanished, beyond occasional use by pub drag queens. Today, we have a whole new “secret” lingo used to facilitate sex on hook-up apps: HH, BB, , , and, of course, the peach and aubergine emojis. The things we take for granted today are part of our history tomorrow. Who would have thought the often-political street art of Keith Haring in the early Eighties would be the subject of a major exhibition at the Tate Liverpool in 2019? Emma Meehan, the assistant director of public affairs at LGBT Foundation, Manchester, says: “LGBT history is often a struggle against adversity and marginalisation. It is also the history of a plethora of different thriving subcultures that has produced some of humanity’s greatest art, cinema and music. “To see our progress and to know how far we have come would empower the community to celebrate its progress and be mindful of what [it still has] to accomplish.” The Bishopsgate Institute in London, an independent charitable foundation established in 1895, boasts one of the UK’s biggest LGBTQ archives, which it has been 70

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building for the past 10 years. Among its collections is the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (more than 300,000 press cuttings relating to LGBTQ history, culture and politics). Then there’s th UK Leather Archive (cove the history of gay leather/rubber/ fetish sexuality in the UK) and the archives of Stonewall, Switchboard, Outrage! and GMFA, the gay men’s health charity. In addition, there are donations from individuals, and an extensive range of books, pamphlets and photographs. Stef Dickers, the special collections and archives manager at Bishopsgate, struggles to pick his favourites from the vast collection. “There are almost too many to mention and my favourite item or collection changes from hour to hour. “At present, I am overawed by the recently donated photographic archive of Bob Workman, containing thousands of images and negatives. He was the photographer for Gay News from the mid-1970s onwards and his archive is such an incredible record of queer life in the UK, from campaign meetings and Pride marches, to photos from nightclubs and social events, and out-and-proud celebrities of the time.” Stef also mentions a t-shirt from the Gay Vegetarian Group from the 1970s and material and papers that have just been accepted from transgender activist Alice

rnell, who was appointed OBE the 2011 New Year’s Honours List, as other favourites. “We’ve also recently been [given] a set of diaries documenting a gay male couple’s life together from 1946 to 1971 which are truly beautiful how wonderfully day-to-day y are,” Stef adds. e Proud Trust in Manchester s own archive. Strategic director Amelia Lee suggests the LGBTQ badge collection of teacher and activist Paul Patrick, who died in 2008, as a highlight because it showcases the humour, creativity and resilience of the community. Beyond physical items, our history also exists in the lived experiences of LGBTQ people. “Around four years ago we worked with the oral historian Dr Niamh Moore who trained young people how to gather oral histories,” Amelia says. “Young people then interviewed many of the great and the good from LGBTQ rights and campaigning and we wrote a book combining these stories — Prejudice and Pride — as well as producing short films on YouTube which are on our channel. The playlist is called This is How We Got Here.” Joseph Galliano is the co-founder and chief executive of Queer Britain, which aims to open the UK’s first dedicated LGBTQ museum. The building is years away from becoming a reality, but its archive is already being generated. As with the Proud Trust, Queer Britain recognises the value in creating a first-person experience of LGBTQ lives, and launches the digital platform Virtually Queer in May.

Past present future

frozen. It was the first time I heard a message “Oral history is so important because saying not only were there other people like much of our history exists in the telling,” me, but also that it was OK to be angry about explains Joseph. the way gay people have been treated.” My story about keeping those CDs In 2018, we marked the 50th anniversary resonates with him as he recalls his first of the partial decriminalisation of homoencounter with queer history. sexuality in England and Wales, this year we “Just at a point when I was really anxious celebrate 50 years since the Stonewall riots, and worried because I wasn’t like other boys but Joseph says: “The idea of a museum is — I was 14 — one of the things that changed that it stops it being about an anniversary, my life was an old book I found in a jumble stops being just about men, and becomes sale. How very 1980s! a platform that everyone can build their “I liked the look of it. It turned out it was stories into it all the time — to create a much a 1909 copy of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis. It richer tapestry than looking at that one thin didn’t take me long to figure out what it was trope around victim-hood.” all about. At the front someone had written: ‘I On the surface, museums are windows into stop and I will mock the scoffers of my state, the past, but they also allow us to envisage and I will conquer’. Presumably, this person what we want to grow towards. “It gives us the had to live with his sexuality hidden but opportunity to look back, to understand who had written that to gee himself up. He had we are now so we can try to imagine what underlined ‘and I will conquer’. I took that the best of all possible futures could be. It to mean he would remain defiantly himself exists in the sweet spot between despite the hardship he was facing. It made heritage, art and culture.” me feel less lonely and As the world seems to more rooted in the past. stumble from one political “It was like a bolt of lightning: I wasn’t alone, there was a defiance and wilfulness in that message that made me stronger.” Around the same time, Joseph’s brother lent him a tape cassette of the Tom Robinson Band. He was listening while on a paper round when the track Glad to be Gay came on. POETIC : “I stood with my heart in A touching note was my throat for the whole song, found in a copy of Oscar

crisis to the next, with former champions of LGBTQ rights such as the USA shifting away from supporting our community, and who knows what’s in store for the UK post-Brexit, there has never been a greater need for us to value our queer history. “You look at how turbulent the landscape is at the moment, I want to be a part of trying to secure our place in a visible setting within society,” Joseph says. The Proud Trust’s Amelia Lee concurs. “I recommend that everyone reads the Gay Liberation Front manifesto. You can find it free online. It’s relevant and nonheteronormative and is more political than many of the mainstream LGBTQ voices nowadays. Let’s move with the times, but never assimilate just for acceptance.” The Bishopsgate Institute’s Stef says the best way LGBTQ people can assert their place in history is by documenting our lives. Perhaps this happens in some way digitally on social media, although the ephemeral nature of digital giants makes them far from ideal gatekeepers of our existence. (Myspace anybody?) Better still, consider donating your own history to the Queer Britain museum, LGBT Foundation or Bishopsgate Institute. “It is so important that we attempt to document all of our experiences,” says Stef . “I would encourage everyone to put themselves in an archive, whether it’s with a club flyer, letters, diaries or photos. We’d always be delighted to put you in a box at Bishopsgate — in a non-creepy way!” queerbritain.org.uk lgbt.foundation bishopsgate.org.uk

Wilde’s De Profundis

MAY 2019

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THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD

PAST present FUTURE

Attitude celebrates its 25th birthday by showcasing boundary-pushing, trail-blazing talents who are paving the way for the next 25 years Words Cliff Joannou, Tim Heap & Thomas Stichbury

FIORIOUS

Writer and vocalist Where did the idea for the track I’m Not Defeated come from? I was at a really low point, I was dealing with the aftermath of a painful break up and feeling heartbroken about crimes against LGBTQ people around the world. I was trying to summon my own inner strength and create something to make me feel empowered. The music video includes clips of LGBTQ trailblazers — who do you feel a particular connection to or admiration for? I feel connected to so many. In particular, the words of Audre Lorde, James Baldwin and Federico Garcia Lorca, symbols of activism such as Marsha P Johnson, Silvia Rivera, Harvey Milk and Bayard Rustin, and artists including Sylvester, Frankie Knuckles and Keith Haring. As a queer person, do you feel your work is inherently political? Sure, but even the most commercial pop is grounded in some ideology and value system. Pronouns are political. Omission is political. Ambivalence is political. Sexuality is something that many countries still legislate [against] so it’s inherently political. It’s important for me to reimagine the boundaries of what it means to be a queer pop artist. What do you try to challenge about queer culture through your work? Pop divas will always have their place in our community. They’ve spoken up for us, and generations have lived vicariously through them. But this all-consuming obsession feels a bit outdated — it’s time 72

Past present future

ROBERT WHITE Comedian

I started working in comedy because I wanted a place I fitted in, although I never knew that I would become an example to others on similar journeys. This is humbling and ridiculous because my mother jokingly asks me to sign her boobs when I see her now. My voice is for anyone for whom fitting in may be a struggle because of autism or other invisible disabilities, or any other reason. Seeing rainbowdressed, wheelchair-users at my shows, and to know they feel this is a place where comedy is including — not attacking — them is amazing. I hope for a world where things seen as unusual today are normal. A few hundred years ago a left-handed person would be executed as a witch. Now, left-handers are “normal” and witches have so much opportunity, from political office to writing for tabloid newspapers. Robert is touring the UK until the end of April. @robertwhitejoke

for us to step up and support a broader spectrum of queer artists. We’ve started to see that happen with the likes of Christine & The Queens, Kelela, Anohni, Arca, Sophie, Troye Sivan and Frank Ocean. Do you think clubbing and house music go hand in hand with politics and social progress? Clubs have always been a sanctuary for many in the queer community. It’s a beautiful thing when we can find a space to explore identity without fear or shame. What are your hopes and dreams for the next 25 years, and what legacy do you hope to have created by then? I want LGBTQ folks and all people to feel safe living their truth on a daily basis around the world. Making sure no one gets left behind, that we all move forward together. Growing into fearlessness is a life-long process but I’m just trying to capture moments of it in my work. I can only hope that something I create can be inspiring and relevant to the next generations. The I’m Not Defeated video is a reminder to me that while we’ve come [a long way], there is an important legacy that must be honoured and continuously pushed forward.

I believe in nourishing queer people. I want to feel the power of representation — to show that it’s wonderful to be a fat, non-binary, sexual drag queen. I spent so many years afraid of these things. I want my book, Diary of a Drag Queen, to be a space for people like us to be seen, heard and feel embraced. Over the next 25 years, I want more than just headlines and bad movies. I want our community to feel cherished, valued and celebrated. I’m also hoping for stunning royalty cheques!

I’m Not Defeated is available to stream now. @fiorious

Diary of a Drag Queen is out now. @tomglitter

CRYSTAL RASMUSSEN Drag queen and writer

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JORDAN WALLER Actor and writer

WILLY HUDSON

Writer and performer I love making people laugh. If we can all laugh about how mad the world is, we feel connected and everything looks [better]. When people leave my show, Bottom, I want them to feel less alone — that all labels and stereotypes that govern queer culture don’t matter. It’s more important to be vulnerable and emotionally intimate in relationships. A lot of queer theatre and performance focuses on gay struggle and trauma, and while that is part of our history, we also deserve fun, upbeat stories. The Bottom UK tour ends at Porter’s, Cardiff, on 30 March. willyhudson.com @willyhudson007

I am a gay sperm-donor baby from lesbian parents. So I am pure-blooded wizarding gay. My oneman show, The D Word, is about losing one of my mothers and struggling to find my sexual identity as a man. I hope it can pave the way for more stories about queer families. I’ve written a film called Off the Rails about three middle-aged women who recreate a trip from their youth. If I’d had a more conventional upbringing, then, as a 26-year-old man, I wouldn’t be able to write about reinvigorating life as a peri-menopausal woman. We’ve had to fight so hard just to be valued equally, that perhaps we’ve lost sight of the fact that we might be worth more.

Off the Rails is out later this year. @Jordan__Waller

THE COCOA BUTTER CLUB

Cabaret celebrating performers of colour Cassie Leon, producer; Sadie Sinner, founder; Cynthia Franklin, marketing and audience development How and why did The Cocoa Butter Club come to be? Sadie: It began as a response to the lack of spaces, venues and parties that Queer Transgender and Intersex People of Colour (QTIPOC) experience within the arts. Cassie: It is a space in which QTIPOC people can showcase work that is significant to their cultural heritage. How do you want people to feel when they attend a show? Ca: Empowered, moved, represented and challenged. Of course, we also want to capture that joyful cabaret spirit, where people can be as loud as they please in support and admiration of the acts. Who are you providing a voice for within the queer community ? Cynthia: Performers who are under-represented and under-booked. People and audiences who are marginalised. People of colour who don’t see themselves on stage, in film or television. What are your hopes, dreams and ambitions for the next 25 years? Ca: In the next 25 years, we will have two or three full productions touring the world at the same time. We will have cabaret collectives all over Europe and beyond, and probably own a venue or two. In 2044, what do you want your legacy to be? S: We hope that The Cocoa Butter Club will be integrated into the mainstream without losing its magic. We will have established a queer space for arts and culture, and created a platform for the next generation. thecocoabutterclub.com @thecocoabutterclub

Past present future

TETE BANG

Female drag queen When did you discover the world of drag and when was TeTe born? I was fortunate to be brought up around strong women who taught me to be bold and express how I feel. My mum was a stripper for many years and I was always around showgirls. This gave me an insight into transforming myself with costume. TeTe started to spread her wings during the last years of the Black Cap in London. So who is TeTe? She’s the queer pop princess you never asked for. I represent people who don’t fit into the boxes mainstream “gay” scene tries to put us in.

