Out Magazine
Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 3:57 am
I read a lot of magazines. I mean A LOT. I've got subscriptions to five (Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Combat Aircraft. So I'm a CD and an airplane nut, sue me!). There are probably half a dozen other titles I read occasionally, and still more that I'll sometimes buy on impulse). I've indicated in various surveys I've taken that I read magazines, so it's not at all odd for me to get subscription invites from different magazines all the time. That said, there's one particular one that's bugging me.
I've gotten four invites this year from Out. For those who aren't familiar with Out, it's a magazine for gay men. It's not all too different in a lot of ways from the other lifestyle magazines I read, except for the target audience. I even bought one issue over the summer, because Jamie Bamber (Apollo on the new BSG) was on the cover, and there was an article inside with too little info on the new season of the show.
Af first, I just threw the invites in the garbage. This latest one, though, just has me a little perturbed. I want to write them a note asking them to stop sending me invitations. Please don't get me wrong. I have nothing against homosexuals. I experimented with gay sex when I was younger, and found that it really wasn't what I was interested in, but I'm not a homophobe or anything like that. I just don't relate too well anymore. A friend of mine in Kappa Beta commented, half-joking, that all gays and transgendered people have in common is that they get beat up by the same people. KB has most of its social gatherings in restaurants and bars which are primarily gay, just because they're generally safer for TG folk than mainstream places.
Maybe it's just the social climate in Charlotte, but I don't feel all that comfortable in those places. Here in Charlotte, the transgender part of "LGBT" is treated like an afterthought. At the restaurant where we have our monthly meetings, most of the people there other than staff ignore us, but a few act like we're in the wrong place. Nobody says anything, but I've gotten very adept at sensing those funny looks from across the room. Maybe that's another reason I should move back to Virginia.
Am I making something out of nothing, or do I have a right to feel this way?
I've gotten four invites this year from Out. For those who aren't familiar with Out, it's a magazine for gay men. It's not all too different in a lot of ways from the other lifestyle magazines I read, except for the target audience. I even bought one issue over the summer, because Jamie Bamber (Apollo on the new BSG) was on the cover, and there was an article inside with too little info on the new season of the show.
Af first, I just threw the invites in the garbage. This latest one, though, just has me a little perturbed. I want to write them a note asking them to stop sending me invitations. Please don't get me wrong. I have nothing against homosexuals. I experimented with gay sex when I was younger, and found that it really wasn't what I was interested in, but I'm not a homophobe or anything like that. I just don't relate too well anymore. A friend of mine in Kappa Beta commented, half-joking, that all gays and transgendered people have in common is that they get beat up by the same people. KB has most of its social gatherings in restaurants and bars which are primarily gay, just because they're generally safer for TG folk than mainstream places.
Maybe it's just the social climate in Charlotte, but I don't feel all that comfortable in those places. Here in Charlotte, the transgender part of "LGBT" is treated like an afterthought. At the restaurant where we have our monthly meetings, most of the people there other than staff ignore us, but a few act like we're in the wrong place. Nobody says anything, but I've gotten very adept at sensing those funny looks from across the room. Maybe that's another reason I should move back to Virginia.
Am I making something out of nothing, or do I have a right to feel this way?
