Just Details

I received the latest issue of Details magazine last week (one of the few magazines I have found interest enough in to read cover to cover on a consistent basis), threw it in my bag and had nearly forgotten about it until today. When I was able to catch some down time at work, I noticed it among my paperwork and various other publications and pulled it out for inspection. While the glassed pages are not considered geared towards a homosexual audience, they are rarely afraid to approach the subject. Although, I dare say that any magazine with such a large amount of fashion content and an abundance of fragrance samples can hardly consider itself out of the realm of the homosexual audience. I've never met a straight man who cared THAT much about the cut of his suit or the vastness of his summer shirt wardrobe or the shape of his swimwear and what it said about his personality.

In any case, while the stories don't generally overwhelm the issues contents, this latest one seems to have gone a little further than usual. The first main article I turned my eyes to related the story of the youngest superdelegate for the Democratic party, Jason Rae, a college student from Wisconsin. You have to get well into the article to get to it, but suddenly we learn that the young political mind is, in fact, gay; and, furthermore, was inadvertently outed to his family by joining a LGBT within the Democratic National Committee. I was a little shocked to see these words, expecting nothing more than a story on a young superdelegate, but then glad to see that this fact was not the focus of the article. Rather, it was treated like any other everyday fact and seemed to be included only to benefit a better whole picture of our subject. Just another guy (although an unusually politically ambition one) who just happens to be gay. Well handled in my book.

The other main article, (although perhaps a little more frivolous in it content, including pictures of flesh-color painted bananas and pink hot dogs on pink buns), related the mistaken sexual identity of certain straight men. Penning a new word, the author referred to them as 'strays' (straight men mistaken as gay). The article related the near impossibility of determining sexuality based on likes and dislikes, clothing, demeanor, etc. It would seem that there is no formula that will tell you whether a man is gay or straight. Well, DUH! Although, I must admit that on the graphic in the article listing 18 categories and the most likely choices of a gay vs straight vs stray man, I tended to agree mostly with the gay column on things like drink, music, and sport. I did have to dip several times into the two others to round out my choices, however. If nothing else, the article was good for a little laugh.

I have to applaud Details as it seems to have found a way to balance gay and straight, young and old, featuring articles on a wide variety of subjects. They seem to have found a way to make 'gay' just another possibility, another part of the whole man. It would seem that we are men first; and the rest is just, well, details.