What obstacles have you faced, especially from those who may not have encountered female drag performers. When I started properly exploring drag, RuPaul’s Drag Race wasn’t as big as it is now. No one mentioned that “women can’t do drag.” I never thought of my gender as an obstacle. But now the negative comments I receive online are mainly from Drag Race fans saying that my existence and drag is invalid, based solely on my assigned gender. The fact I get booked is proof that anyone can do drag. Who are you providing a voice for within the queer community? When I first came out, as a teenager, I felt a huge pressure to present more masculine as a way to prove my “gayness.” This pressure came from within the queer community. There were no lesbian role models I could relate to. The people I had the most common interests with were gay men. So, I didn’t fit into the box of what a lesbian was supposed to be, but I wasn’t the right gender to be in the club. I felt lost for a long time. I finally felt comfortable with myself when I was given a home in the London queer community. I decided to become my own role model and give a voice to those people who are floating around the in-between. What are your hopes, dreams and ambitions for the next 25 years? I want to create more inclusive spaces for people to explore and be their true selves. I have also been fortunate enough to take part in an incredible upcoming TV show for Channel 4 where I travel around the UK bringing drag to the public. One of my biggest dreams is to write a coming-of-age comedy that explores queer adolescence. I hope that my work, and my stories and experiences help others like me who at some point didn’t feel as if they had a place in this world. tetebang.co.uk @tete_bang

LEO KALYAN

Singer-songwriter A lot of people see queerness and South Asian culture as mutually exclusive but by living my authentic, queer, South Asian life — and making music that brings together both identities — I’m challenging this outdated narrative. Our experiences aren’t all the same but we all know what it feels like to be on the outside of the outside. Something that I’ve only recently started embracing is femininity — or the ability to be proud of my gayness in all its forms. In the next 25 years, I want to see South Asian artists — queer, trans, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu — working together to take our rich, artistic heritage to the global stage. People underestimate how challenging it can be to embrace your culture and your queerness but now that I’ve done it, I want to inspire others to do the same. I hope my legacy will open doors for other South Asians, especially queer South Asians, to gain a foothold in Western music. Leo’s single, trevi fountain, is available to stream now. @leokalyan > MAY 2019

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LELAND

Singer/songwriter At 16, I was sitting inches from the television watching Undressed, which offered me my first taste of a gay storyline. My hand was resting on the channel button because I’d lost the remote and was terrified my parents would walk in. Even though it didn’t feel like it at the time, that was my safe space. I now contribute to the creation of safe spaces for others, opening for Troye Sivan’s Bloom tour or writing songs for Drag Race. I hope whatever I do careerwise creates moments where whoever is listening feels safe. We can’t list every letter of the LGBTQ community if we don’t embrace each one equally. @LelandOfficial

TRAVIS ALABANZA Performer

ELIJAH W HARRIS Actor

It has been a struggle to be taken seriously as a trans actor. The industry still casts cis people as trans characters, and a lot of the writing centres around a standardised transition. There need to be more trans masc voices in the mainstream. Earlier this month, I appeared in And the Rest of Me Floats, a show written by me and the rest of the cast about our experience of gender identity. It is honest, intersectional, anarchic and most of all a celebration. We performed for schools and had teenagers crying, telling us their coming out stories. I’m not sure I can think as far ahead as 2044 but I simply hope to have positively affected someone’s life by being visible and open. I grew up needing just one person to be open about their identity and for it not to end in trauma. Elijah will be appearing in the UK tour of Rotterdam at from 4 April. rotterdamtheplay.com @eliwharriz

When I’m talking, I can only represent me. I never see it as providing a voice for someone else. Of course, I hope others can see a gender non-conforming, trans, black person take up space in the art world, and think maybe they can, too. My work is about complicating ideas about gender and ourselves, removing this idea that “trans” and “cis” are simple and neat categories, but, in fact, hold varying experiences. My work has always been about asking for more. Realising we are more messy and complex than the current Western understandings of our gender, and that we deserve safety, love and protection no matter how we express it. Twenty-five years from now, I hope that season 145.4 of Drag Race finally lets all kinda drag on, Shon Faye is revealed as our next Supreme and that Black Pride is a weekend festival. But in seriousness, I think it’s difficult to dream so far ahead. I just hope that the world becomes safer, and easier for people to live and thrive, not just survive. travisalabanza.co.uk

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Past present future

TOBY MARLOW

Musical theatre playwright and composer We live in a world where queer narratives are often told by non-queer voices. In SIX, Lucy Moss and I tried to give voice to female historical figures whose lives were told from the perspective of men, and in Hot Gay Time Machine, Zak Ghazi-Torbati, Lucy and I explore queer experiences in a way that challenges stereotypes. In a new project, I look at how friendships between queer people and their allies are represented. It’s often females and their gay best friend, or gay men with their gal pal. In the next 25 years, I hope popular culture produces increasingly diverse representations — the wider the range of queer identities represented, the more queer people can go to the theatre and feel included. @thetobymarlow

RYAN LANJI

Cultural producer What started as a one-off night to experience Bollywood in a queer space, quickly evolved into throwing parties in Soho House, Ministry of Sound and Tate Modern, where the room is full of caramelcoloured tones of skin and culture. I didn’t realise Hungama — a showcase of Bollywood music, fashion, art and culture — would grow as fast as it has. I didn’t want to start just another queer club night, I wanted it to empower people to start that change we dream about (or complain about not having) on the dancefloor. In the next 25, years I want to see queer South Asians who had the courage to be their authentic selves remember how liberating that is and not stop achieving until all glass ceilings have been smashed. @mslanji @hungama_ldn

JAY JAY REVLON

Club host, DJ and voguer I stumbled upon voguing when I was 14, watching videos of this woman — I thought it was Naomi Campbell — doing her thing. Her performance just got me and I thought: “This is calling me.” I started picking up some of the moves. I remember calling in sick at work to go to my first ball and I’ve never looked back. Ballrooms provide a safe space where anything goes in terms of gender, sexuality and dysphoria. It celebrates all of that. Ballroom is important because it is all about family. It allows us to stick together. We recently did something with Olly Alexander at the O2 arena, and Sam Smith, Dua Lipa and Rag’n’Bone Man at the Brit Awards. We need to perform in these commercial spaces but keep it authentic. One day, I’d like to own a club. Maybe I could afford a rooftop apartment and have the balls there… Jay Jay will be appearing in Breakin’ Convention: WorkX at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, on 3 May MAY 2019

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YAY! 2020

TOM DALEY WINS GOLD AT THE TOKYO OLYMPICS

Pictures of him celebrating with husband Dustin and their two-year-old son Robbie are broadcast to millions across the globe. 10s across the board!

2020

DONALD TRUMP IMPEACHED

The Republicans are voted out of office in the US election and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez marks becoming the first female President of the United States by overturning Trump’s transgender military ban

2021

DONALD TRUMP IMPEACHED

Celebrations over the Cheeto-in-Chief’s political demise are overshadowed as gay conversion therapy-supporting Mike Pence is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States

2020

NAY!

TRUMP WINS — AGAIN

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MAY 2019

The campaign to elect a new leader for the Democrats gets messy, and rivalries expose a fractured party desperate for power. America shifts further to the right as Trump wins a second term

2021

ANNEGRET KRAMPKARRENBAUER SUCCEEDS ANGELA MERKEL AS GERMAN CHANCELLOR

The leader of the Christian Democratic Union vows to fight the corner of “traditional” families — and right-wing sentiment continues to filter across Europe

Past present future

PAST present FUTURE

2021

AN ALLQUEER LADY MARMALADE TOPS THE CHART After months of infighting over who will get Christina’s vocal run, Sam Smith, Troye Sivan, Olly Alexander and MNEK record a 20th anniversary version of Lady Marmalade. It spends 11 weeks at Number One

Words Attitude psychic Will Stroude

2026

A HOLLYWOOD LEADING MAN COMES OUT

As Attitude celebrates its 25th birthday, we stare into our crystal balls to explore two very different time lines, and predict what the next 25 years could bring

And he is still offered straight roles in blockbuster movies. The following year, he wins the best actor gong at the 98th Academy Awards, and uses his victory speech to encourage other queer actors to come out of the closet

2022

THE US SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS THE 2015 MARRIAGE-EQUALITY RULING

Weeks after President Pence appoints yet another ultra-conservative judge to the bench, the court overturns Obergefell v Hodges, rolling back samesex marriage in 13 states and sparking nationwide protests. Pence then sets his sights on reversing the abortion-legalising Wade vs Roe case

MAY 2019

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2030

2029

THE GAY GAMES 2029 ARE HELD IN NAIROBI, KENYA Now an African leader in equality after decriminalising homosexuality a decade earlier

A FUTURE BRITISH MONARCH COMES OUT

Twenty-time Grammy-winner Sa rare break from his Vegas resi at the first royal gay wedding for the monarchy hit their hi late Elizabeth II. The rema states decriminalise hom their anti-gay laws a embarks on

2028

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME GOES GAY

History is made as not one but two Premier league footballers come out — as a couple! Teammates and fans don rainbow laces for their next matches as tabloid interest quickly sees them become two of the sport’s highest-paid stars

2025

2024

VLADIMIR PUTIN WINS A FIFTH PRESIDENTIAL TERM, NOW FOR 20 YEARS To shore up support and quell opposition to his authoritarian rule, he introduces the Protection of Public Morality Act, making homosexuality punishable by up to five years in prison. A Chechnya-style crackdown on known LGBTQ activists ensues, which is weakly denounced by the West

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MAY 2019

THE UK CLOSES RANKS

A struggling post-Brexit Britain, now ruled by Boris Johnson’s SeEU Later party, turns away the growing influx of Russian LGBTQ refugees, advising them to “look less gay”

kes a

Past present future

2031

VIRTUAL INSANITY

The new gay hook-up app Pornstr sweeps the nation, enabling users to have a safe virtual-reality liaison with anyone in the world from the comfort of their own bedroom

2033

CLIMATE-CHANGE CRISIS

As the world adjusts to the blistering heat, Jersey replaces Sitges as Europe’s leading gay party destination. LGBTQ people become even more valued members of society for contributing less to crippling global over-population

2032

GENERATION BE YO’SELF

As understanding of sexual fluidity grows and surveys show more than a quarter of 16 to 24 year olds no longer identify as completely heterosexual, terms such as “gay” and “straight” begin to drop out of fashion

2026

A HOLLYWOOD LEADING MAN COMES OUT

His next — and final — role is in Bring It On 7

2034

REAP WHAT YOU SOW

2027

Fifteen years after LGBTQ-inclusive sex and relationships education was finally added to the curriculum, STI transmission rates have fallen to their lowest levels since record began

NO FEMMES ALLOWED

Leading figures from the “masc4masc” community set up a formal union and declare themselves a breakaway sexuality that’s “not like other gays”

2028

NHS FUNDING CRISIS LEADS TO MASSIVE CUTBACKS

As more departments are privatised, sexual health, mental health and gender services are the first to go, affecting all members of the newly split community. Trans people and those on PrEP are told the taxpayer will no longer fund their “lifestyle choices.” STI and HIV infection rates begin to sky-rocket as LGBTQ people are pushed back to the margins

MAY 2019

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2035

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER THE EXISTENCE OF A “GAY” GENE

Anyone who has ever described being gay as a choice or nurture over nature is forced to read a public apology from a specially erected rainbow podium in Trafalgar Square

2040

LONDON’S LAST GAY BAR CLOSES

Levels of acceptance are such that LGBTQ people no longer see the need for designated spaces

2037

PUTTING THE “HOMO” IN HOMO SAPIENS

Almost 20 years after LGBTQ education was added to the curriculum, the word “gay” has fallen out of fashion as polls indicate 80 per cent of young people don’t identify as 100 per cent straight

2042

THE 70TH ANNUAL LONDON PRIDE TAKES PLACE

Now a week-long music glamping festival on Hampstead Heath attended by two million people, tickets must be bought two years in advance and costing 2,000 Brit-coins. You can splash more on VIP packages to enter the walled-off Old Compton Street — preserved as a memorial to a time when LGBTQ people were ghettoised

2044

CHER FINALLY RETIRES… OR DOES SHE?

Just two years shy of her 100th birthday, the pop diva — now part cyborg — announces a 400-stop global tour, The Very Final Farewell and Goodbye Show: This Really Is It, Bitches

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Past present future

2030

A FUTURE BRITISH MONARCH COMES OUT

Questions over an heir plunge the monarchy into crisis as tabloids, including the Daily Heil, declare that same-sex families are not “real families” and that having a “queen” on the thrown is bad for tourism. Under pressure, the monarch abdicates

2031

VIRTUAL INSANITY

2033

CLIMATE-CHANGE CRISIS

After London’s flood defences fail in The Great Wash, Birmingham is named the UK’s new capital. Martial law is imposed and an immigration shut-down introduced as rising sea levels decimate the developing world, sparking a refugee crisis. Hate crimes soar as living standards plummet across the UK

The new gay hook-up app Pornstr sweeps the nation, enabling users to have a safe virtual-reality liaison with anyone in the world from the comfort of their own bedroom (which is just as well, because cases of a new antibioticresistant super-gonorrhoea are at an all-time high)

2035

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER THE EXISTENCE OF A “GAY” GENE

Homophobes in lab coats begin researching whether it’s possible to alter it during gestation as LGBTQ people take to the streets to fight for their very existence. Straight friends and family previously considered allies say they don’t mind you being gay but don’t understand why “if you could choose to have a straight child, you wouldn’t.” A year later, the Sexual Determination Bill passes through Parliament, giving parents the right to choose the sexuality of their unborn child

2040

LONDON’S LAST GAY BAR CLOSES

As a walled-off UK struggles against tropical storms and blizzards, a new far-right emergency government cracks down, forcing LGBTQ venues back underground

2044

THE 72ND ANNUAL LONDON PRIDE TAKES PLACE A small group of underground activists known as the Queer Liberation Front flout new laws banning large-scale public gatherings and brave the water cannons

MAY 2019

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BUSINESS PROFILE

Pedro Pina Vice president of global client & agency solutions at Google Words Markus Bidaux

edro Pina is a business jetsetter who, after managing the marketing departments for some of the world’s biggest brands, is now working to help businesses sell themselves through Google’s digital empire.

P

What do you do for Google? My primary role is to lead their relationship with some of our largest global advertisers — household names such as Unilever and L’Oréal — ensuring they have what they need to use our platforms to generate revenue and run successful businesses. In addition, I lead “The Zoo”, an award-winning team of creative technologists, strategists and producers who help our biggest European clients make the most of our products and platforms for their own brand-building efforts. Importantly, I am also the executive sponsor of all our diversity and inclusion efforts across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and I’m the executive sponsor of our EMEA LGBTQ chapter for more than 800 Googlers, or, as we call them, Gayglers. What attracted you to the role? Google’s business structure leans a lot on its operations at the country level, so the set up is not designed to engage with large global corporations with regional and global teams who are connected across the globe. However, that was precisely the kind of work I was doing on the creative agency side in London: managing large advertisers such as Coca-Cola or Mastercard. I thought I could lend that skill to this digital giant which of course represented a massive and exciting opportunity in the marketing space, as consumers were becoming more and more digital, and brands were trying to figure out how to make that big digital transition and remain relevant. What makes working at Google really special is the opportunity we have to ineract with some of the most talented people in the world, cracking some of the most relevant topics that have an impact on people’s lives, while being empowered to make a change and drive transformation. What is the biggest challenge of working with massive household-name brands? Everything related to digital is speed. Some84

MAY 2019

times massive brands carry organisational structures that can feel heavy, complex and multi-layered. Decision-making processes are slow and at times excessively syndicated, which slows down the necessary output that their consumers demand. One other challenge is what I like to call the “Dr Jekyll/ Mr Hyde syndrome” which is when executives don’t realise that their personal consumption behaviour (highly digital) is not reflected in their investment decisions at work and for their brands. At home they are in 2019 but at work they decide investments as if they were in 2012. It’s quite astonishing. What is the best part of your job? The people I meet and work with. And the worst part? The intensity of my travel schedule. I am on a plane every week — across up to eight time zones most of the time.

