For this Pride month, why not flex your LGBTQ+ cues with these items that will make your summer both cooler and gayer.
Keep It Short(s)
You want to keep active all summer long without losing your sense of style – or the best possible presentation of your ass. Won’t you know it, these will do it!
Chubbies The Midnight Advetures Shorts, $65
Cross Body Icon
What better way to accent an outfit than with the art of icon Keith Haring. Plus, the bag is roomy, so you can carry all necessities with you all summer long. Uniqlo Keith Haring Round Mini Shoulder Bag, $20
Padam is the Pa-Jam
Kylie Minogue’s newest single from her upcoming album Tension is already the banger of the season. For extra LGBTQ+ points memorize the words for a masterclass in lip-synching at the bar!
7 Things to Make Your Summer Queer(er)
By Mikkel Hyldebrandt
Life Through Lenses
Sunglasses not only signal your style, but when you teeter on the edge of novelty, the also possess the power to flaunt your fabulousness to the world.
Moscot Miltzen Sun, $340
Queer Vibeology
Atlanta-based and queer-owned Yeahbuzzy has done it again with a Spring Pride collection that celebrate and embody queer vibes, whether you want a hat, a tank, or a graphic tee.
Yeahbuzzy Queer Vibes Tee, $30
SNIF of Summer
Lucky for us all, there are numerous smaller, noncommercial boutique brands that are leading the evolution of fragrances right now. Like this nongendered creation by SNIF, perfect for your scent of summer.
SNIF Way With Woods, $65
Get Back at the Book Ban
Need a book to brighten up your Pride month? With all the book bans in effect, we should all support queer writers and stories. For example this story of teenage love and summer fun.
“What If It’s Us” by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
By Tim Larcombe
The idea that LGBTQ+ history is simply a tale of modern queer liberation or the triumph of “progress” over homophobia is not a complete or accurate picture. Queer people have been challenging heteronormativity and gender for centuries. In the new series, Historical Homos, executive produced by Zachary Quinto, hosts Bash and Donal Brophy celebrate Pride and delve into the full history of the LGBTQ+ community, aiming to prove that identities and the fluidity of gender are more than trends or whims.
This is our “Queer, Cool Summer” issue. Why was it important to make queer history fun and cool?
Bash: Because it is fun and cool. Most people think queer history started when someone threw the first brick at Stonewall, but that’s a heteronormative view of human history. Some of the greatest, most accomplished, most absurd, most entertaining figures in history were queer. Socrates? Had a boyfriend. Michelangelo? Obsessed with a gorgeous twink. Virginia Woolf? Literally invented lesbian love letters. Even Queen Marie Antoinette was rumored to enjoy letting her ladies-in-waiting literally and figuratively eat her cake.
Who would you name as the coolest queer in history?
Donal: Oscar Wilde sticks out as the coolest for me, obviously for his body of work, but also
because he went on trial for being gay, stood firm and fought, and was sentenced to hard labor.
Bash: One of the most fascinating figures to me is the transgender spy, diplomat, intellectual, and soldier from 18th-century France, who we cover in our second episode. The Chevalier d’Eon had a rollicking life, working for kings, going to royal masquerade balls in drag, spying for decades, and eventually transitioning their gender publicly - 250 years ago!
What proof do you have of William Shakespeare’s bisexual proclivities?
Bash: He wrote about 120 sonnets to a “Fair Youth,” a young man who has been potentially identified as Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. At the very least, Shakespeare portrays an interest in having sex with this Fair Youth in some of his Sonnets. And he talks about the Fair Youth’s hold over him. It’s possible that the Fair Youth is a poetic device, but we can’t avoid the fact that Shakespeare was writing about being in love with a young man.
There’s been some debate about Socrates’ sexuality.
Bash: Socrates had a wife, like most Athenian men. But he spoke and thought about passionate love between men in a huge number of the dialogues that Plato and Xenophon’s writings record. He was known to be in love with Alcibiades, the dashing young aristocrat who
served with him in battle and appears drunkenly at the end of the “Symposium,” trying to get Socrates to sleep with him.
Why is it important that we out these historical figures once and for all?
Donal: The world was a very different place even up until the 1960s. We believe it’s important these people get their moment and the recognition they deserve.
