Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2022 i Attitude Magazine

Jack Alexander PHOTOGRAPHER The most unforgettable summer for me thus far has to be 2018. It was the first year that I ever went to LA to shoot, and I ended up spending a number of the summer months there. I remember feeling really far away from home, and yet completely in my element. It felt like a significant milestone in my career and I was really grateful that a job I’m so passionate about could take me so far away from home (shout out to sunny Blackpool!). I love travelling so it’s a summer that’s yet to be topped! Alastair James ATTITUDE ONLINE WRITER When I think of unforgettable summers, I always think of my solo trip around Italy in 2015. As well as introducing me to the joys…

SMELLS LIKE PRIDE Pride season may be over, but you can celebrate being LGBTQ+ all year round with artist Ian Giles’s limited-edition Smells Like Gay Pride scented candle. Costing £25, it was inspired by conversations with members of the Gay Liberation Front who took part in the very first Pride march 50 years ago. Complete with a label featuring a photograph of campaigners at the base of Nelson’s Column on 1 July 1972, the candle playfully evokes the atmosphere of that day, with fragrance notes including tobacco, weed, patchouli and exhaust fumes. Available at Tenderbooks in London; iangiles.co.uk BOTTOM LINE Ben Sherman know how to remix a classic. Their latest underwear line features the same triedand-trusted cuts — after all, once you find your favourite fit, you want to keep…

One year, six issues £36 PRINT Don’t miss an issue of the brilliant, new look Attitude magazine. Our exclusive print subscription offer sees our luxe format mailed directly to your door six times a year and saves you almost 15% on the published cover price. One year, six issues £24.99 DIGITAL Have Attitude at your fingertips 24/7, wherever you go, when you subscribe to our digital edition, in slick mobile-friendly format or configured to best suit your tablet, laptop or PC. Don’t miss anything! ATTITUDE.IMBMSUBSCRIPTIONS.COM *SUBSCRIBE ONLINE, OR BY CALLING 01293 312244 MONDAY-FRIDAY, 9AM-5PM. ENQUIRIES TO ATTITUDE@SUBSCRIPTIONHELPLINE.CO.UK *INDIVIDUAL PRINT ISSUE PUBLISHED PRICE £6.95, PRINT SUBSCRIPTION £36 ANNUALLY (OR £18 HALF-YEARLY) SAVES ALMOST 15% ON PUBLISHED PRICE, DIGITAL £24.99 ANNUALLY SAVES MORE THAN 40% ON PUBLISHED PRICE.…

“COULD I WEAR THIS TO MY WEDDING? IT’S VERY POWER LESBIAN. ‘I DO!’” At her Attitude magazine photoshoot in London, Hayley Kiyoko is rocking a corseted ivory ensemble by Balmain that’s part-blushing bride, part-Game of Thrones body armour, part-world-conquering cricketer. ‘Powerful’ doesn’t cut it. She looks suitably celestial for a woman known for preternaturally perfect pop songs like ‘What I Need’ and ‘I Wish’, who’s been nicknamed ‘Lesbian Jesus’ by fans who routinely propose marriage and orchestrate makeshift ceremonies. “If they’re legal, I’m married to, like, 18 people!” she laughs. We return to the subject of weddings when I tell the star about a ceremony I attended the weekend before, and the invasive, mocking questions about my sex life I fielded from a straight man. Kiyoko, who is half-Japanese, says she’s…

I’ve never won an award before… I’m so happy!” beams Kiddy Smile, who makes our hearts melt when told he’s this year’s recipient of a Attitude Pride Icon Award. A talented, outspoken, Black, queer pioneer and unapologetic advocate for visibility and equality, he’s paved the way for other artists that have followed. Born to immigrant parents on a working-class estate in Paris, Kiddy’s formative years coincided with a time when rights and equalities were more fragile and less widespread than they are today. Opportunities were even fewer. “It was very hard for me growing up to understand that you could transform your passion into a career,” Kiddy explains. “I grew up in the projects and there were not a lot of options. You could either sell drugs or be a…