“Stay grounded — egos can destroy careers. Don’t let success go to your head” What is the greatest lesson you have taken from previous roles? Success is elusive: don’t let it get to your head. Egos can destroy careers. Stay grounded and trust your hard work. What do you feel has been your greatest workplace achievement? To be able to shape Google’s diversity and inclusion policy and programme across a vast region while managing a growing and complex business with a large and very diverse team spread around the globe. How can young brands make themselves heard in the crowded digital space? This question should be asked of old brands, not the young ones. The new ones are digital and mobile savvy, and understand intuitively what increasingly demanding, impatient and curious consumers want, what they are looking for and how to speak to them. The reality is that the fundamental marketing tenets have not changed: winning brands are

the ones who pick up trends earlier, innovate faster, speak insightfully to their consumers and deliver a message that resonates both with hearts and minds. If you want to know what brilliant marketing looks like, start with those young brands. How should businesses look to future-proof themselves as technology evolves so rapidly? There’s no easy answer to that. The solution is not so much in what they need to do as much as it’s about how they actually do it. Businesses that are thriving today have a culture of collaboration and fast decision-making processes. They pilot and test everything all the time, and they’re unafraid of failure (digital allows you to fail quickly and cheaply), and best of all, they are open to change. Importantly, they start with the user. How should young people beginning their careers prepare for the workplace of the future? The world has never evolved so fast: speed is the killer app. Being flexible, experimenting a lot and being on the look out for your passion is the key to being future-proof. Loving what you do will get you ready for anything because the effort to stay current will feel effortless. Has being gay ever affected you at work? Being gay has made me a better person. I listen more to others because I know what it means to be invisible or feeling you don’t have a voice. I don’t take blessings for granted because I know that the good stuff can be taken away by those who don’t accept me. I am more curious, more tolerant and freer to make life choices because I don’t have to conform to traditional expectations from others. It’s not that heterosexuality is normal — it’s just more common. Tell us about the gayglers. Gayglers are an important employee resource group at Google. In Europe alone we have more than 800 Googlers who identify as LGBTQ, working across more than 19 offices. We want to ensure that Google is a workplace where every employee feels welcomed, respected, supported and valued while creating the conditions for everyone

BUSINESS

CV 1991-1996 Brand manager for Procter & Gamble’s health and beauty care sector

to thrive. We support events such as Pride marches across Europe where more than 3,000 Googlers and friends participate, and National Coming Out Day where allies support Googlers who decide to be their full and best selves at work. What is the importance of having a diverse workforce? Our chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said it best: we want to be the reflection of the users we serve. We do know that whether you’re building a company or leading a country, a diverse mix of voices, backgrounds and experiences leads to better discussions, better decisions and better outcomes for everyone.

And Google is a company that builds for everyone. What are the biggest workplace challenges you see yourself facing in the coming years? I’d highlight three challenges: the pressure to close the gap of representation will increase significantly, new areas for inclusivity will probably rise and put extra pressure (beyond gender, ethnicity or race) on employers, and handling with elegance and empathy the resistance of those with privilege, who feel that there’s too much effort being put into something which is not actually broken.

1996-2000 Marketing manager for Yum! representing Pizza Hut and KFC for the Brazil market, before being promoted to marketing director for Pizza Hut in Latin America 2000-2005 Managing director and chief executive of Portuguese internet provider Clix 2005-2013 EVP and global brands director at McCann Worldgroup 2013-present Vice president of Google’s global client and agency solutions team

@pedropina MAY 2019

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THE WORLD IN FOCUS

89 Just The Ticket 90 Travel predictions 98 Three Of The Best 100 Hot Hotel MAY 2019

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WATCH THIS SPACE Between 2001 and 2009, seven extremely wealthy “tourists” visited the International Space Station (ISS) but in the past decade only professional astronauts have gone into space. That looks set to change this year with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, and Elon Musk's SpaceX all making cosmic waves. This trio of billionaires are battling each other to commercialise space travel. Last December, Virgin Galactic conducted its first trip to low-Earth orbit — technically not space. This year the company will conduct more test flights and possibly take its first passenger — Branson himself — which will effectively make him the first space knight. More than 700 people have already bought tickets for one of Virgin Galactic’s, so-far unscheduled space hops. Blue Origin's 60ft-tall New Shepard reusable rocket, which looks a bit phallic, has a pod for six passengers above the cylinder-encased rocket. After take-off, the

pod separates from the rocket propelling it into low-Earth orbit. In the pod, passengers will have room to do somersaults in zero gravity if they can pull themselves away from the largest windows in space offering the best views of the planet. The decent back home will be a gentle parachute landing aided by booster jets. It’s predicted that the first manned flights will begin later this year. SpaceX has so far focused on commercial government contracts with more than 100 missions. As recently as 3 March, the company made headlines when it docked its unmanned Dragon capsule with the ISS.

Tourists will have to wait a bit longer for SpaceX's civilian trips, but plans were announced last year to send a Japanese billionaire and a group of artists beyond lowEarth orbit in the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket, aka Big F***ing Rocket), to circle the moon. With ticket prices thought to be about £155,000, it may be a while before we mere mortals can blast off but we are willing to watch and wait. Meanwhile, we’ll start saving to put a few people on one-way flights! virgingalactic.com spacex.com blueorigin.com

Just the

TICKET Words Markus Bidaux

REACH FOR THE MOON

More than 500,000 people are expected to head to Chile to watch the total solar eclipse on 2 July. Savvy travellers can book with Wendy Wu Tours, who have chartered a private aircraft to take guests on a one-hour flight from Santiago to the coastal town of La Serena, a trip that takes six hours by road. Once there, guests will be taken to the perfect viewing point in the commune of La Higuera. Astronomy journalist and astrophysicist Dr Stuart Clark will be on hand to provide an insight as the moon moves between the sun and the Earth, obscuring the former. There are 7, 12 and 16-day tours available with prices from £3,790pp including flights from the UK, accommodation, most meals and a chance to visit other top sights. wendywutours.co.uk

more Boston more often

now choose from three daily fabulous flights available from London Heathrow and Edinburgh

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Time travel FOUR WELL-TRAVELLED EXPERTS REVEAL THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE

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ravelling to the stars will still be pie in the sky (well, more appropriately space), and give up on any thoughts of Star Trek-style transporters to get you from one place to another in the blink of an eye. But over the past quarter of a century the travel industry has come on leaps and bounds, and the next 25 years looks set to propel us forwards at a healthy pace, with major changes to the way we explore the planet (and beyond it) certain to materialise. Hopefully, that will include the world being a more open and friendly place for LGBTQ travellers. In the UK, we sometimes look down our noses

at other nations’ LGBTQ rights and are quick to dismiss them as potential tourist destinations as a result — even if British colonisation is the root cause of much of the world’s homophobia. And, remember, when Attitude launched 25 years ago, openly gay people couldn’t serve in the UK’s military, adopt children, legally change gender or marry each other. So maybe we’re not really that far ahead of many of the countries we tend to avoid when making travel plans. Here, four travel experts predict how we’ll be holidaying 25 years from now — from having personal drones to capture every experience to taking a short trip into orbit.

Aviation There hasn’t been a radical development in commercial aviation for some time. However, the airline industry is following car manufacturers into the electric arena, although at a much slower pace. UK airports hope to see electric or hybrid planes taking off by 2030 but to begin with these are likely to be much smaller aircraft than we’re currently used to, and will be designed for shorter journeys. Today, shorthaul flights contribute 40 per cent of

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total aviation emissions, and these quieter, lower-emission jets will be welcomed by both environmentalists and the public, especially if they come with the predicted lower fares. Siemens, Rolls-Royce and other firms are racing to get their prototypes off the ground — literally. For larger aircraft, rather than a complete redesign, we will see a conversion to biofuel to cut down on carbon emissions. It was more than a decade ago that Virgin Atlantic demonstrated the first flight using biofuel, with boss Richard Branson drinking the oil out of a coconut shell with a straw to prove how clean it was. But so far, the problem with biofuels

has been that production costs have made them too expensive. There is now hope that biofuels will become more viable as airlines Cathay Pacific and Qantas are buying up large supplies, with the latter planning to run LA-Australia flights on 50/50 biofuel by next year. US airline United have also announced they will purchase nearly one billion gallons of biofuel over the next 10 years. If you have the need for speed, then the Boom Supersonic planes, which will cut flights times by over half, are the ones to watch out for. Flying at Mach2.2 (more than twice the speed of sound), the XB-1 demonstrator should take a test flight this year. Once they make it to the commercial market, they’ll be aimed at business travellers, with flights costing less (comparatively) than Concorde did. Virgin Atlantic and Japan Airlines already have pre-ordered 30 of the 55-seater planes.

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Hi-tech goes higher

As Attitude’s travel editor, Markus Bidaux has visited pretty much every country on the planet. Here, he considers the impact that technology could have on our holidays...

Smartphones The unparalleled data capacity, speed and low latency of a 5G network means we will be able to take advantage of virtual and augmented-reality technology. It is no longer difficult to imagine smartphones with screens that project holograms, combining with augmented reality to provide better map guidance, interactive experiences in museums, and even showing augmented photos and footage of past events projected over the locations where they actually happened. Of course, no discussion of the future of smartphones would be complete without mentioning the social side of them. This is especially noteworthy in places where LGBTQ rights — and therefore safe, physical queer spaces — are non-existent. I think these types of connections will transcend the dating sphere, and businesses such as accommodation platform misterb&b will increase what’s on offer, to become more like social hubs and help people meet locals in safety, as well as to discover destinations.

Photography The compact camera market has been in decline during the past decade, and as a professional photographer who often uses a £3,000 camera, even I’m happy to admit I often leave my heavy equipment at home and focus on getting the most out of my smartphone’s camera. The quality of the camera in our phones has become a key selling point, and we’re now at a stage where even luxury German camera manufacturer Leica is supplying lenses to Huawei. Our phones have become indispensable, and why would you want to carry another piece of tech when one will suffice? In the near future, I suspect, phones will be equipped with something akin to 3D scanning, so images will pop off our screens with holographic tech. Artificial intelligence is already post-processing our images and analysing what’s in them so it can effectively categorise them and AI will only be getting more advanced. Not everyone will want to shoot with just the camera on their phone. Drones are becoming more compact, easier to navigate and equipped with better cameras, so it wouldn’t surprise me if, in years to come, we see swarms of small drones that can follow and record travellers on journeys without even being noticed. Even the shutter button could become a thing of the past: Japanese tech manufacturer Neurowear have created a camera you wear on your head that analyses your brainwaves and takes a photo when the user sees something pleasing. The contraption looks a little ridiculous now, but imagine it refined so you can choose when to take a picture. Mind-controlled tech, paired with something like a contact lens with inbuilt cameras (already patented by Samsung), could mean the end of cameras, and wallets. Smartphones and even passports may become integrated into our bodies. > MAY 2019

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Hotels We’ve already seen a shift toward inclusivity over all-gay enclaves. Spanish brand Axel Hotels is expanding, with “hetero-friendly” as their mantra. In the future, there are likely to be more hotels that cater to adults only, uniting people who are like-minded rather than focusing on orientation. It’s unlikely that the traditional all-gay resort will experience a global growth spurt, but hotels that offer a sense of belonging — particularly for same-sex couples who want to show affection or for those who are gendernonconforming — will still have a place for many more years. It’s easy to forget that many LGBTQ people are on holiday from places where they don’t feel comfortable being out.

Tour(ism) de force

Cruises The LGBTQ cruise market will continue to grow through more diverse offerings, particularly in the small group sector. Gay cruises are no longer just raucous party fests, there are companies offering everything from low-key river cruises to same-sex family cruises. IGLTA has many tour operators as members who offer small charters to diverse ports of call, from Europe to Southeast Asia, to appeal to travellers who are as focused on culture as cocktails.

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John Tanzella, president and chief executive of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, a network of LGBTQ tourism businesses, knows just about everything there is to know about the outlook for queer travellers

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Marriage Marriage is becoming a huge part of LGBTQ travel market and we suspect the safari wedding business will boom for South Africa, as the stand-out country for LGBTQ rights on the continent. Mexico also has huge potential — it has a great diversity of offerings, from jungle to coasts — and is working hard to enhance its LGBTQ-welcoming reputation. Country-wide marriage equality would go a long way to sealing the deal.

Prides Pride celebrations will remain strong in places such as New York, Toronto, Madrid and Sydney. As we’ve seen recently, governmental shifts toward conservatism and anti-gay sentiment can happen overnight, even in places where people have taken equality for granted for many years, and Pride remains a great unifier. São Paolo Pride will become even more important to LGBTQ visibility in Brazil as the community deals with its new far-right president. Taiwan Pride, the largest in Asia, tops the list of popular Pride destinations while Japanese cities are adding Pride events to their calendars, creating an easy way to connect with the not-alwaysvisible local LGBTQ communities in a fascinating country that is safe and welcoming. Travellers seem to do a better job of looking at Asia as individual destinations within the whole, while Africa and the Caribbean tend to get painted with one brush stroke. It will take more countries within the continent/region to make large strides forward before Pride becomes a major tourism driver for them. While an emerging or smaller-market destination might not be able to compete on the Pride front, they can deliver something that captures the essence of their local community, such as Queernaval which is returning to the French city of Nice in 2019, to add extra glitter to what has long been one of the largest carnival celebrations in Europe. We’ll probably see a larger LGBTQ carnival presence across Latin America as well. There should be more events in the future too, to appeal to LGBTQ families as more and more members of our community become parents.

