Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Attitude Magazine

Thomas Stichbury, features editor To find a boyfriend (an ongoing quest of LOTR-sized proportions — why does no-one want my precious ring?!); to finally nail a two-handed backhand; to hit the high note during my bathroom renditions of Memory (the Nicole Scherzinger version); to not carry so many bags… oh, wait, was it just one thing? In that case, top of the list is to be better at understanding simple instructions! Gary Simons, art director We always want what we can’t have. Not being able to travel last year has got me craving to see more of the world. All those places, all those experiences that have been out of bounds. The only trouble will be finding enough time in the Attitude schedule to fit it all in! Joseph Ryan-Hicks,…

XIAMO MI 10T PRO Ring in the new year with Xiamo’s flagship new phone. Dialling up the visuals and keeping up with all the gee-whizz technological advancements, the mi 10T Pro has a pixel-perfect 108mp triple camera, 144hz adaptive sync display and 5000ah battery. Confession: we can’t translate tech speak, but sounds mighty impressive, no? The model is available in cosmic black, lunar silver and aurora blue. Price: £599. Out now. mi.com ANDY WARHOL: LOVE, SEX & DESIRE Go back to the drawing board with Andy Warhol. Before he ascended to the throne as the king of pop art, Andy created and exhibited drawings celebrating male beauty. The striking pictures are now published for the first time in a comprehensive book, Andy Warhol: Love, Sex & Desire. Sketched by Warhol…

What were your rejected drag names? Shanita Nibbles, Amber Lance and Cindy Whopper. Describe yourself in three emojis. Describe your drag style in five words. What fits? Smarter not harder. Best pick-up line someone has said to you? It was on a napkin at a buffet: Do you like me? Circle “yes” or “no”. What’s the worst thing someone could say to you in bed? “Is my car OK where I parked it? Let me go check” – then they never come back. How would (or does) your Grindr profile read? “Everyone should fuck a fattie at least once.” What is your safe word? “Glissade.” If you could be any inanimate object in the world, what would you be? Everything is energy. Everything is vibrations. Everything is consciousness. Quantum physics…

There have been remarkably few reasons to be cheerful this year, but Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay former mayor of the 100,000-strong city of South Bend in Indiana, has been a ray of light all year. For me it started with his campaign for the presidency. Let’s pause for a moment at that thought. An openly gay candidate standing for President in a country led (I use the term reluctantly) by a President who has deliberately appointed conservatives to the Supreme Court in the hope that policies such as abortion and gay marriage would be overturned. An openly gay candidate in a country where thousands claimed that attending a Trump rally without any social distancing was perfectly safe because they would be protected by God — or, as one woman…

Having only recently discovered what Sophie’s choice was in the classic 1982 tear-jerker of the same name – oh, Meryl! And I thought choosing between the different varieties of festive hot chocolates in Costa was tough – I decide to give Arlo Parks a (less traumatic) dilemma of her own to wrestle with. The young poet and singer can only read one book or poem ever again: what will it be? “No!” she playfully protests. “That is so hard… OK, this is a curveball, but I think it would be Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch, because it has all these nuggets of stuff about creativity and consciousness and meditation. There are maybe a hundred or so mini-chapters… it’s kind of the gift that would never stop giving.” A…

For LGBTQ+ representation on our TV screens, ’90s drama Queer As Folk was seminal, a turning point that forever changed how gay characters were portrayed to mainstream audiences. No longer were we sexless creatures played for laughs, or one-dimensional, tormented teens. In Russell T Davies’ breakthrough series, gay relationships were not just unashamedly sexual, but also unapologetically authentic, with characterisation that was complex and layered. The show had a similar impact across the pond, when its American adaptation went on to enjoy a five-season run, reinvigorating gay drama as it did so. It’s no exaggeration to say that without Queer As Folk, there would be no Skins, Looking, Euphoria and numerous other shows that put sexuality front and centre of storytelling. Writer Russell T Davies went on to be part…