With his brave, unique fashion style and razor-sharp entertainment skills, Riccardo Simonetti is a TV host, bestselling author, award-winner, brand ambassador and cover model in his native Germany — and he’s only 29. Not only is he a dazzling media personality, named one of the most influential people under 30 by Forbes, but he also heads up his own charitable organisation with a mission to educate and inform people in the fight against homophobia. As a diversity ambassador with more tulle, sequins and glitter in his closet than Carrie Bradshaw, Simonetti takes every opportunity to talk publicly about finding one’s identity, coming out and the marginalisation of social groups. Whether via The Riccardo Simonetti Initiative, or his work for different charity projects such as UNICEF or Youth Against Aids, whenever…

“I was 10 when I first started“ cycling,” remembers 21-year-old Emily Bridges, from Wales. “This feeling of freedom — I hadn’t felt it before. I still feel amazing when I’m out riding. It’s like meditation for me.” It was around half her lifetime ago, too, that Emily began “exploring my gender, and that I might be different from other people”. Little did the then tweenager know that, within a decade, she’d be one of the most exciting faces in cycling — and also one of the most bullied trans women in the country. Revealing her advanced maturity and determination, Emily made British Cycling’s senior academy in 2019, while still in her teens. (She came out publicly as trans in 2020.) “I’ve got multiple national medals in track cycling,” she tells Attitude,…

Brain fog with long Covid? Me, too Every winter, I experience a slump in both my physical and mental wellbeing. It’s not full-blown Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I feel cognitively sluggish and lacking in motivation. The same happened at the start of this year, only this time it was much worse. Concentrating was a struggle and even short periods of work exhausted me. I became easily overwhelmed and developed a constant anxiety I could not control. I also struggled to remember names in social situations and would randomly lose my train of thought. It felt like I was going mad. Initially, I put it down to stress, but after various conversations with colleagues and my doctor, I realised that I had brain fog as a result of long Covid —…

Polyglamorous Monthly, 11pm-4am Chalk, 13 Pool Valley, Brighton BN1 1NJ “Have you seen the state of her body? (Mad) If I beat it I ain’t wearing a johnny…” “Wrong crowd!” The former is a rap by the Eminem-lite ArrDee on Russ Millions and Tion Wayne’s straight lad anthem ‘Body (Remix)’; the latter a gender-queer dresser’s screamed response when the rap makes an inexplicable cameo in an otherwise flawless selection of edgy pop, dance and RnB at Polyglamorous, a joyously inclusive, utterly riotous, monthly club night in Brighton. One other quick sour note before we get to effusive praise: when going through security at glossy, new-ish venue Chalk, we are less than impressed to have our ID scanned and stored. (When asked how long it will be held for, one door…

It’s been three years since we last gathered in a physical space to salute some of the many outstanding LGBTQ+ everyday heroes with the Attitude Pride Awards, this year — and for the first time — held in association with our friends at Magnum. It’s certainly not news to say that the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need to recognise and uplift the everyday heroes in communities up and down the nation, from the NHS to care home workers, who made us realise that we don’t need to look to Marvel for inspirational superheroes. For too long, some of these people had perhaps not been as widely appreciated and celebrated as they deserved. This is the sweet spot that the Pride Awards has lived in since Attitude launched it in 2016.…

Do you get tired of being called Tracy Martel? I don’t get tired of that. My fans have a familiarity with me that’s a little jarring. They’ll come up and be like, “Hi, you fat, bald f****t.” I’m like, “Hello, girl I don’t know.” What do people say most often when they meet you? They’re just excited. Everybody’s so nice. I look like, you know… I don’t know what I look like, but I don’t look good. They see a paperwhite person with a bald head walk by. They think I’m Moby. What would a film of your life be called and who would it star? I really don’t know. Who’s that guy? Oh God, I don’t know anybody’s names. Who would play me, though? Somebody really ugly. You’ve started…