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Greater expectations

Researcher and LGBTQ destination development consultant Peter Jordan has written two reports on LGBTQ tourism for the UN, and evaluates the ever-changing global politics surrounding queer travel

North America We are talking about three different countries (Canada, Mexico and the US) with slightly different political systems, historical narratives and world views. But the largest cities in each of them have more in common than divides them, and, as in the past, we can expect them to continue to be the focal point of acceptance, progress and activism. Despite the Trump slump in tourism, the US is still a highly aspirational destination for people from around the world, and they are usually able to separate the people they meet from the politics they hear about. Cities such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami are global gay hot spots due to their history, and naturally this attracts curious LGBTQ travellers from around the world, especially from countries which are still culturally conservative. It will be interesting to see how destinations such as Fort Lauderdale, Key West, Provincetown, in Massachusetts, and Puerto Vallarta (on Mexico’s Pacific coast) develop over the coming decades. They became popular in the second half of the 20th century among baby boomers who saw them as a place of refuge and relaxation; a welcome contrast from more conservative corners of the country. However, Millennials and Gen Z have grown up in a more accepting environment and have become used to exploring further afield. Fort Lauderdale has done a lot to push boundaries and reinvent itself, for example by reaching out to the trans community and by hosting the upcoming Pride of the Americas. Destinations will have to continue to push boundaries and be clear about their values if they want to stay front-of-mind for LGBTQ travellers. In Mexico (as in the US prior to 2015), it’s been more of a state-by-state, city-by-city struggle to get LGBTQ rights through the courts. Similar to the US, Mexico is a patchwork of liberal and conservative communities and currently equal marriage is possible in Mexico City, plus around half of the country’s states. In the remainder, equality legislation has been proposed, and same-sex couples can appeal to have their partnership legally recognised on an individual basis. The Catholic Church still holds considerable influence over politics in Mexico, however countries such as Spain, Portugal, Colombia and Argentina have shown that attitudes can — and do — shift.

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Europe Throughout the saga of Brexit, the majority of EU states have been run by leaders who value the European Union and the rights that it guarantees for their citizens. In that sense, the EU has been fortunate, however there is no guarantee that this will continue, just as there’s no guarantee that LGBTQ rights will be protected for ever in the UK. The EU will not automatically deteriorate without Britain’s membership but it’s worth remembering that Britain has played an important role in protecting the EU from hostile states, such as Russia, and in shaping the EU’s foreign policy agenda, including advancing LGBTQ rights. For that reason, many in the EU are disappointed to see the UK leave. Ultimately, it shows that supporting equal rights for LGBTQ citizens is an ongoing process that deserves our constant attention, as the process can fall apart as political agendas change, and states seek to undermine it.

Asia Ideally, we will see a the domino effect on LGBTQ rights seen in South America mimicked in the Far East. But Asia is more complicated than South America — a land mass united by a common language and religion, and similar cultural influences, whereas Asia is hugely diverse. Urbanisation has helped loosen ties that force young people to conform to their family’s traditional expectations. Pop culture, TV, movies and, above all, social media have helped to give visibility to queer people, relax attitudes and force LGBTQ rights on to the political agenda.

Africa Even in South Africa, the first African nation to introduce same-sex marriage legislation, inequality persists and violence against LGBTQ people is more common than some might think. Resource-rich and with a youthful population, Africa has been labelled as the future economic growth engine of the world. But it remains to be seen whether economic development will bring social changes as it has done elsewhere in the world. I’m optimistic that a new generation of African leaders will be more accepting of LGBTQ rights and that the increased visibility that comes with social media and digitalisation will help.

South America Progress in equal rights for LGBTQ citizens has helped to underpin a feeling that queer visitors will be warmly welcomed and will be able to travel around safely. I visited Colombia last year and found the country’s rapid progress on so many fronts — particularly on rights for LGBTQ people — a compelling reason to visit. While in Europe some of the biggest leaps were taken decades ago, in countries such as Colombia you see it happening right in front of your eyes. Major trans-national events across South America such as Carnival, music festivals and dance competitions all have their own “gay corner” and provide a way to see these countries at their best, when everyone is out celebrating. Queer life in Latin America tends to be concentrated in major cities, and Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Montevideo, Medellin and Quito are often-overlooked as places that offer amazing culture and night life.

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Space tourism I’ve had the opportunity to experience a zero-gravity flight. Being able to move freely inside the padded fuselage of a large plane was quite thrilling, if brief. We experienced 30 seconds of reduced gravity, like on Mars and the Moon, a total of 10 times. That’s hardly enough time to get a feel for what living in such an environment would be like but it was wonderful to experience that feeling of lightness and freedom. Going forward, how big the space tourism market will be ultimately depends on how affordable we can make the industry. Even if rockets become reusable, there’s still a great amount of safety procedures, quality control and consumables for every flight. Getting into space requires burning a lot of expensive fuel. Currently, we can only get into space using chemical rockets, and the overheads are likely to remain high until there’s a major technological breakthrough. Seeing the Earth from the “outside” would be irresistible if it were affordable. I’m fully for the commercialisation of space both for tourism and for industrial reasons. Private access to space and the incentives inherent in it would drive down prices, which is good for all of us. According to some predictions, the cost for sending inert mass into space will be less than $100 (£75) per kilogram by 2040. At face value, that means the cost of launching someone my size to low-Earth orbit would be around $8,200 (£6,183). But it will be a lot more than this considering all the safety measures needed, other overheads and profit margins. A final price tag of $20,000 (£15,000) is going to be out of the reach of most people, but some might choose to save up for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I don’t believe predictions that bring the cost much below the $100/kg level. That would require a major technological breakthrough or some impractically large engineering project such as a space elevator. I love the idea but, even if the materials required to produce super-strong cable for an elevator were mature, it’s impractical. Space elevators are tens of thousands of kilometres long. Spinning a cable of sufficient length in 10 years would require a rate of about 1,000m an hour for the entire time. Safety is a major concern for all space flight. Depending on the amount of time a tourist would spend in space, the necessary infrastructure could be extensive. Suborbital hops lasting minutes don’t need much other than a bare-bones craft, you wouldn’t even need a toilet on board. But when space tourism gets to the level of bringing people into orbit for days, the craft would have to accommodate the many needs of humans. And from a technical point of view, we are incredibly fragile and dirty creatures.

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To infinity and beyond

Planetary scientist and NASA engineer Troy Hudson, or Science Daddy as he is known on social media, is perfectly qualified to give his view on the future of space travel. These are his opinions and not necessarily those of the space administration

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Space colonisation There’s no physical law forbidding space colonisation. Mars has energy resources, ice and materials that could be used for construction of habitats but it may lack extractable sources of trace elements and minerals, so the delivery of raw material from asteroid mining is likely to be essential. The challenges of Mars are similar to those we face with our robotic emissaries: it’s dusty, the temperature swings by nearly 100C every day, the thin atmosphere lets in unfiltered UV radiation, and the soil contains toxic and corrosive chemicals. All these are problems, I believe, that can be solved with appropriate technology and focused investments of time, money, and talent. But it’s a long way away. That’s a psychological hit and a practical problem. Earth and Mars line up for a “quick” (six-month) trajectory every 26 months, so if there’s an emergency, they are unlikely to be in favourable positions for jumping ship and coming home.

If humans really pushed it, we might have our first visitors to Mars in a decade, although I think 20 or 30 years is more likely. For the first permanent colony, we’d need to see some real advances in environmental recycling to make a long-term mission without resupply possible, so we may be talking about a century. I wonder if, once we learn to build big habitats in space with spin-induced gravity, we would even want to colonise a planet. The science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein said, “Get into low-Earth orbit and you’re halfway to anywhere in the solar system.” What he meant was that getting to and from the surface of a planet requires a lot of work, but once you’re in orbit, getting from one such place to another is just a matter of a little fuel and a lot of time. If we really aim to be citizens of the solar system, the deep gravity of planets may be better avoided for all but scientific investigations. If they were equally safe and equally comfortable, would you want to live on a planet or in a giant space station? LGBTQ people, as a category, are no better and no worse suited to close-quarters habitation and stressful environments than straight people. “Human Factors” is a discipline concerned with how different personality types, social groupings, and command hierarchies work for various situations. The desirable qualities for long-term space flight are not ones that either group has a monopoly on. In the selection of crews for such missions, an individual’s traits, such as capacity for co-operation and procedural rigour, and a tolerance for boredom would be given high importance. Cultural stereotypes would, therefore, be entirely ignored.

Space hotels There could be a variety of different space hotel implementations once it becomes practical to build them. But humans have no experience with industrial-scale manufacturing in space, which means almost everything would need to be built on the ground and assembled in space as the International Space Station (ISS) was — and that place is cramped! So, I’m a fan of inflatable structures that can be launched in one piece and blown up to many times their launch diameter, once in orbit. Long-term stays in space will benefit from centrifugal gravity, but that requires very large structures. Our ability to build such things in space isn’t nearly mature enough. To achieve this, it would be more practical to mine the resources in space rather than bringing everything from Earth. This means we would need to step up our asteroidmining game and get lots of practice processing raw material into habitats. It’ll be many decades, maybe even centuries, before we see large-scale space structures like O’Neill cylinders seen in the television show Babylon 5 or a Stanford Torus, the space station proposed by NASA in the 1970s and later envisioned in the film Elysium.

Trip the light fantastic Even if we are restricted by the universe’s edict that we cannot travel faster than light, there could still be ways to travel to other star systems. Making such trips practical would require numerous technological advances: high-efficiency engines and some form of cryogenic hibernation, or life-extension technologies. Heavier ships are more difficult to accelerate, so one could imagine uploading crew consciousness to computers, thereby eliminating the messy complications and heavy resource requirements of the human body. But would such a crew still be human? We may not be able to travel to the stars today, but it wasn’t really that long ago that we couldn’t fly… MAY 2019

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OF THE BEST...

Hotels for stargazers

VALTTERI HIRVONEN

There’s something romantic about taking the time to look up and watch the night sky light up with stars. The humbling sight of far-off galaxies can be hard to experience fully from urban environments, so escape to one of these hotels… Words Markus Bidaux

ARCTIC ROLE

Bed down in your own personal glass igloo at Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, north of the Arctic Circle in Finland, for cosy unobstructed views of the best light show on Earth. Between late August and the end of April, the night sky erupts with colourful flowing ribbons of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, for shows that last between five minutes and the whole night, depending on your luck. The igloos, set in a forest, have beds and toilets, but to shower you will have to go to one of the other buildings. Alternatively, there are kelo-glass igloos, which are traditional log cabins with the igloo built into the side, like a conservatory. These include a private sauna. You can also enjoy a safari — pulled by Lapland husky, reindeer, snowmobile or snow tank — and go skiing. kakslauttanen.fi

ON A HIGH

Perched on a rocky ridge, overlooking the Gorner glacier close to the swish Swiss resort of Zermatt, the 3100 Kulmhotel Gornergrat sits 3,100m above sea level. This makes it a long way from any light pollution so on clear nights, guests can see the Milky Way and planets with the naked eye. For a slightly closer inspection, the hotel established the Gornergrat Planetarium project, which allows visitors to join scientists in the observatory, found in the hotel’s south tower. See the stars, with an astronomer acting as your guide to the heavens. Each of the hotel’s 22 minimalist rooms is named after one of the 29 mountains that surround the hotel — including the Matterhorn. gornergrat-kulm.ch

SUPER NOVA

Trout Point Lodge in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia is nestled in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, perfect for night safaris of the starry skies. In 2014, Trout Point became the world’s first certified Starlight Hotel, awarded by the Starlight Foundation. Beyond the cosy log-cabin-style suites is a stargazing platform in a meadow with unobstructed views of the sky. The staff, along with the help of an array of telescopes, will guide you across the map of stars overhead. During the day you can go kayaking, canoeing and cycling, or for a hike in the forest. Remember to look out for rugged lumberjacks! troutpoint.com

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H O T

H O T E L

Eden Bleu SEYCH ELLES

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ince 2016, same-sex relations have been legal in the Seychelles, which is a good thing because I am staying on the archipelago of 115 islands with some fellow LGBTQ journalists. Not that I’m looking for that kind of action on this trip, these guys are not my type and regardless I have steak at home. No, it’s the fact that we are far less likely to be looked at strangely or harassed during our stay. We are staying in the Eden Bleu Hotel on the private Eden Island, 5km from the airport and a further 5km from the capital Victoria. We drive over the bridge on to the island, its marina filled with massive yachts, and before we know it we are checking in. The waterfront property has 75 contemporary rooms and 100

MAY 2019

Words Markus Bidaux

13 suites and a large infinity pool overlooking the bay. But we are staying on the other side of the island, in the hotel’s private villa with six en-suites. I am presented with the keys to the master suite, which has a four-poster bed, a huge balcony with an outdoor shower. The other rooms are just as nice with their own balconies or terraces — just not as big. I was a bit concerned about having a villa at first, but having its own pool, kitchen and lounge to socialise, makes for a riotously fun stay. Between breakfast and late dinners in the hotel’s restaurant and Bar Bleu, we venture out to the other islands by ferry. On Praslin, we dig our toes into the white sands as we race into the turquoise waters of Anse Lazio, voted one of the most beautiful beaches in

the world, and on La Digue, we rent bikes and cycle to visit possibly the most-photographed beach in the world, Anse Source d’Argent. Boasting huge granite boulders, the beach also has tropical foliage which offers much-needed shade. With more than a hundred islands to explore, Eden Bleu is the perfect base — close enough to the ferry port and airport to be convenient, but far enough away not to be hassled by the noise of either. And if you are going all the way to Seychelles, you want to dip your toes into the crystal clear waters as often as possible. From £1,915pp based on two sharing on a B&B basis for seven nights, or £1,100 per night to rent the villa, which sleeps 12. edenbleu.com

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MIND, BODY AND WELL-BEING

104 Activate 106 Bryce Eilenberg 110 Grooming 112 Matt Lister 114 A Problem Shared MAY 2019

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REVIEW

CENTR, BY CHRIS HEMSWORTH

A fitness app with Chris Hemsworth at the helm, you say? As a self-confessed Marvel super fan, the opportunity to train like the mighty Thor didn’t need too much of a hard sell. Unfortunately, the first thing I noticed once logged in is the distinct lack of Chris Hemsworth throughout the app. Sure I’m here to work out, but I also want sexy Hemsworth content! That said, the experts behind his transformation have filled Centr with features, podcasts and programmes to suit all performance levels. The planner schedules not only your workouts but also your mindfulness and nutrition. It guides you through each day, from what you should be eating (with suggested meals and detailed recipes on how to create the right food) to when you should meditate, which seems to be as important as the

physical workouts — which aren’t just weights-orientated either: there’s a ton of metcon (metabolic conditioning) to do, such as MMA, HIIT and boxing. These are great if you want to lean down but keep your muscle mass. Centr offers either coached or self-guided training sessions, with the latter actually being more direct with no intro video, which is great for those squeezing a workout into a

busy schedule. After a seven-day free trial, there are subscription offers from one month (£15.49) to a year (£93.99). Once you come to terms with the fact that there isn’t much by way of Hemsworth jumping around shirtless, then this is a brilliant app. I give it four out of five mjolnirs. Reviewed by Chris Jones centr.com

