Editor's Letter January 2024
Megan Wallace, Editorial Director
Mere days after we countdown, kiss and clink glasses to ring in the New Year, the wellness prerogative – the pressure to ditch the booze, cigs and daily full English – kicks in. Realistically, many of us could do with living a healthier lifestyle, and taking sensible steps in that direction should be celebrated. But an all-or-nothing approach that villainises all of life’s simple (and guilty) pleasures isn’t the answer.
That’s why the January 2024 issue of GAY TIMES looks to reframe wellness and instead focus on the spaces where we find joy and escapism, all while reflecting on the harmful messaging around mental health and body image which many of us in the LGBTQIA+ community are exposed to.
Kicking things off is DJ and equine it girl horsegiirL. Rejecting the poe-facedness of the Berlin scene, she discusses her vibrant and inclusive online and IRL community while starring in her first cover shoot. The in-person conversation charts her journey from beginnings in the club underground to going viral on TikTok, as well as reflecting on her reverence among a new generation of clubbers who want their beats harder, faster and stronger thanks to the return of once-maligned genres like happy hardcore and donk.
Whenever January rolls around, we inevitably absorb rhetoric about the need to get in shape – but what about the people who can find these messages especially triggering? In this feature, journalist Ryan Cahill explores the prevalence of body dysmorphia and restrictive eating within the gay male community through a range of insightful case studies and expert comments from mental health professionals, looking at the unique body pressures facing queer men before signposting the reader to further resources where they can get help if they are personally affected.
Entering into 2024, we can't help but notice that one staple of queer culture has gone mainstream: poppers. In this light-hearted piece, writer Tom George explores the pop culture appeal of poppers – from Charli XCX to Troye Sivan – via a timeline charting their creation, to their adoption in queer subculture, to the ways they've spilled out into the mainstream.
With Blue Monday rearing its head once more on the third Monday in January, we think it's important to put a spotlight on the mental health challenges facing our communities – in particular the ways they might feel failed by traditional talking therapy practitioners. Taking a solutions-focussed approach, writer Dominic Cadogan explores the rise of queer-affirmative therapy – exploring the training processes which help counsellors cater to and understand queer clients, and speaking to LGBTQIA+ individuals about the positive change that queer and queer-affirmative therapists have brought to their lives.
Understanding the queer community's long-running links to and overlap with the kink, BDSM and fetish communities, journalist Brit Dawson speaks to the founding members of the Kink Coalition: a collective of party promoters and club operators looking to create a safer and more transparent, consent-informed kink culture in London and the rest of the UK. Published ahead of International Fetish Day on 19 January, this piece focuses on topics such as safety and debugging stigma.
Finally, film fans will know that the long-awaited All of Us Strangers is out on 26 January. The drama explores a queer relationship between Adam (Andrew Scott) and Harry (Paul Mescal) as the former grapples with the ghosts of his parents and, more broadly, of growing up during the HIV/AIDS Crisis. Writer-director Andrew Haigh sits down with GAY TIMES to discuss intergenerational queer differences, the spectres of trauma and the collaborative process behind the film's much-discussed intimate scenes.