@CliffJoannou
The UK was a bleak place for gays when Attitude published its first issue in May 1994. The age of consent for men who have sex with men was still unequal (then at 18 years) and would not be brought in line with laws for people of the opposite sex until 2001. Civil partnerships were 10 years away, same-sex marriage, another 10. The mountain of other rights yet to come — from protection against discrimination in the workplace to making hate crime illegal — felt insurmountable.
While gay identities still remain vulnerable to the whims of toxic masculine opinion, the battle for queer emancipation today has shifted to wider gender and sexual autonomy. The visibility of bisexual people — our biggest LGBTQ+ group — is still poorly reflected in the media, the non-binary and asexual/aromantic experience is often overlooked, and trans people remain the most bullied, and vulnerable, of all our rainbow family. Things may be better in 2024, but certainly not for everyone. As I write this, the prime minister is reportedly mulling over leaving the European Convention on Human Rights — legislation that has been the driving force of most LGBTQ+ rights today.
When Attitudemagazine launched 30 years ago, those great strides towards equality were a distant dream. Still in the shadow of the AIDS crisis and under Section 28, even the most optimistic activist would not have imagined how far we would come in the years that followed. In a pre-internet age, Attitudewas a lifeline for many closeted or confused young gay/bi/queer people. When technology began making the world a more connected place — and perversely more distant in some respects — Attitude’s relationship with its reader changed. It became less the bible of gay life, and more the mirror by which the magazine would reflect an evolving society.
It would be 2001 when Attitude featured the first solo Black man on the cover and 2010 before it featured its first solo out and gay Black man with Kele Okereke. Kele’s cover recognised a changing culture where the media was (slowly) waking up to the beauty of an inclusive and diverse world. The changes that the magazine has seen reflected the realisation across society that representation in all its many forms matters — whether that means LGBTQIA+, race, age, gender identity or otherwise. You can’t be what you can’t see, to quote Beyoncé (quoting Marian Wright Edelman).
When I joined Attitude as deputy editor in 2015, societal shifts were all aro