MORPHER HELMET

Words Tim Heap

NANU PILLOW

It’s no secret that sleep is important for both mental and physical well being, and pillows play a large part in getting a good night’s kip. But, when it comes to what we rest our heads on each night, we all have a specific type — a bit like with men. Personally, a limp feather pillow leaves me cold, and, by next morning, I’m tired and cranky. Give me something full-bodied and supportive: pillow or man, come to think of it. Anyway, whatever your pillow preference, you don’t have to shop around to find the right one any more because Nanu will build one specific to your needs. Answer questions relating to firmness, height, weight and sleeping position, and your perfect pillow will arrive a few days later — with a 30-night trial. If only the guys we date came with the same policy. Price: £35. nanusleep.co.uk

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Now that spring has sprung, many irritable commuters will be itching to feel the leather of a bike saddle between their thighs (we know we are). But as the controversy about making helmets mandatory continues, some people simple won’t wear one because it’s too much of a nuisance to carry around. Now, British inventor Jeff Wolfe has come up with an answer. The Morpher helmet folds in half to just 6.5cm thick, meaning cyclists can slip it into their bag when not in use. Available in a range of colours, its portability doesn’t compromise the protection to your noggin either — the Morpher has been tested and certified for safety. Price: £109.99. morpherhelmet.com

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From Pit Crew duties on Drag Race — wearing just his undies — to his day job as aerospace engineer, Bryce Eilenberg, 30, is always on the go

R U O Y T R A T S INES G N E As told to Tim Heap Photography Raul Romo @raulromo Styling Gabriel Langenbrunner @langygang

ACTIVE

Bryce wears compression pants, by Nike

S

o you’re back on screen for the new series of Drag Race, as part of the Pit Crew. You’ve done it for quite a few years now, is it fun? I’ve befriended the cast and crew over the years, so every time we film it’s like going to a big, happy family reunion. It’s a blessing to be back each year and it’s not something I take for granted. And, of course, Ru is such a pleasure to be around. What’s been your favourite moment on the show ? My single favourite challenge so far was the Breastworld episode from season 10 because I got to have fun with a dramatic death scene when Eureka shot me with her laser gun (it totally wasn’t a hair dryer with glitter). That said, my favourite type of challenges are when the queens have to make their own skits or advertisements. It’s great to interact with them as they come up with creative ways to use us as human props. The whole process is absurd, silly fun. Has it been a big education into the world of drag and the LGBTQ experience? I was never exposed much to the world of drag before I was on the show, outside of a few obscure references in pop culture. It’s been a fascinating experience to talk to the queens and learn about why they got into the art of drag and how they view their drag personas. There are some truly heart-breaking stories but it’s also heart-warming to see a place so full of love where people’s talents can shine, no matter who they are. You’re never really in much more than a pair of pants when you’re on the show. Do you feel the need to up your exercise levels and watch your diet before the show? Luckily, I really enjoy exercising so I keep in shape regardless of if we are

filming or not. However, we do get free catering for lunch and it’s sometimes difficult to resist going back for seconds or thirds even if I know I have to be on stage later that day. As a straight man, do you find it flattering that so many gay guys have a crush on you having seen Drag Race? Everyone I’ve met in person who knows me from the show has been really nice. The internet, of course, is a completely different story. While it does make me happy to see positive or encouraging comments about my photography or running, there’s more than a fair share of pretty crude and explicit sexual comments that I don’t particularly care for or find at all flattering. Have you ever done drag yourself or been tempted to? What’s your style and drag name? We actually did an episode where the queens dressed me in drag. My name was Red Hott. I was quite impressed with the results. I ended up looking a lot like Peggy Bundy [played by Katey Sagal], from Married with Children. Pretty awesome!

“I get a fair share of crude comments I don’t care for”

FAN: Bryce with Trixie

Which contestant would you choose to be your drag mother? While every season has stand-out queens who bring a smile to my face, it’s no secret that I’m the biggest fan of Trixie Mattel. She was on my first season [series seven] and I fell in love with her comedy. Since then, she’s released two country albums which made me fall in love with her even more. I’d have a lot of fun going on the road with her, playing guitar and having a laugh. Do you think you’d be able to do a full tuck, Trinity style? I think doing a back tuck when I was a college cheerleader is the most extreme “tuck” I’ll ever do. > MAY 2019

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Bryce wears compression pants, by Nike

Bryce wears tracksuit, by Nike

You’ve also been part of the Red Hot calendar, which celebrates red-haired men and women. In the UK, ginger people are often subject to bullying and teasing at school — is that as prevalent in the US? I never saw a lot of bullying. There was mild teasing during childhood as one might expect with anyone who looks “different” in any way. It did feel a little weird when South Park did that episode about gingers and “day walkers” and all of a sudden people started calling me by these terms that I never used to describe myself. And then there was the whole “National Kick A Ginger Day”, but anyone I knew saw it as an absurd joke and didn’t take it seriously. Outside of being in the Pit Crew and modelling, you’re an aerospace engineer. What does your day-to-day work entail? When I was a kid, I watched the movie Top Gun and fell in love with fighter jets. So, when college applications came around I just ticked the “aerospace engineering” box, and ended up with my undergraduate and masters degree from UCLA. Now, I spend about 50 to 60 hours a week designing and testing environmental cooling systems for aircraft — 108

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basically, the stuff that makes sure you stay alive when you’re in a tube flying 600 miles per hour at 35,000ft. It can get very busy but I love it. I get to tackle challenging technical problems and lead diverse teams of people with a wide range of skill sets. I learn every day, I mentor new employees and get to teach them what I’m passionate about, and I feel really rewarded when I see the hard work of my team result in a bad-ass jet. What does your usual weekly training programme look like? If I’m training for a marathon or ultra-marathon I’ll usually run 40 to 70 miles per week with mostly easy runs, a few tempo runs at a higher intensity and a longer run of about 20 miles on Saturday or Sunday. When I’m not doing that, I’m all over the place with beach volleyball, rock climbing, weightlifting, or acro yoga. The key for me is just finding activities that I can enjoy. If you don’t like it then you won’t do it consistently, and consistency is paramount. How big a part does diet play in your physique? I’m a big fan of keeping things simple. I don’t restrict myself to eating any

certain foods or eating at certain times of day or anything like that. If I want to lose fat, I’ll eat fewer calories than I burn per day. If I want to gain muscle, I’ll eat more calories than I burn and focus on getting more protein. If I’m going for a long run, I’ll make sure I get a lot of carbs. How happy are you with your body? Quite happy. My body has held up decently over the years and it’s let me enjoy an incredible variety of sports and physical challenges from football and cheer-leading to rock climbing and ultra-marathons. To some degree, everyone has areas that they would like to change, given the chance. I would change my skin because I burn easily and therefore have a higher risk of skin cancer. Has your physique fed into your confidence? Indirectly yes because my physique is the reason I’m on Drag Race. After you go on international TV in front of millions, in just your underwear, everything else becomes easy. When did you get into fitness? Were you a sporty and outdoorsy kid? When I was really young I had asthma and needed an inhaler. Sports were tough for me because as soon as I’d start running or exerting myself, my breathing would close up and I’d have to stop. When I was a teenager I grew out of it and started playing tackle football. That sport flipped something inside me to try as hard as I could, and that continued into all sorts of other sports until I fell in love with cross country and running in general. Lastly… Attitude turns 25 this issue, so we’re looking to the next 25 years. What do you hope the world will look like in 2044? It’s a long shot, but a world powered by nuclear fusion reactors. They’ve been saying commercial fusion energy is about 25 years away for a long while but maybe this time that prediction will finally be accurate.

“I had asthma as a kid, so sports were tough for me”

RuPaul’s Drag Race continues every Friday on Netflix in the UK @bryceeilenberg

ACTIVE

Bryce weawrs hoodie and underwear, both by Calvin Klein, socks, by Champion

GROOMING Joanna Klein, using Tatcha Beauty & Baxter of California @missjoannak

SAVING YOUR SKIN

Humanity Cosmetics have got a great new skin-care range for men. The premium products, using an exclusive formula containing jellyfish collagen, include an anti-ageing, hydrating moisturiser (£65 for 50ml) that’s designed to strengthen the skin’s barrier against the elements. They also have a cleansing gel (£36/150ml) to help replenish, repair and regenerate skin, using a natural cleaning agent that works with seed oils and balloon vine extracts. Next in line is a face polish (£40/150ml) that has activated charcoal, volcanic rock and oat silk, to remove dead skin cells, smooththe skin, and pull dirt and debris from the pores. Attitude readers can get free p&p using code ATTFP humanitycosmetics.com

GROOM ING Words Joseph Kocharian

COOL, CALM AND COLLECTED Now, this sounds positively pot-ty, but a number of beauty brands are exploring the use of cannabis in its legal form. And, no, it won’t get you high. Inspired by their apothecary heritage and use of powerful herbs, Kiehl’s are rolling out their Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil Herbal Concentrate in the UK. The calming facial oil reduces the appearance of red skin and provides relief from discomfort while helping to balance hydration. It can be used on sensitive skin and even helps to strengthen the skin’s barrier so it can protect itself. Another bonus is that you won’t be hit with a major bout of the munchies immediately after application. Available soon from Selfridges, a 30ml bottles will cost £38. kiehls.co.uk 110

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ACTIVE FRAGRANCES

Makes scents With the arrival of spring, it’s time to indulge in a clean and fresh fragrance Words Nick Byam

Un Jardin Sur Le Toit eau de toilette, by Hermes, 100ml, £87

Infusion Fleur D’Oranger eau de parfum, by Prada at John Lewis, 100ml, £105

Star Magnolia cologne, by Jo Malone, 100ml, £98

Givenchy Gentleman cologne, by Givenchy at Debenhams, 50ml, £49

Afternoon Swim cologne, by Louis Vuitton Les Parfums, 100ml, £185

Stem eau de parfum, by Malin + Goetz, 50ml, £75

MAY 2019

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FOCUS

PUT YOUR MIND TO IT There’s more to sport and exercise than just toning your body. Matt Lister will give you something to think about Photography Markus Bidaux

I

see plenty of people struggle with their health and fitness “journeys” and it underlines for me just how much exercise, training and performance is cultivated in the mind. The psychology behind sport and exercise is vast, so I want to highlight some key areas that can make a difference in your attitude toward achieving the results you want. FOOD CHAIN It’s not just our bodies that need to fuel up, so do our brains, and there are certain foods that could increase your “brain power.” Blueberries have been linked to reducing short-term memory loss, for any Dory out there, while vitamin C is amazing for improving mental agility, so gobble up plenty of blackcurrants, citrus fruits and broccoli. Turning to the long term, you might be able to fend off memory lapses with oily fish and omega-3 rich seeds such as chia and linseed. SLEEP ON IT Simple, yes, but think about how many hours of sleep you actually get in an average night? Healthy adults, aged 18 to 65, need between seven and nine hours every night. Anything less than that and cognitive function begins to suffer dramatically. GOING APE Stay with me on this one. The mastermind behind British cycling’s success, consultant psychiatrist Professor Steve Peters, created the “chimp model” which has been adopted by countless nations and their sports. I can’t stress enough how meeting this man, working with his students, and gaining knowledge about this mind-management scheme designed to make you happier and healthier, has changed my life, not just within sport but also day to day. If you ever read or learn one more thing in your life… this should be it! JUMP FOR JOY Get competitive and have fun! You should always enjoy what you are doing. If you are dragging yourself to the gym, with a face of thunder and a mood to match, ask yourself why? There are so many ways to exercise now that there will always be an alternative to keep what you’re doing fresh and enjoyable. Try a new class each fortnight to see if something different takes your fancy. 112

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ACTIVE

HAVE THE STOMACH FOR IT Warmer weather will soon be here — we hope — and you’ll want to be taking off your top. Here are some tips to help make those abs attract more attention when you do

WALKING PLANKS > Start in a standard front plank position, keeping a flat back with only your toes and hands touching the floor. > Slide one hand forward and drop that arm’s elbow to the floor. Then repeat with the opposite arm so both elbows are now on the floor. > Then reverse the movement to extend your arms again, one at a time. Continue walking like this, keeping your body straight and your core engaged for the remainder of the time you’ve set

HOLLOW HOLD/ARCH > For a hollow hold, lie on your back, arms outstretched, and lift both your legs and your entire upper body so only your lower back and bum are flat to the ground. > For a hollow arch, lie on your stomach, arms outstretched once again, and arch the opposite way so your hips and stomach are flat to the floor.

SIT UPS

SINGLE LEG V SIT-UPS

APESHIT CRUNCHES

> Start by lying on your back with your arms up over your head, and your legs straight. > Lift your upper body and one foot to the sky, touch your fingers to your toes and return to the start position. > Repeat with the opposite leg, trying to keep it straight as you lift it.

> Stolen from Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Apeshit video, start by lying on your back, your arms by your sides and legs extended. > In one motion, raise one knee up toward your chest At the same time lift your shoulders and back our bum. rn to the er leg.

MAY 2019

TNESSSHOREDITCH.COM)

> Start on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Put your fingers to your temples. > Sit all the way up, but with a flat back, so that your shoulders break the line of your hips, then return to the start position.

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A PROBLEM SHARED Got a problem? Dr Ranj Singh is here to offer his advice When I was 18, I got a tattoo on my lower back, which I now really regret. I find it so embarrassing I’m actually scared to be intimate with anyone, and desperately want it to be removed. Can I get it done on the NHS and what does it involve? Dylan, Belfast Good news: tattoos can be removed. Bad news: it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to have it done on the NHS. But before you even consider the procedure, it’s important to know what it entails because it’s not as straightforward as you might think. First of all, tattoo removal should only be carried out by a reputable practitioner in an appropriate environment. It involves a hand-held device being pressed against the skin, activating a laser which will break the tat into tiny fragments that are then absorbed by the body. Some people find this very uncomfortable — it feels like an elastic band being snapped against you — but you may be able to use numbing cream to help with the pain. It can take 10 sessions or more for the tattoo to go completely, and each can slot can last between 10 and 30 minutes depending on the size of the tat. However, please bear in mind that, even after several treatments, it may not be possible to remove the

tattoo entirely, and it’s fairly common to have some ink left over. You will also have to protect the skin after each session because it will be sensitive. It’s not unusual, either, for there to be bleeding and scabbing afterwards. There’s also a risk that your skin could scar and that natural pigmentation may change permanently.