Bash: It is important that people today see themselves in the past. That kind of historical community gives queer people a sense of legitimacy and solidarity. And all these figures prove that homosexuality, queerness, and gender fluidity are not modern inventions. They are fixtures of all human societies. We need to challenge the narrative that queerness was invented 150 years ago.
is executive produced by Zachary Quinto and streaming now on Dekkoo.com, a subscription streaming service dedicated to gay men.
Historical Homos
PEACH PARTY MASQUERADE
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
Juneteenth
By Miko Evans
Sources: The Smithsonian Institution
Photos: History of Black Gay
America/Meak Productions
Juneteenth is one of the newest treasures added to the list of federal national holidays.
While many in our country consider this a recent phenomenon, the black community has carried this tradition for years. For those who don’t know the reason for this memorable holiday, let’s bring our attention to American history.
- And why we need to celebrate it
Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the South, reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and spreading the news of freedom in the Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.
By definition, Juneteenth is a holiday celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, enslaved people were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.
However, many history books forgot to mention that not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Emancipation Proclamation could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, enslaved people would not be free in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as “Juneteenth” by the newly freed people in Texas.
The post-emancipation period, Reconstruction (1865-1877), marked an era of great hope, uncertainty, and struggle for the nation. Formerly enslaved people immediately sought to reunify families, establish schools, run for political office, push radical legislation, and even sue slaveholders for compensation. Given the 200+ years of enslavement, such changes were remarkable. Not even a generation out of slavery, African Americans were inspired and empowered to transform their lives and country.
Because of the continued injustice that people of color still face, Juneteenth was considered the black community’s independence day. Many millennial and Gen-Z African-Americans no longer had an interest in investing their time celebrating July 4 as many felt this country never really rectified its original sin, “Slavery.” Although long celebrated in the black community, this monumental event remains largely unknown to most Americans.
Juneteenth makes the 2nd holiday dedicated to African-American heritage (The 1st being MLK Holiday).
The historical legacy of Juneteenth shows the value of perseverance, strength, determination, and endurance. Making this moment a national holiday was long overdue and a step in the right direction for this country to heal and progress.
DRAG DOWN SOUTH
DETAiLED AND MORE ONLINE (TAG)
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
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Dear DAVID
QI went on a coffee date with a guy a year ago, and we got along pretty well. We talked for about two or three hours, and I thought we made a connection. But when I tried to hang out with him again, he just ghosted me. Now I see him from time to time at the gym, and he stares at me from across the gym but never comes over to speak. I still like him and would like to get to know him better, but I feel like he does not want anything to do with me. So, when I went up to him at the gym and started a conversation, he seemed kind of resistant, but he answered and had a short conversation with me. Now I’m confused; does he like me or was he just responding to me sor is it all in my head. I want to know him more or go on a date, but should I just give up on him entirely?
AFrom the ghosting over the glances at a dis- tance to the hesitant conversation at the gym, I’m afraid it’s pretty clear that this guy isn’t in- terested in you. I also see why you would ini- tially like this guy because in a world with a multitude of dating apps and casual hookups, having an actual date that turns out to be an hour-long conversation is quite rare! So yes, there was a connection, but perhaps not a ro- mantic or sexual one. You say it’s been a year since you met his guy, so clearly, he has made an impression on you to a point where you have even struggled through awkward con- versations with him – but it’s been a year, so it is time for you to focus your energy and at- tention on all the other guys out there. Maybe for a while, start going to another gym, so you can avoid bumping into him and start checking out all the other men at the gym. Use the skills you have perfected in the past year of catching looks through the room and even starting con- versations but do it with other guys. This guy is not worth your time, but with a renewed focus so many other guys are.
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We all have those moments of ‘wait, did they just say that?’ Lucky for you, we compile the best of the best right here on this page. Want to join in on the b*tch session? Submit your own nuggets to info@davidatlanta.com.
LGBT stands for Lady Gaga ft. Boyoncé – Telephone.
Happy Pride to all my gay friends, and a happy Kia summer sales event to all staright friends.
“Iced coffee and a vacation won’t solve all your problems.” Ok, I would like to find out for myself, personally.
Why the f*ck is everyone at the club smelling their keys?
Guys with birthdays in June, a little cliché, no? Tacky maybe?
You knew summer was coming and you just kept eating and drinking.