“I’m in the phone booth, it’s the one across the hall! If you don’t answer, I’ll just ring it off the wall!” Debbie Harry’s deliciously pissed-off vocal on Blondie’s 1978 top-five UK hit ‘Hanging on the Telephone’ replays in my mind as I dial the New York number provided for me at our scheduled interview time and discover that the line is engaged. (So too their 1980 number one, ‘Call Me’.) Not that I’m angry — just nervous. After years of Zoom chats, I’d forgotten how stressful and impersonal phone calls can be. Am I being stood up? If I get through, will we click? What if she hangs up on me? When a symbol of cool like this decides you’re lame, there’s no getting over it… Then, on my…

We’re delighted to partner Attitude in bringing you the Attitude Pride Awards 2022. Being the headline sponsor for this year’s awards is made even more special as we can finally celebrate the most amazing everyday LGBTQ+ heroes in person. In a year that has brought yet more challenges and hardship for the LGBTQ+ community globally, never has it been more important to honour the passionate and inspiring people who go out of their way to make an extraordinary difference by battling to ensure that the LGBTQ+ community is seen and that their rights are both fought for and protected. At Magnum, we believe a day without pleasure is a day lost, and that everyone should be able to pursue what brings them joy. That’s why, as a brand, we are…

My first introduction to David Stuart came through a mutual friend, Meredith O’Shaughnessy. It was the early 00s and Meredith and I ended up back at David’s flat in Covent Garden after a night out. I couldn’t tell you where we had been, other than it had no doubt been a wild one. “His flat was the centre of the universe,” Meredith says of a hedonistic period firmly in the past. “We thought we were eternal.” In a previous life, prior to getting sober and becoming one of the world’s most prominent champions highlighting addiction within the queer community, David ran an agency for sex workers before becoming ‘the most glamorous dealer in London’. But the seductive shimmer would soon fade to grey. “As the years progressed, the scene changed…

Black Pride Netherlands grew out of protest and partying, Naomie Pieter, one of its founders, tells me as we chat on the phone early one weekday morning. Pieter is on the way to another interview promoting the event, and had a late interview the night before. The first Black Pride Netherlands took place in 2020, but Pieter had been involved in activism for years before that. “I’m Black and queer. I exist, we exist,” she says, before adding, “I don’t know if you’re the kind of person I need to say this to.” In 2018, they co-founded a group called Black Queer and Trans Resistance, in response to a local Black queer man being beaten up. The collective began to organise anti-violence marches and demonstrations, but Pieter found herself asking:…

Terrence “Terry” Higgins died on 4 July 1982. He was one of the first people in the UK to die from an Aids-related illness. But his death ignited the flame that became the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), which has spearheaded advances in the care and treatment of people living with HIV. Those last three words being the most important — people with HIV can live as long as someone who doesn’t have it, thanks to work of the Trust (and others). In an acknowledgement of this, its founders, Dr Rupert Whitaker (pictured opposite) and Martyn Butler, were recently awarded an OBE each for their services to charity and public health. Naturally, the Trust’s story begins with the man in whose memory it was founded. Butler, 68, met Higgins, a fellow…

The magic of the performing arts, whether it be theatre, music, ballet, or opera, is that they can convey us to a far-away world full of wonder. For Craig Hassall, chasing that passion has brought him from Sydney, Australia, to the UK, where he’s now the ultimate man behind the curtain at the Royal Albert Hall. Here, he talks to Attitude about where his love of the theatre began, whether he thinks the arts are open to everyone and his plans to modernise the Royal Albert Hall. Where did your passion for the arts come from? I’m from a farming background, but I had an amazing scholarship to a wonderful school in Sydney. But the arts weren’t on the curriculum; it was very sporty. I had two really enthusiastic teachers;…