“A laser breaks up the tat and feels like an elastic band being snapped against you” Then there is the cost: to have it done privately, typically costs are about £150 per session for a small tattoo, up to £800 for a larger inking. If this is all a bit much, it might be worth having a cover-up tattoo, where a new one is created on top of the old design to hide it. Obviously, this means having to go through the whole process again but that might give a more acceptable, and less embarrassing, result.

HEALTH NEWS Meningitis vaccine Large numbers of 18 to 25 year olds are not aware that they need their catch-up MenACWY meningitis vaccine. Anyone born on or after 1 September 1996 — or students going to college/university for the first time and who have not yet had the vaccine — remain eligible up until their 25th birthday. The vaccination protects against four strains of the deadly illness, in particular the highly virulent Men W, cases of which have been rising since 2009. If you are unsure whether you need the jab, get in touch with your doctor.

Hospital’s LGBTQ awareness project The Evelina London Children’s Hospital has kick-started the Rainbow NHS Badge Project to increase understanding of LGBTQ young people, and to provide a safe space for them to seek help. Dr Mike Farquhar created the programme in response to research showing the challenges that queer people face when it comes to accessing health care. Staff are given a rainbow NHS badge to wear — alongside specific diversity training — signalling to a person that they are there to offer advice and support. The project has since been rolled out across the whole of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust. For more information, see @RainbowNHSBadge on Twitter.

IF YOU’D LIKE TO SUBMIT A PROBLEM FOR DR RANJ TO ANSWER, TWEET @DRRANJ OR EMAIL [email protected]

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International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival 6 — 19 May 2019 Book online now! www.gaytheatre.ie

Real Bodies p122

PEOPLE, PLACES, PERSPECTIVES

118 Real Life 120 Life Lessons 122 Real Bodies 124 Word on the Street 126 Table For Two 127 Buddy Brilliant 129 Books 131 Films 132 Music 133 Homo Fomo MAY 2019

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LIKE A LITTLE PRAYER 118

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Real life

One-time trainee priest Owen O’Kane, 48, found his true calling when he became a psychotherapist instead — and now helps LGBTQ people with mental-health struggles to find self-love and worth As told to Thomas Stichbury Photography Markus Bidaux

G

rowing up gay in Northern Ireland during The Troubles wasn’t easy. I spent my childhood in a part of Belfast called Ardoyne, a flashpoint for a lot of the violence. You were at home, a bomb goes off, then 10 minutes later, it was back to normal, and you were playing outside again. It was a tough, working-class area, and although the people were lovely, difference wasn’t promoted. Flashback to my first Pride in the capital, this must have been 20-plus years ago now, and there were about 50 people in the parade. I watched from the sidelines, not wanting to be seen, thinking: how are they finding the courage to do this? Last year’s Pride had 50,000, maybe more, taking part. It’s incredible how far we’ve come. I didn’t come out until my early twenties. It just wasn’t the norm. I also grew up Catholic, surrounded by religion — literally. My bedroom, for example, was hilarious. Everywhere I turned there would be either a crucifix or Jesus hanging on the wall, not to mention a statue of the Virgin Mary with luminous eyes that would light up in the dark. So, at night-time, I’d have the Virgin Mary staring at me. I took it a step further at the age of 18 when I went to a monastery in Dublin for three years to train to be a priest. It seemed like the natural trajectory; I went to mass every week and believed in God. I didn’t link it to being gay, and I didn’t view it as running away or hiding. It may sound weird but those were some of the best years of my life. I met incredible people and the day-to-day work was fascinating: working in a hospice or with drug addicts and the homeless. I don’t regret it. In some ways, the training helped me come out as it forced me to really look at myself.

One of the more memorable moments during my time at the monastery was a trip to Lourdes, a place of Catholic pilgrimage in France where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. Millions of people visit it every year and some people claim that after blessing themselves in the water from a spring in the grotto of Massabielle, they have been healed. I had the opportunity to go into the water and to pray for my “intention”, which was that the gay thing would go away, that I’d come back straight and that would be the end of it. However, while being led to the water, out of the corner of my I eye I saw these absolutely gorgeous French guys emerge with no tops on. They were just wearing shorts. All I could see were these huge biceps, SUPPORT: Owen beautiful perfect bodies. with his mum I remember thinking, “Fucking hell, if I’m still looking at guys here of all places, what hope is there? I’m doomed!” Ironically, it was a healing in a different way. Something shifted in my brain that day: I decided not to fight it any more, I couldn’t live a life that wasn’t authentic and true. After leaving the monastery, I came out to my parents. It was really late at night when I sat them down. My mum said: “Have you got someone pregnant? Are you taking drugs?” I replied: “Hardly, I’ve been in a monastery.” At one point, she asked: “Are you going out with a Protestant?” Then she said, “Don’t say you’re gay,” and I replied, “It is that actually.” Bless them, one day they thought they had a potential Pope in the house, then 24 hours later they learn they’ve got a gay under their roof! I’d be lying if I said that they were

social

overjoyed by the news but they were just concerned for me. They both got there in the end and it became very normal for them. Indeed, I’ve been with my partner for 20 years and he’s part of the family, always has been, and was never made to feel any different. My mum died of breast cancer 12 years ago and, on the day of her funeral, I discovered that she’d been volunteering for a hotline for parents of LGBTQ children. Someone called the house phone, I answered. It was a lady with an English accent and she said, “Are you Owen? Your mum often talked about you.” I told my dad and he said, “She’s being doing the hotline for years, she’d be on there for hours.” It had never came up in conversation. I don’t think she had the support when I was coming out and, somewhere in her mind, she realised there was a need for this. She was waving the pink flag and doing her bit. It was testament to her character and made me so proud. It also made me realise that I’m one of the lucky ones, to have a family who embraced me. I’ve come a long way from wanting to “pray the gay away” and those feelings of guilt and shame have given way to selflove, and to allowing myself to be loved. That’s what my book, Ten to Zen, is about. My experience as a therapist is that, underlying most struggles, particularly within the LGBTQ community, is a shame of some description, a sense of not being good, or worthy, enough. I want to make things easier for people and I couldn’t do that without being open about my own struggles. It is so important to me that mental well-being is taken seriously — the stats around LGBTQ people speak for themselves — and I just want them to know that you can take control and ownership, that there is something you can do about it.

“I thought: ‘If I’m looking at guys here of all places, what hope is there?’”

Ten to Zen is out now. @owenokaneten MAY 2019

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ROGER THE ALIEN Centuries-old, small, grey psychopathic extra-terrestrial

Everyone knows blonds get more attention. Scientists have proven it but their research was ignored because they were boring brownhaired scientists I love myself all the time. At least once in the morning, and usually again right before I go to sleep BEING EMOTIONALLY HONEST MAKES ME VOMIT When you’re locked in a Cadillac, sinking to the bottom of the ocean, you either learn about cars or you die

Spoiler alert: sweet potatoes SUCK! How’d you get the sweet out of the potatoes? MY ANGELA LANSBURY WORKOUT. WHY MISS LANSBURY, YOU ASK? WELL, I’VE COME TO ACCEPT THAT I HAVE THE BODY OF A POSTMENOPAUSAL SENIOR WOMAN. I DO, I’M AT PEACE WITH IT 120

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The original Roswell alien that crashed in the New Mexico desert in 1947 and went on to inspire a thousand urban myths, Roger is better known as the fifth member of the Smith family in the animated sitcom American Dad! Pansexual and androgynous, and sporting a scathing sense of humour that would sit comfortably on an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Roger adds AA — for arsehole alien — to the LGBTQ acronym. Our intergalactic queer sista with a penchant for wigs and heels, Roger flips between emotionally unstable and malevolent with the skill of even the best self-loathing homosexual. We’re not sure if he was always such a cutting bitch, or whether it’s the result of decades spent hiding from society. Rightly voted the gayest cartoon character of all time by Logo TV in March 2014, Roger is the ultimate queer icon for an unstable age.

If you aren’t going to put forth the effort to be interesting, then I’m not going to go the extra mile to listen

There’s always a way around things I READ AN ARTICLE THAT SAID: “IF YOU DRINK EVERY DAY YOU ARE AN ALCOHOLIC.” THANK GOD, THEN, THAT I ONLY DRINK EVERY NIGHT

Remember when Rudy from The Cosby Show got old and stopped being cute? I brought them Raven-Symoné. Saw her on a Philadelphia playground and knew she was a star. Snatched her right up. Six months later, her parents saw her on TV and realised she was still alive. I did some time for that I NEED VODKA TO HELP ME ENDURE ALL THE WINDOWLICKING, CRAYON-EATING, HELMUT-WEARING FUCKTARDS I’LL ENCOUNTER TODAY

social

I don’t always drink blended alcoholic beverages but when I do, it’s because I’m driving IN A HUNDRED YEARS, WHEN THERE ARE A MILLION JERKS RIDING AROUND MANHATTAN DRUNK IN LIMOS, THE WEST WILL SEEM LIKE A PARADISE Don’t call me boss. That makes me feel like some kind of monster. Call me dad YOU CAN’T BE A PET UNLESS SOMEONE LOVES YOU

Oh, I love your religion ... for the crazy virgin birth. Water into wine. It’s like Harry Potter, but it causes genocide and bad folk music WHY IS THE SUN SO LOUD?

One day, I will solve my problems with maturity. But for today, it will be with alcohol American Dad! airs on Fox on Tuesdays at 9pm   MAY 2019

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IN THE THICC OF IT

Timothie James — aka drag queen Grace Shush — and illustrator Tom Taylor bare all as they tell us why the queer scene has been screaming out for their plus-size club night As told to Thomas Stichbury Photography Francisco Gomez de Villaboa

TIMOTHIE (GRACE SHUSH) JAMES

I’m a drag queen — last year’s winner of Miss Sink the Pink, no less — DJ and events producer, and I’d been looking to launch a femme body-positive club night targeted at male-bodied individuals for a while. However, I didn’t have a clue what I wanted it to look like, which is where Tom stepped in. I’d seen his artwork for other clubs, then we met at Dragworld and immediately hit it off. In the gay community, when you’re larger, there is an expectation that you have to be part of a tribe. Like a bear. So, you have to be a clone of a masculine, stocky guy just to feel comfortable with the way you look. The scene is so problematic, especially in the UK. In the US, to be a femme bear is far more accepted, whereas here, it doesn’t seem to be something that is deemed attractive. Guys on dating apps send me negative messages all the time, both weight and gender-related. I didn’t always celebrate my body. I would never take my top off in public, and when I was younger I would ring cosmetic surgeons to get prices for procedures. Drag has helped me embrace myself. It changed my life. I never thought I would 122

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think of myself as sexy until I became Grace Shush. It’s essential to get the message of body positivity across, not only to the younger generation but also to older people who don’t feel they belong in a space. That is what THICC provides, an inclusive space for everyone and anyone to feel at ease, to be able to lose all inhibitions, and to love themselves for who they are. Oh, and it’s super queer and you’re guaranteed to have a fucking great time! First and foremost, we want people to dance all night long, without any hang-ups whatsoever. THICC is always theatrical and immersive. We play music that you don’t have to be mashed off your face to bop along to, we have pop-up drag shows and we always get the crowd involved in a catwalk. You can also expect an abundance of THICC and juicy go-go dancers! My advice for people who don’t feel ready to fly their THICC femme flags just yet is: come on down. Think of it as a normal club night, talk to us if you’re feeling nervous, and see for yourself what a friendly, inviting space we have created. And I mentioned the go-go boys, right? They won’t fail to inspire you to be confident in your own skin.

“Even though I worked out like a fiend and survived on salad, I was the guy at the beach with his top on” Tom

Real bodies

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TOM TAYLOR

“I used to ring cosmetic surgeons to get prices for procedures” Timothie

I can remember the exact moment that Timothie slid into my DMs. I’d just released my fifth range of tees with Prowler (where I work part-time) called THICC, which were intended to celebrate more body diversity, something really lacking in the gay community. The rest, as they say, is history. Female body positivity in the mainstream has come such a long way in the past 10 years, thanks to trailblazers such as models Ashley Graham and Tess Holliday, who work really hard to dismantle normative views of the “perfect female body.” We also have male models such as Zach Miko doing it for the boys — although male beauty standards still have a long way to go. But in the queer community, which is so image driven, it is time for change. We are taught from the moment we come out that to live your best gay life, you must look a certain way. When I came out at 16, I had been so bombarded with images of the “perfect male body” that I developed a serious eating disorder. Even though I would work out like a fiend and survived mainly on salad, I was still the guy at the beach with his top on. Working at Prowler and being around more like-minded boys has helped tremendously. When I gave up striving for perfection and relaxed, I noticed my body started filling out as I’m naturally a broader guy, and the responses from my friends have helped me feel confident and sexy. Creating a space like THICC is so important to me. We need to teach that the body you were born in is beautiful. My experience would have been totally different if I’d had something like this growing up, and we’ve had the most incredible responses from people who have partied with us. One guy in the smoking area came over to thank us. He hadn’t been clubbing in years because he’d never felt comfortable in his own skin. We have big plans. We’ve had messages on social media from people all over the globe asking for the next dates so they can book flights and hotels. That’s how much THICC is needed right now. @thegraceshush @tomtaylorillustrated @thicc.london MAY 2019

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Lena A lot of places, such as America, appear more inclusive than they really are, so that needs to change. I’d like to see more queer people of colour able to live openly, too

JINX HOOD We need more support for trans people, more awareness and to stop seeing it as a “problem”

STIRLING It would be nice to see a world where everyone was accepted, regardless of gender

AIDEN A place where people could just be nice: no stereotypes, no assumptions

Senior (left)

A world where everyone understands each other more and realises sexuality isn’t a choice. We would all be able to get along without social restrictions

Nathan

There are just no words

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social GRACE

I just want the future to be better, in general JORDAN

I’d like to see more countries supporting equal marriage — every country actually

National Student Pride 2019

THE WORD ON THE STREET

AMY I spent three days making this customised Pride jacket! In the future, asking people’s pronouns should be the norm. We need gender-neutral toilets and marriage equality

How do you hope the world will look 25 years from now? As told to/photography Erica von Stein

Julian More rights for

the trans community and respect around using the correct pronouns

Patrick

Freedom to be who we want to be. Why should we live in a world with homophobia and racism? People will be happy with who they are and who everyone else is

JOSHUA Everyone to be treated equally and I don’t think it should be necessary for people to have to come out. Everyone should be able to be who they want to be MAY 2019

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Table For Two IAN AND TOM DINED AT M STREET VICTORIA

What were you hoping to get out of the date? I: To meet someone interesting who can hold a good conversation. And, of course, find my future ex-boyfriend. T: To be pushed outside my comfort zone and to meet London’s version of Jake Gyllenhaal. Failing that, a free meal and a giggle. What were your first impressions? I: Not my type physically, but by no means an unattractive guy. He was very polite and welcoming, too. T: Ian was confident and friendly, and he had a good smile. How different was he to your usual type? I: I always seem to end up with Italians. He wasn’t Italian. T: Prettier than my usual type, more preened. He looked immaculate but I tend to go for people a bit rougher (all offence meant to my exes). Would you have swiped left or right? I: Left. T: Right. How was the conversation and what did you talk about? I: Great. We had a lot in common. We chatted about his book club and the books we’ve both read recently. Then we spent time trying to spot other people on dates and hypothesised about how theirs were going. T: Great chat — we talked about Julia Davis, cheese and books. What was the most interesting thing about him? I: That he is part of a gay book club (that I’m trying to weasel my way into). T: His ability to have three books on the go at once. How was the food? I: Tom is a vegetarian but I had the sirloin steak and it was phenomenal. 126

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IAN, 35, GLOBAL MOBILITY CONSULTANT TOM, 30, PA

T: For a meat restaurant, the veggie options were good. What was his best quality? I: His sense of humour. That’s a quality that I rate very highly. T: Caustic wit. He was very funny and confident, and that’s something I find incredibly engaging. It felt he knew what he wanted, and where he was going in life. What did you make of his dress sense? I: Pleasant — who doesn’t love a billowy shirt? T: I assumed he had come straight from the Tour de France. What do you think he thought of you? I: That I have a good sense of humour. T: That I’m Alan Partridge Jr. What were you most worried he would notice about you? I: That I’m a terrible human being. T: That I’d spilt water on myself. Any awkward moments? I: Only the photo and having to put on my terrible “forced photo smile.” I was actually laughing and smiling until the photographer showed up! T: The waitress said, “I hope you aren’t a vegetarian.” I am. Were there any deal-breakers? I: I knew from the outset that we weren’t a dating match but from a friendship point of view there were no deal breakers.