As the first female CEO of Lloyd’s of London (in its 326-year history), Dame Inga Beale is used to pushing the envelope and spearheading change. But even this esteemed businesswoman bristled when faced with arguably the biggest challenge of her career: chairing England’s HIV Commission. The independent body, supported by the Terrence Higgins Trust, National AIDS Trust and Elton John AIDS Foundation, was instructed to put together an action plan to end HIV transmissions in England by 2030, in line with the United Nations’ zero-infections target. Dame Inga, 57, and her team – from Dr Rob Berkeley MBE, the founder and managing director of BlkOutUK.com, to former Welsh rugby captain and HIV advocate Gareth Thomas – published a report of their findings, and on 1 December, World AIDS Day, the…

SHELTER IN PLACE David Leavitt / Bloomsbury A new novel from David Leavitt guarantees immersive storytelling, intelligence, wit and a good dollop of mischief. It is the Saturday after the 2016 US presidential election, and at an upscale weekend house in Connecticut, a group of liberal New Yorkers gather to recover from the political catastrophe of their lives: Trump’s triumph. At the centre is Eva Lindquist, a generous yet self-involved hostess with an obsession for decorating; one of her little coterie of followers is her decorator, Jake: early 50s, gay, with impeccable taste and a much-valued sense of discretion. Seeking refuge from a neighbour’s inauguration party, Eva escapes to Venice, just to be somewhere far away and beautiful. There, she falls in love with a dilapidated Venetian apartment and resolves…

During the first lockdown, Sophie Ellis-Bextor cooked up a welcome distraction from the COVID crisis with her weekly Kitchen Disco online gigs. After leaving fans hungry for more, the singer is back to serve another feast for the ears with her greatest hits album, Songs from the Kitchen Disco (out now). A firm fixture on the music scene since topping the UK charts in 2000 — featuring on Spiller’s Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) — Sophie, 41, tells us she has had her share of memorable showbiz moments, with one in particular leaving her feeling, ahem, flushed. “I was once in a queue for the loo next to Helena Bonham-Carter,” she recalls. “We ended up talking about how we were both really quick in the loo and didn’t understand why…

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN Serena McKellen gets the vaccine jab! A legend is saved DRAG US ACROSS THE POND Battle of the queens as Drag Race US and Drag Race UK air AT THE SAME TIME! We just can’t even… IT’S A SIN Aids crisis era new C4 drama from Russell T Davies lands end of Jan DIVA. MOTHER. GODDESS Cher shares her journey with son Chaz during his transition and their enduring love PRIVILEGED RICH BITCH Jacob Rees-Moog says Unicef performed political stunt by pledging £25K to feed UK kids OUT OF THE MIX Jesy Nelson leaves Little Mix to focus on her mental health. Get well soon, gurl CELEBRITIES BEHAVING BADLY Another lesson COVID serves is that famous folk need to check their privilege WE’RE HANGARY Hungary bans…

GET VACCINATED. Please ignore the anti-vaxxers. Micro-chipping, you say? Puh-lease, hun, we’ve had way worse slipped inside us (ouch!). STEP AWAY FROM THE OVEN. We enjoy a slice of banana bread as much as the next gay, but it is so 2020 and a triggering reminder of a testing time. Bake off? More like fuck off! BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE: good health, family and friends, Animal Crossing and that nifty blackhead-sucker off Amazon. The little things are so im-pore-tant. PAY IT FORWARD. If COVID taught us anything, it’s to think of the wellbeing of others. That’s why we’ll be posting a chapstick to Michael Gove, first class. Moisten those crispy lips, man! FULFIL THOSE AMBITIONS. They say everyone has a book inside them — we ate War…

Jonathan Bailey bounds onto set for his Attitude photoshoot with more energy than an atomic bomb going off in a broom cupboard. Effusing charm and contagious cheer, he runs through the clothes we’ve assembled for his cover shoot, and is fully hands-on, sharing ideas with the photographer and leaping behind the camera to look at the snaps after each picture to see how he can push himself one step further to snare that perfect shot. It’s the kind of infectious approach we at Attitude Towers welcome, and it makes a COVID-minded socially distanced shoot that much more fun to deliver. “There’s this heteronormative, heterosexual understanding of sexuality” Jonathan Jonny closed 2019 on a monumental high as he added a prestigious Olivier award to his mantelpiece following a rousing role as…