TIME TRAVEL For those who like to be transported by words, Queer Beyond London is a fascinating look back at what life was like outside the capital for the LGBTQ+ community from the 60s to the 00s. Expert LGBTQ+ historians Matt Cook and Alison Oram focus on the compelling queer stories of four cities, putting the spotlight on Brighton, Leeds, Manchester and Plymouth. You won’t find any recommendations for bars or restaurants, but this book will enrich your next trip to any of these cities and make you appreciate the experiences, both difficult and joyful, of those who paved the way for the rest of us. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk STEPPING THROUGH THE SEASONS Created by chef Raymond Blanc, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire combines the flair of a French country home…

BBQ know-how While the sun continues to shine, many of us will fire up our barbecues for some alfresco entertaining. Have fun, but don’t forget to follow some simple rules — aka the four C’s of food hygiene: Cleaning Keep food preparation areas clean and hygienic; Cooling Store food you plan to barbecue in the refrigerator at the correct temperature; Cross-contamination Remember to keep raw and cooked foods separate and to wash your hands in between handling them, so that you don’t transfer any nasties. Also, don’t wash your chicken before cooking as this increases the risk of spreading nasty germs around. There’s also no need — cooking it will kill off any bugs! Cooking Make sure meat is cooked all the way through. Don’t forget the SPF As well…

“Relax, don’t do it/When you want to sock it to it…” Chances are you’ve heard at least one of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s three number one singles — ‘Relax’, ‘Two Tribes’ and ‘The Power of Love’. The latter tied the group with fellow Liverpudlians Gerry and the Pacemakers as the second act in UK chart history to reach the top spot with their first three singles. They were later dethroned by the Spice Girls. The album that followed, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, also hit number one in late 1984. The ambitious debut dealt with love, sex and war and is by no means a breezy listen; 16 songs in length, it drew criticism upon release for its lack of original material — Bruce Springsteen and The Temptations were among the artists…

None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary Travis Alabanza/Canongate Books The mainstream media is riddled with anti-trans fearmongering. The messaging ranges from accusations of a direct, sinister threat to children and the integrity of society generally, to the eye-rolling dismissal of pronoun choice as an act of woke self-indulgence. Whatever the narrative may be, it directly impacts upon the mental and emotional health of our communities and their actual physical safety in the street. So how can trans and non-binary people respond to this wave of enmity? They can speak their truth on their own terms. They can query and challenge the narrative around gender, trans and non-binary identity. In this incredibly intelligent, revealing and nuanced memoir, Travis Alabanza interrogates seven phrases people have directed at them…

Pack it up, pack it in Dsquared2 have always loved getting rough and ready in the great outdoors, so their collaboration with Italian bag brand Invicta is a natural fit. Focused on the accessories specialists’ classic designs, the range’s new styles include the Jolly and the Monviso (pictured). Not only does it look good with its combined logo and bold splashes of colour, but it’s practical, too. Whether you’re heading off on a hike or a long-haul flight, there are plenty of pockets for your essentials, padded shoulder straps add comfort, and a coulisse closure with technical tubular cord keeps everything secure. Rounding out the striking collection are baseball caps and gaiters designed with the vibrant elements that are central to the Canadian label. We’re ready for the climb, as…

“I’ve been able to use being gay as a gimmick,” Rupert Everett told Attitude in 1999, as the then 39-year-old’s career peaked off the back of 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding. (The fabulous disaster that was costarring with Madonna in 2000’s The Next Best Thing was just around the corner, of course.) “Luckily, I’ve also overcome the challenge of playing straight roles,” added a chipper Rupe; his luck soon ran out, however, with the star later opining that coming out harmed his career. “There’s only a certain amount of mileage you can make, as a young pretender, as a leading man, as a homosexual,” he told The Daily Telegraph in 2014. No matter: in 2018, he self-actualised a Rupe-aissance by writing, directing and starring in Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy…

I usually say no to journalists looking for someone to debate trans rights, pronouns or gender-neutral penguins. You can’t win a debate with an illogical person and there’s no point feeding the monster. But my mental health’s a bit shit, so I thought, ‘Fuck it’ and in a moment of red-flag faggotry, rescheduled my Monday evening therapy session and agreed to appear on Piers Morgan Uncensored in a debate about pronoun badges. I won’t get into the topic here; it’s obvious that using pronouns and making people feel accepted literally saves lives. I told Piers that, I also told him I was bored, and that “three cis-lads” discussing people who aren’t in the room is completely absurd. Ultimately, I think I won, but since the programme I’ve had emails from…