T: His chapstick addiction. Chapstick to him is like drinking custard to Vanessa Feltz. How did the night end? I: We ordered an extra bottle of wine and kept chatting utter nonsense. Tom was kind enough to escort me home and tolerate me taking pictures of gaudy architecture en route. T: With photos of architecture. He wanted to take some photos of a building opposite the restaurant and then we walked up to the train station. We’d swapped numbers in the restaurant. What would you have changed about the night? I: Nothing. I value meeting someone who I can really get along with as a friend. T: Only receiving one free bottle of wine! Snog, marry, avoid? I: Marry — married people don’t have sex anyway. We’d have a great time bickering at a timeshare in Benidorm when we’re 65. T: None of the above. But I will bring him to my gay book club. Will you meet again? I: One hundred per cent. I’d love to hang out again and, as I mentioned, book club… T: Only as friends...

RATE THE DATE

7/10 6/10 IF YOU’D LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR TABLE FOR TWO, EMAIL: THOMAS.STICHBURY @ATTITUDE.CO.UK

social

BUDDY BRILLIANT In a celebration of queer friendship, we ask best mates some telling questions and find out just how well they really know each other Ryan and Alex met last summer when, after flirting online, Alex cancelled their first date, instead opting for a “sympathy meet-up” sometime after. That blossomed into friendship. “Ryan is everything you could ask for in a gay best friend,” says Alex. “He’s a good listener, always has wine in the fridge, and is never going to pull focus away from me in photos together.” Aww. ALEX ON RYAN

ALEX, 29, ASSISTANT PSYCHOLOGIST

RYAN ON ALEX

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George (but less “prince”, more “princess”). CORRECT!

What’s his middle name?

I know it was younger than when I came out… 15? HALF A POINT! CLOSE, 16

At what age did he come out?

RYAN, 24, DESIGNER

James. CORRECT!

2

A late bloomer — 23ish? HALF A POINT! One year off: “22 to friends, 26 to family”

3

I’m sure it was David. CORRECT!

What was the name of his first boyfriend?

Dan WRONG! “Sebastian; we dated for less than three months”

4

If you Google the word twink, it redirects you to Ryan’s Instagram page. CORRECT!

What’s his gay tribe?

He’d say wolf although I say jock. HALF A POINT! For knowing it but still getting it not right. “Ryan will say twunk but I meet the criteria for wolf”

5

His answer is going to involve sex, I’m sure of it. HALF A POINT! “The first time I experienced that pain when it goes in a lil’ too quickly. I passed out”

What’s his most embarrassing moment?

Let’s just say he almost pulled someone who may or may not have looked way older than they actually were. HALF A POINT! “I traded handjobs with a 17 year old.”

6

I’ll say Tom Daley, but 10 years from now. CORRECT!

Who’s his biggest celebrity crush?

This will sound cheesy, but I don’t think he has any. WRONG! “I click my nails a lot”

What’s his most annoying habit?

Whoever is on the homepage of Pornhub Premium. They’re celebrities in his eyes. WRONG! “Ryan Gosling in his Crazy Stupid Love days”

7

He cracks his neck with his mouth wide open and the sound that comes out of his throat… omg. CORRECT! Crack is whack!

8

The boy can sing… it’s gonna be such a shame when his voice finally breaks. CORRECT!

What’s his secret talent?

Being able to quote every line of Friends. WRONG! “People are always surprised that I can cook. Pretty people aren’t meant to know how to cook”

9

Being told to drink urine. I wish I was making this up. CORRECT! He seems like a real golden boy…

What’s his secret kink?

Leaving Two Brewers early at 1am after sending me a passive-aggressive goodnight message. CORRECT!

Where is he most likely to be on a Saturday night?

He took a belt off of a guy in a club once and gave it to me to keep. I’m sure that’s indicative of something… WRONG! “Fooling around in public”

10

ALEX’S SCORE:

8/10

Two Brewers with me. CORRECT! “While avoiding that guy I blocked on Grindr”

IMPRESSIVE MARKS FOR SUCH A SHORT FRIENDSHIP — BUT CLEARLY RYAN’S NOT AS GOOD A LISTENER AS ALEX THINKS!

RYAN’S SCORE:

4.5/10

IF YOU’D LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR BUDDY BRILLIANT, EMAIL: TIM.HEAP @ATTITUDE.CO.UK

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THE HEART OF LGBTQ+ IRELAND LIVE SHOWS 6 NIGHTS A WEEK DRAG ACTS | AWARD WINNING VENUE HUGE DANCE FLOOR | DAY TIME BAR

@THEGEORGEDUBLIN WWW.THEGEORGE.IE

Books

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BOOK OF THE MONTH

Words Uli Lenart

Let’s get physique-l! History of the earliest gay-interest magazines is an important part of LGBTQ culture PROUD Anthology, compiled by Juno Dawson/Stripes Publishing

BUYING GAY: HOW PHYSIQUE ENTREPRENEURS SPARKED A MOVEMENT David K Johnson/Columbia University Press

An accessible, detailed and riveting journey into the pioneering early gay physique zine industry. In 1951, a new type of publication appeared on news stands: the physique magazine. For many gay men growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, these images and drawings of almost-naked men were a revelation. Working against a climate of censorship and suppression in the pre-Stonewall age, the publishers behind these magazines were part of a wider world of physique entrepreneurs who ran photography studios, mail-order catalogues, pen-pal services, book clubs and niche advertising for gay audiences. Author David K Johnson reveals how the trade — more than just producing iconic, epic images — was an important catalyst for the gay rights movement. This is an indispensable and fascinating addition to the library of anyone interested in gay culture. Out now

Compiled by Attitude’s Juno Dawson, this is a vibrant and diverse anthology of stories and poetry by established and emerging young LGBTQ adult authors and new voices. There has been an explosion of fresh talent in writing about the experiences of queer teens in recent years, making it one of the most innovative and responsive genres in publishing today. And this lovingly curated and inspiring collection of writing and artwork — exploring the theme of pride — is a testament to the boundless imagination of young LGBTQ people. Out now

ALSO THIS MONTH

WHO KILLED MY FATHER Edouard Louis/Harvill Secker A short, urgent and incredibly articulate essay about love, politics, inequality, class, homophobia, masculinity and social poverty by one of the most powerful new voices in France today. Following on from his best-selling novel The End of Eddy, published when Louis was 22, Who Killed My Father explores the unspeakable gulf between fathers and sons and the impact of political decision making on the intimate lives of society’s poorest. Tender, intense, assured and poignant. Translated by Lorin Stein. Out now

SPANGLES, GLAM, GAYWAVES & TUBES Gary James/Book Guild Publishing Charting encounters with the likes of Boy George, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Eartha Kitt and Divine, this is a conversational life memoir by one of the co-presenters of the often-anarchic Eighties music TV show, The Tube. From a Sixties childhood in Tunbridge Wells, being a gay teenager during the glam rock Seventies and working in gay political theatre, to the new wave of youth culture in punk and disco, this is an engaging odyssey through British youth subculture. Out now

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PECCADILLO PICTURES PRESENTS

A FILM BY CAMILLE VIDAL-NAQUET

WATCH ON DEMAND sauvage.film/watchathome/

Films

FILM OF THE MONTH

Words: Guy Lodge

GRETA

social

3/5

Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Jeff Hiller If the idea of Isabelle Huppert as an elegant but psychotic French piano teacher terrorising the living shit out of Chloë Grace Moretz sounds like your idea of a fine time, here are two pieces of good news for you. First, you’re probably gay, and second, Neil Jordan’s perfectly ridiculous thriller has all the highcamp hilarity you could possibly hope for. Mileage may vary, obviously, but this could be a future drinking-game classic. 19 April

Portuguese man of phwoar Stunning star scores as footballer caught between a political conspiracy and a cross-dressing lesbian detective 4/5

DIAMANTINO Carloto Cotta, Cleo Tavares, Anabela Moreira, Margarida Moreira

ALSO THIS MONTH

MID90S

3/5

Sunny Suljic, Lucas Hedges For those who were teenagers in the mid-Nineties — in our heads, practically the other day — it’s a bit disconcerting to see that era as the setting for a nostalgic period piece. Life moves pretty fast, to quote a previous decade’s teen hero. But Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, a coming-of-age story focused on a lonely, skateboarding 13-year-old misfit, is more tender and disarming than you might expect. 12 April

WILD ROSE

4/5

Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters Remember I’ll Do Anything, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s talent show seeking a female lead for a West End production of Oliver? Turns out it actually found a star. Ten years on, runner-up Jessie Buckley made a strong impression in Beast last year, but it’s in this winning, heartclutching tale of a rough-edged Glasgow country singer with big dreams that she truly gets to soar. Watch your back, Gaga. 12 April

Critics can be quick to throw this phrase around, but I feel confident in saying you’ve never seen anything quite like Diamantino. It’s hard to think even of a vague precedent for this barking mad, flagrantly queer and dizzily hilarious one-off from Portugal: a blend of science-fiction mystery, romantic comedy and pop satire that just happens to feature a cannily timed pro-EU political message. All that, and dreamy leading man Carloto Cotta gets his kit off a lot. His resemblance to Cristiano Ronaldo is no coincidence: he plays a bling-encrusted football star whose life goes to pieces when he misses a crucial World Cup penalty, and that’s before he’s targeted by both a sinister right-wing cabal with cloning on its mind and a cross-dressing lesbian detective looking to bring them down. Running the gamut from Almodóvar to Zoolander, it’s a daft delight. 10 April

4/5

THE SISTERS BROTHERS Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Carol Kane, Rutger Hauer

Black-comic westerns, it seems, are like the proverbial London buses: you wait ages for one, then two come along at once. OK, maybe you weren’t waiting for one at all. Either way, between this and the Coen Brothers’ Ballad of Buster Scruggs on Netflix, we’re all set. And that’s no bad thing because this all-star oddity from French director Jacques Audiard (his first English-language film) is an unexpected pleasure, full of cockeyed wit and bitter-sweet pathos. It also confirms John C Reilly as one of our best character actors. He’s on peak form as one of two assassin brothers — the other being Joaquin Phoenix, on pleasingly low-key form — on the trail of a marked prospector at the height of the Gold Rush. The shaggy-dog plot is secondary to the actors’ crackling banter and chemistry. 5 April

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social Music

Words: James Barr

THE BEST – BAR NONE

Slayyyter

Remember when you thought that hot barman serving you was gay and you’d already named the children you were gonna have, then he went and ruined it by calling you “boss”? Repress such memories with my fave new songs, which are off the homo-scale. Check out St. Louis-based singer Slayyyter. Gay Twitter’s latest obsession used to be a receptionist but decided to redefine 2019’s “boredom-pop” with tacky, trashy and totally gay tune Mine. If the Cock Destroyers launched a pop career, it would sound like this. If you wanna be iced-coffee cool, listen to rising star Boy Radio’s track Trust, which slams fuck boys and promotes the power of intimacy. Hear, hear. Ooh, she’s sweet but a bit manic, sometimes needy and triggered by blue ticks, no reply... my new bio. The year’s most exciting new pop star Ava Max is back with another relatable mood. So Am I promotes inclusivity and acceptance on every level: “It’s OK to be different, because baby so am I.” Queen Carly Rae Jepsen is back in our lives as well. Now That I Found You is the perfect follow-up to Party For One. Although it’s probably about meeting a boy, I like to think that at least some of the lyrics are actually about fighting depression and finding yourself.

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Tamta

Tel tale

James Barr has the lowdown on the best songs you’ll hear at this year’s Eurovision in Tel Aviv Gay Christmas is almost here and, to celebrate, I’ve compiled the perfect Eurovision playlist to fly all your flags to. If you’re still obsessed with last year’s unofficial winner Fuego, by Eleni Foureira (and her incredible hairography), then rejoice: Cyprus are back and about to take you “higher ah yeah ah yeah ah yeah.” Tamta’s entry, Replay, is all the emojis. It was written and produced by the same people behind Foureira’s hit — which is why it sounds like Fuego 2.0 — and it’s already getting so many plays you’ve probably bopped to it without realising. Sweden are sending a song so epic it’s giving us The Greatest Showman vibes. John Lundvik’s Too Late For Love features a gospel choir, a huge key

Luca Hänni

Sergey Lazarev

change and is dripping with drama. I’m pretty here for the Netherlands, too, with Duncan Laurence’s haunting anthem, Arcade, the favourite to snatch the crown. But who really cares about the music? I’m here for the EUpassport-holding hotties! Get ready to thirst over Switzerland’s THOT boy Luca Hänni *drool*. Luca and Helene Fischer’s Bei Mir is defo a non-bop (sorry), but the mid-performance shirt rip is getting my full douze points, if you know what I mean. Meanwhile, topless daddy Sergey Lazarev, from Azerbaijan, is what XXL dreams are made of, and Mahmood, representing Italy, recently came out against the discrimination faced by gay men in Italy and Egypt. So hot.