Earlier this month, FreedomToDonate, which has been at the forefront of a campaign to challenge stigma around gay blood donors, celebrated a win when the government announced a policy change. For years since the worst of the Aids crisis, the medical establishment upheld the prejudiced view that gay men’s blood is toxic, an outdated fact given the incredible advancements in HIV treatment and sexual health testing. Ethan Spibey, a director at Purpose Union, a social purpose strategy firm that works with clients to develop campaigns around social impact, founded FreedomToDonate to drive policy change in gay blood donation. Five years since the group was founded, he is ecstatic about the government’s decision to revise its blood donation guidelines. “It’s huge. For the first time ever, gay and bi men are…

EPHEBOS Kostya Tsolakis / ignitionpress Ephebos is a Greek word for a male adolescent, and this beautifully calibrated, richly visual range of poems map a delicate coming of age. Exploring shame, fear, courage and the desire of blossoming sexuality, Kostya Tsolakis’s tender but powerful poetry pamphlet negotiates ideas of masculinity, and what it means to be a ‘good’ son: Morning after kicking morning/I carry a stomachful of boys/my eyes devoured whole/on dance floors long emptied and torn down. Intimate, mighty and fearless. Out now REYNALDO RIVERA: PROVISIONAL NOTES FOR A DISAPPEARED CITY Reynaldo Rivera / MIT Press Mexican-born photographer Reynaldo Rivera presents a simple but captivating collection of nearly 200 black-and-white images. Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Rivera took photos of a now-vanished Los Angeles: a world of house parties,…

DENIM BY DESIGN Denim is simply in the DNA of San Diego brand Rufskin. Since 2002, founders Douglas Coats and Hubert Pouches have created pieces that blend heritage styles with a modern vibe that’s sky-high on sex appeal. This season, they’ve cast their eyes back to the 70s’ Summer of Love — their Juka cut of bleached denim embraces the hippy era’s flared leg, while the Tiber booty shorts, quite frankly, have us pant-ing for joy. As for your upper body, Douglas and Hubert have printed their Chip tank top in ‘distressed denim’, ensuring you can live out your JT and Britney double-denim American Music Awards fantasy to the fullest. rufskin.com…

Welcome to our inaugural Attitude 101 issue! For the past five years, Attitude has marked Pride season with the Attitude Pride Awards, in which we celebrated ten inspiring everyday heroes who have done remarkable things, often borne out of personal tragedy. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to produce the Pride Awards in the summer due to the financial and strategic challenges the magazine faced in the midst of the worst moments of the pandemic. I know they say you shouldn’t wish your life away, but I’m not alone in saying it feels good to leave 2020 behind. So, for this issue — published 31 December 2020 as chance would have it — we decided to look to the future and continue the ethos of the Pride Awards in elevating and celebrating…

Students have been through enough this year, with national lockdowns, online teaching and uncertainty surrounding exam results. With many still feeling unsafe in school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last thing they need is the added difficulty of homo/bi/transphobic (HBT) bullying. The decision last November by the Department for Education (DfE) to cut programmes targeting LGBT+ bullying came as a shock to all of us at Schools OUT UK. We have been working since 1974 to make LGBT+ issues visible in schools and the education sector. As a charity, we receive little funding to fulfil our mission to educate out prejudice. The news was another blow to the students and teachers let down by misguided policies. In 2014, we were thrilled to hear that the DfE would fund anti-bullying…