Nic Crosara (they/them) journalist I vividly remember being on a crowded but quiet bus late at night with my (very drunk) friend. I’d already been out to the people in my life for a year, but as she started commenting on my transness at the top of her voice, the only thing louder on the bus was my fear. My eyes darted around as I tried to gauge the reactions of those around us: would any of these strangers attack me before — or after — we got off? My friend didn’t do this with malice in her heart. Her white, cishet privilege — and intoxication — meant the thought that she could be putting me in danger didn’t even cross her mind. A lot of these types of scenarios…

For today’s gay community, Pride is an annual fixture, a reminder of how previous generations battled for our rights and how we must not only continue to defend them today but also fight for inequality around the globe. Its roots were planted in the UK 50 years ago on 1 July 1972, when the world’s first gay rights march to use the name ‘Pride’ took place in London. It was organised by the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). A UK off shoot of the first GLF that was formed in America, this small group was founded in London in 1970. At that time, despite the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK in 1967, two males kissing in public still risked arrest. Although the GLF was determined to challenge such homophobia…

“Last year, 80 per cent of the members of our Men’s Support Group were granted asylum and are now able to rebuild their lives here in the UK!” enthuses Leila Zadeh (pictured opposite), executive director of Rainbow Migration, an organisation which helps LGBTQs navigate this country’s infamously punishing asylum and immigration system. She adds: “That’s a huge achievement given the challenges and personal struggles they face.” Zadeh and her team have helped thousands of refugees over the years. Their services include free and confidential advice on asylum claims, plus connecting people with lawyers, charities and housing providers — and the benefits they’re entitled to. “We also meet with Parliamentarians or civil servants to improve policies and the way they work with LGBTQs seeking asylum,” explains Zadeh. Recent achievements include getting…

“It was late 2016, over the“ Christmas period when I was diagnosed,” remembers Stewart O’Callaghan, founder and director of cancer support and advocacy charity Live Through This (LTT), of when they were told they have chronic myeloid leukaemia. “I was living in Germany at the time. I was a tattoo artist. It was a very different life.” O’Callaghan was just 29 at the time. “I have an incurable type of cancer; quite a rare cancer to get this young,” they explain of the disease, which is more common in adults aged 60-65. O’Callaghan came back to England for treatment, “naively hoping that I would get the support I was looking for”. They didn’t immediately find it. “Queer culture is my culture — I wanted to be able to be a…

“I first saw the casting call for Elle“ on Instagram,” says Yasmin Finney of the brilliantly Gen Z story of how she joined the hit TV show of 2022, Heartstopper. “It was an international search; the first time I’d seen a trans open casting call — especially for a POC person. I was like: ‘Wow, I need to go for this.’ I did, and it’s been an amazing roller coaster…” Social media played a key role in 18-year-old Yasmin’s rise pre-Heartstopper, too: she’d already amassed a sizeable TikTok following as a schoolgirl, going on to study performing arts at Manchester College. “I’ve always been camp, flamboyant,” she says. “I’ve always had this energy that’s made for the stage.” Growing up in Manchester wasn’t always easy, however. “I would get bullied because…

It was Robert Louis Stevenson — the Scottish novelist and travel writer best known for Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — who famously said “I travel not to arrive, but for travel’s sake,” and it’s about an hour into the billiard table-smooth French autoroute from Calais that the penny (or euro cent) drops. For though I’ve had the most absorbing day in an English vineyard, and am en route to its French equivalent, it’s the bit in the middle I’m enjoying at least as much. I’m driving a (very) French car, DS Automobiles’ new DS 4, which has been built to encapsulate the design aesthetic of a Parisian fashion brand. From my leather-trimmed, air-conditioned perch I can see fields of bright yellow sunflowers…