“Who cares about the music? I’m here for the EU-passport-holding hotties”

social LITERATI

POLARI Filmmaker and activist Dustin Lance Black will be live on stage at London’s Southbank Centre on 10 June. He’ll be discussing his memoir Mama’s Boy, reflecting on growing up Mormon in Texas, where being gay was a crime. The evening, hosted by founder Paul Burston, will also feature authors Collin Kelly, Kelleigh GreenbergJephcott and Angela Chadwick. southbankcentre.co.uk

THEATRE

TUMULUS Guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat, this murder mystery is set against London’s gay scene. When a body is discovered on Hampstead Heath, everyone assumes the victim is a casualty of the chemsex culture. But when a second victim is found, it becomes clear that it’s something more sinister. The play runs at London’s Soho Theatre from 16 April until 4 May. sohotheatre.com

HOMO FOMO QUEER THEATRE, FESTIVALS, EXHIBITIONS AND MORE

DRAG

PEACHES CHRIST’S DRAG BECOMES HER Jinx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme give camp classic Death Becomes Her a drag makeover. Jinx takes on the role of actress Madeline Ashton (played by Meryl Streep in the 1992 original), while Ben tackles “hole-some” writer Helen. The production begins a UK tour at HOME in Manchester on 8 May. homemcr.org

3

Things to see

…at the 16th Dublin International Gay Theatre festival, 6-19 May, as the curtain rises on 20 plays spread across four different venues in the Irish capital

1// GOING FOR IT Party Boy (Players Theatre, 6-11 May) A true story inspired by Ireland’s first international go-go dancer as he swaps the Emerald for the European sex-club uit. GOT THE LOT o (Pearse Centre, 13-18 May) t do you get the man who has ything? This is the question mac asks himself when he mbles out of an STI clinic after g told he has the “full house.” OSING THEIR RELIGION astic (Teachers Club Studio, 8 May) Meet Jack, Ian and ry, young apprentices in nary struggling on the path alvation because their pesky uality keeps getting in the way. gaytheatre.ie

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So Jin wears suit and trousers, by ASOS, top by Cottweiler

“HOW IS SHE THOUGH? STUN”

136 Wardrobe 137 Watch 138 Light Speed 148 Crush 150 Ted Baker 154 Cool For The Summer 162 Favourite Things MAY 2019

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w. a . r. d . r. o . b . e

STAYING IN Sometimes a weekend indoors is just what the doctor ordered, so make sure you have all the essentials you need for the perfect night in

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Edit & words Nick Byam

1 // Navy underwear, £28, by CDG Shirt Underwear x Sunspel at Dover Street Market 2 // Detoxifying face mask, £18, by Harry’s x Heyday 3 // Medusa cotton-towelling robe, £480, by Versace at Matches Fashion 4 // Batman-printed lounge trousers, £18, by Jacamo 5 // Navy vest, £30, by CDG Shirt Underwear x Sunspel at Dover Street Market 6 // PlayStation 4 Pro, £349, by Sony at Currys PC World 7 // Logo stretch cotton-blend socks, £50, by Off-White at MR PORTER 8 // Lime & bay signature candle, £20, by The White Company

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STYLE

. . Words Joseph Kocharian

AHEAD OF ITS TIME In the age of the smart watch, we’ve become accustomed to asking a lot from our timepieces. So, the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon watch has a range of clever features to keep you entertained, including fun options that allow you to personalise the dial. The digital mode enables you to embellish your watch face with some of LV’s favourite motifs while contrasting bands mean you have an almost infinite number of combinations. With an emphasis on travel, the watch keeps all your travel info in one place. It syncs with your hotel, flight or train bookings and gives you departure and arrival times as well as essential travel information, including city guide functions for 30 international destinations. Other features include colour segments designating your meetings and free time, 24 time zones, step counters, a weather and temperature guide and pollution and air quality indexes. Price: from £2,595. louisvuitton.com

light speed Shimmer and shine bright Photography Olivier Yoan Fashion Joseph Kocharian

Jacob wears jumpsuit, by Mert & Marcus 1994 x Dsquared2

Jacob wears hooded jacket, by Louis Vuitton

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Jacob wears sleeveless leather jacket, by Diesel, leather trousers, by Belstaff

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Jacob wears blazer, by Emporio Armani

Jacob wears top, by Versace

Jacob wears top and trousers, both by Mert & Marcus 1994 x Dsquared2

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Jacob wears trousers, by Dsquared2

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Jacob wears top and trousers, both by Mert & Marcus 1994 x Dsquared2

Jacob wears shirt, shorts and jacket, all by Dior

MODEL Jacob Hankin at Next Management London HAIR Sven Bayerbach at Carol Hayes Management, using Murdoch London MAKE-UP Yin Lee, using Clinique FASHION ASSISTANT Josefina Martin PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Dragos Czinjepolsch LOCATION with thanks to Shutter House Studio

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WHAT’S HOT, SELFRIDGES? The big yellow house has a whole range of brands which are exclusive to Selfridges, so grab them before it’s too late 1 Lip bar cotton jersey/hoodie, £60, by Daido Moriyama 2 Pure love cotton cap, £30, by Corella LDN 3 Graphic print cotton jacket, £685, by Tigran Avetisyan 4 Logo-print cotton jersey/t-shirt, £40, by Tyrrell Winston 5 Tie-dye velvet bomber jacket, £275, by True Religion 6 Rainbow-striped cotton jogging bottoms, £470, by Thom Browne

selfridges.com 6

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c.r.u.s.h Words Nick Byam

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THE NEW

ARRIVAL

SLINGSBY Y

GOOSEBERRY GIN

Only the freshest Yorkshire gooseberries bring that unmistakable WDQJ\VKDUSQHVVWHPSHUHGZLWKDVZHHWIUXLW\ˋQLVK

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spiritofharrogate.co.uk

@slingsbysocial

Mark wears floral cotton shirt, £69, wool suit trousers, £159, wool suit jacket (in hand), £359, leather shoes, £130

Photography Martin D Barker Fashion Nick Byam

Mark wears cotton polo shirt, £69

Fa b u l o u s Baker Boy The handsome Mark Foster talks about his latest Ted Baker collection, T for Tall

Being a tall man, what part of your wardrobe did you struggle with most before this collection? Mostly with sleeve and body length. To make it feel as though the top fitted correctly, I had to wear XXL and it just swamped me in the body. I always felt as though I had to wear tops untucked as I could never tuck them in (even if I wanted to) and roll the sleeves up so people could see they were not too short. It was a bit cold in winter and a nightmare with shirts. Do you think playing sport professionally and gaining a swimmer’s physique helped or hindered you when it came to the fit of clothes? I guess it helped, wide shoulders and slim waist, so I looked a bit like a clothes hanger. But being big in the shoulders sometimes meant a top would be tight round the back and chest, but hey, that’s not a bad problem to have. What’s your favourite piece in the current collection? I love the Lenntt blue bomber. It’s a classic style with small details — check out the lining. It’s great with a white tee or shirt although you can’t beat a Ted print, so maybe jazz things up, put one of them on underneath. How was it doing a photoshoot with fellow sportsman, footballer Peter Crouch? We had a real laugh. There was lots of banter, we’ve got lots in common and know lots of the same people. He is also just the nicest bloke, and he’s taller than me — only by an inch (careful!) Who’s the better model out of the two of you? Well, I’ve been doing it for a few years, but his wife Abbey (Clancey) has been teaching him some moves. Let’s just say we need to sort this out in a walk off.

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Do you have any tips for a tall guy who wants to dress well? I try to avoid stripes. We are long enough already, so we don’t need any help in exaggerating that. I like to dress classic, it never dates and always looks smart. You can just chuck in some colour and print with it. Are there any key pieces, must haves or staples from the T for Tall collection that people should start with? It depends on people’s taste but they always say to me that it’s so nice feeling you can just pick something off the peg, especially when it comes to a work or special-occasion suit. I have so many of my swimming and rowing mates who are tall and are made up by the range and that Ted decided to do it. It has solved so many problems for “us tall folk.” You came out as gay in 2017, how has your life changed? It just all became a bit easier. The fact that I can tell the truth about my life, what I’ve been up to at the weekends and who my partner is. I went through a lot of years telling half-truths and lies just so no one would know what I was doing. It’s so liberating to have one life rather than two.  Do you feel a responsibility as an LGBTQ role model? Only that I felt it was important to come out and be visible as a gay man. But for anyone coming out, it’s always a personal thing and you have to be comfortable and at ease with yourself first. After that I felt it was important to come out publicly, especially as a sportsman because there are still issues about sport and being gay. And for my emotional and mental health, it was the best thing I have ever done.

Mark wears bomber jacket, £189, branded t-shirt, £39, cotton chino shorts, £69

ALL CLOTHES BY TED BAKER T FOR TALL tedbaker.com HAIR AND GROOMING Rom Sartipi, using Oribe and MAC FASHION ASSISTANT Josefina Martin PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Kadaré Aliu

C O O L

F O R

T H E

S U M M E R

So Jin wears all clothing, by Primark

The best of this season’s tailoring Photography Martin D Barker Fashion Nick Byam

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So Jin wears all clothing and trainers, by M&S Collection

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So Jin wears shirt, by Parc, trousers, by PS by Paul Smith

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So Jin wears all clothing and accessories,, by Burton

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So Jin wears blazer, by ASOS, blazer (worn underneath), by Uniqlo, vest, by Raf Simons at Matches Fashion, shorts, by Lanvin

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So Jin wears all clothing, by Primark

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So Jin wears all clothing and accessories, by Burton

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So Jin wears suit, by Parc, boots, by Hunter

HAIR AND GROOMING Rom Sartipi, using Oribe and MAC MODEL So Jin, at Next Model Management FASHION ASSISTANT Josefina Martin PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Kadaré Aliu

STOC K I STS Acne Studios at MR PORTER mrporter.com AMI amiparis.com Amiri at Selfridges selfridges.com ASOS asos.com

F

Fendi at Matches Fashion matchesfashion.com Fendi fendi.com/gb

G

Gucci at MR PORTER mrporter.com

B

Balmain balmain.com Belstaff belstaff.co.uk Burton burton.co.uk

H

Harry’s x Heyday harrys.com Humanity Cosmetics humanitycosmetics.com Hunter hunterboots.com

C

Calvin Klein calvinklein.co.uk CDG Shirt Underwear x Sunspel at Dover Street Market doverstreetmarket.com Champion championstore.com Comme Des Garcon Shirt at Matches Fashion matchesfashion.com Converse converse.com Corella LDN at Selfridges selfridges.com Cottweiler at Matches Fashion matchesfashion.com Currys PC World currys.co.uk

J

Jacamo jacamo.co.uk

K

Kiehl’s kiehls.co.uk

L

Lanvin lanvin.com Lee Jeans uk.lee.com Levi’s levi.com Louis Vuitton louisvuitton.com

M

M&S Collection marksandspencer.com Maison Margiela at MR PORTER mrporter.com Mert & Marcus 1994 x Dsquared2 dsquared2.com Moschino moschino.com

A

D

E

Daido Moriyama at Selfridges selfridges.com Diesel uk.diesel.com Dior dior.com Dsquared2 dsquared2.com

N

Nike nike.com

Emporio Armani armani.com

O

Off-White at MR PORTER mrporter.com

P

Palm Angels at Selfridges selfridges.com Parc parclondon.com Primark primark.com PS by Paul Smith paulsmith.com Puma at Sockshop sockshop.co.uk

R

Raf Simons at Matches Fashion matchesfashion.com Ron Dorff rondorff.com Rufskin rufskin.com

T

Ted Baker tedbaker.com The Kooples thekooples.co.uk The White Company thewhitecompany.com/uk Thom Browne at Selfridges selfridges.com Tigran Avetisyan at Selfridges selfridges.com True Religion at Selfridges selfridges.com Tyrrell Winston at Selfridges selfridges.com

U

Uniqlo uniqlo.com/uk

V

Versace at Matches Fashion matchesfashion.com Versace versace.com

Y

Y/Project at Matches Fashion matchesfashion.com

MAY 2019

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STYLE

Top place to escape? Apart from my bed? I’m a creature of habit and I return constantly to Tulum in Mexico

WHO IS ON YOUR WISH LIST TO STYLE? Bucket-list wise, I’ve ticked off a lot: Kylie, numerous Spice Girls, Armie Hammer, Channing Tatum. Brad Pitt is always on the list, maybe St Vincent, too. She’s mega

WHICH ATTITUDE COV THAT YOU WORKED ON DO YOU LIKE BEST? David Beckham is the most iconic cover I did during my 10-year tenure at the magazine. stands the test of tim

What’s the nicest thing in your wardrobe at the moment?

A leather jacket, but not just one. My favourites are f om Balenciaga and Coach

Top RuPaul contesta This is one of the hard questions I’ve ever ha answer but I really LO Alaska and Alyssa Edw

O YOU HAVE A REND THAT YOU OVE RIGHT NOW?

on’t really do trends, I t do moods. Right now, m high-vibing a 1970’s New York cowboy hustler going to Mineshaft, the infamous sex club

Favourite T hings

Luke Day I worked with the [American Horror Story] actor Cody Fern (above) recently and I loved his genuine excitement and enthusiasm for fashion. I felt the same way about Timothée Chalamet

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Luke Day is the editor of GQ Style, fashion director of British GQ and a former fashion director at Attitude. Along with being a super stylist, he’s often in front of the camera, being snapped at fashion week. Whether it be a cowboy hat, short shorts, Tom of Finland leather looks or a Gianni Versace print, he’s fully committed to fashion

@luke_jefferson_day

MAIN IMAGE KOSMAS PAVLOS / INSETS INSTAGRAM

Favourite celebrity you’ve styled?

Words Joseph Kocharian

Who is your pop diva?

There have been a few along the way but it always comes back to Madonna