A’Whora “Absolutely stunning. There are so many fashion queens this season. She’s obviously going to kill the runways. But they can look amazing on Instagram, and as soon as they’re on a reality TV show, they fade into the background. Hopefully this doesn’t happen because I want to see her on every single runway and kill every single theme, so fingers crossed for A’Whora.” Asttina Mandella “I first became aware of Asttina Mandella on Drag SOS. Then I got to see her perform in a show with Chad Michaels and Farrah Moan. She is probably the dancing queen of the season. She’s got that really east London feel to her — it’s not too polished, it’s quite grungy. I love to see a bit of polish on a queen, even…

Success is always sweeter when it happens to someone who is a genuinely fantastic person, and that’s undoubtedly the case with London-based stylist Harry Lambert. Blessed with a wicked sense of humour (and a great cackle), a passion for Julia Davis’s Nighty Night (“How many of those have you had, Sue?”) and boundless enthusiasm for a foray around the gay Marais district during Paris Fashion Week, Lambert has always been a friendly, welcoming energy in fashion (something that can be hard to come by in this industry). As talented as he is fun, Lambert’s rise has been meteoric. He’s currently styling two of the world’s hottest stars: musician and actor, Harry Styles, and Emma Corrin, who has captivated viewers with her portrayal of Princess Diana in Netflix’s The Crown. Lambert…

New York native Robert Jones Jr’s debut novel, The Prophets, is a tale of forbidden love between two enslaved young men on a plantation in America’s Deep South. “The Prophets is my attempt to reinscribe into the cultural and historical narrative a figure that has been demeaned, ignored, or erased: the black queer figure,” says the author. “It also feels like testimony because I often felt as though my hand was guided and my thoughts inhabited by the ancestors for whom I am writing.” Listing James Baldwin as an inspiration – “sometimes when I’m writing, I’ll read a line back to myself in Baldwin’s mid-Atlantic accent” – Robert is the creator of online social justice community, Son of Baldwin. The Prophets is released 5 January. sonofbaldwin.com My favourite place to…

SOUNDS LIKE 2021 2020 was a hot mess, but things are already starting to look up for 2021: Trump is trashed, a vaccine is here, and Russell T Davies’s Channel 4 drama It’s A Sin is about to hit screens — gay rights are well and truly back. There is no shortage of LGBTQ music acts coming up the rear, either, so here’s my round-up of the artists you should be queer-ing about. I’m all, ahem, aquiver for Toronto-based A is for Arrows – Can’t Stop is a big bop taking aim at the relatable feeling of giving too much in a relationship, while Every Now and Then speaks volumes if you’re having trouble getting over someone. Chloe Moriondo is one of my faves right now, too. Her music is…

A  Alexander McQueen alexandermcqueen.com B  BOSS hugoboss.com Burberry uk.burberry.com C  Celine Homme by Hedi Slimane celine.com Charlotte Tilbury charlottetilbury.com D  Dior dior.com Dsquared2 dsquared2.com E  Emporio Armani armani.com F  Fenty Skin at Harvey Nichols harveynichols.com G  Givenchy givenchy.com H  Hemen Biarritz at Matches Fashion matchesfashion.com K  Kurt Geiger kurtgeiger.com KVRT STVFF kvrtstvff.com L  Lanvin lanvin.com Louis Vuitton louisvuitton.com M  Moschino moschino.com P  Parajumpers parajumpers.it Prada prada.com R  Rufskin rufskin.com T  Tag Heuer tagheuer.com Thom Browne at Mr Porter mrporter.com V  Valentino valentino.com Versace versace.com…

RIGHT ON TIME TAG Heuer have struck gold with their redesigned vintage Heuer Carrera watch, created to mark the 88th birthday of their former CEO and current honorary chairman, Jack Heuer. Crafted from 18-carat rose gold, this limited-edition model of just 188 pieces ticks every box with its all-new look — two sunray-brushed chronograph sub dials at three and nine o’clock recall old racing watches, while a date display at six o’clock is an elegant addition. An extra-special detail is the 88 symbol, with its double infinity loop embodying luck. Cutting a stylish dash, this is an investment timepiece you’ll be counting on for years to come. Available to pre-order now, and from TAG Heuer boutiques and online in March 2021. tagheuer.com…