A sculpted physique, a handsome face and delightfully charming, Pablo Hernandez is the complete package. Not only that, but he turned up to his Attitude shoot with cakes for the whole office. Consider us won over. A model and OnlyFans creator, Hernandez’s work has been described as “effortless” — as you’re about to see for yourselves. However, and perhaps surprisingly, it’s not a line of work he’d recommend to anyone. Here, he talks about accidentally getting into modelling, why he started an OnlyFans account and how he looks after his mental and physical health. What got you into modelling in the first place? It was sheer chance. After I was on a TV show called Tabatha’s Salon Takeover (I was a business owner at 21), people thought I was an…

I moved to London about eight years ago to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter, which is still in motion. I’ve worked mainly in queer hospitality jobs. I never expected a music career to happen overnight, especially considering I started transitioning not long after I moved here and that took over. Everything I write about in my songs is based on what I’ve lived through. I have a lot of unreleased music (which isn’t just about penis), about growing up, my identity and comforting my inner child. It’s just a lot more difficult to publish that kind of material. I was surprised that I found it difficult to compose while recovering from my SRS (sex reassignment surgery) in May. I had literally just got everything that I had ever wanted…

B-side: ‘Say the Word (I’ll Be There)’ A meeting point between her lovably tacky 80s oeuvre and the more sophisticated output that followed, here, Kylie’s swooning, va-va voom vocals glide like syrup over rudimentary keyboard and percussion that’s dangerously close to the EastEnders theme tune. So 90s, it hurts. B-side: ‘Paper Dolls’ If Smooth Radio ever want to refresh the same seven songs they’re forever repeating, this acoustic guitar-led ‘Indie Kylie’ echo is the epitome of easy listening. Album track: ‘Your Disco Needs You’ The power top of disco anthems, Kylie’s campest moment was never a UK single, preceding as it did the achingly cool Fever era by a mere eight months. Come for the operatic bombast, stay for the joyously bizarre lyrics about Scrabble. Rozalla cover: ‘Everybody’s Free (To…

Orlando Tilda Swinton, Quentin Crisp, Jimmy Somerville British cinema was perhaps never more flagrantly queer than Sally Potter’s delicious adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel about a passionate poet who lives through four centuries of British history, changing gender along the way. From Tilda Swinton’s limber, brazenly non-binary turn in the lead to Quentin Crisp’s imperious drag as Elizabeth I, it’s a film with gleeful disregard for the boundaries of identity, sexuality and historical storytelling. Way ahead of its time in 1993, it’s the kind of transgender story we could use more of in 2022.…

The Front Runner Patricia Nell Warren/Wildcat Press. First published 1974 With 10 million copies sold across multiple languages, The Front Runner is one of the most popular and commercially successful gay classics of all time. First published in 1974, the setting of this simmering gay love story is the competitive world of long-distance running. It’s 1975 and Harlan Brown is a tough, somewhat tortured ex-Marine college track coach on the cusp of turning 40. Now teaching at a low-ranking liberal New York college, Harlan is trying his best to put the past behind him after being falsely accused of inappropriate behaviour. Back doing what he loves best, teaching track, Harlan is happy enough, but lonely. Cue Billy Sive, a brilliant 22-year-old runner. He and his two running mates have just…

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LOVE YOUR FACE New on the self-care scene is a beauty device that has been hyped by many on social media. The TheraFace PRO is full of benefits: it works to reduce tension, relax facial muscles and can even help in reducing migraines, headaches and jaw pain. Relaxation is at the forefront for this new beauty regime, and it takes its cue from Therabody’s previous best-selling device, the Theragun. As well as instant relaxation, the TheraFace offers microcurrent therapy which firms and tightens the skin, improving muscle tone and contour in the face and neck. Other modes include light therapy with LED red and blue light settings which focus on reducing wrinkles and acne. therabody.com REVIEW BILLI CURRIE Just a stone’s throw from London’s Baker Street station is Billi Currie,…