When asked, I'm very open about being bi, but somehow admitting it to strangers makes me feel uneasy. Yesterday, I eventually managed to get over my fears and venture into WHSmith to buy my first ever lesbian magazine! I'm so proud of myself, but it was slightly embarrasing becuase the girl at the counter was very very cute... ah well, one thing at a time, eh! Those of you who read LGBT mags, how did u buy your first mag? Were u scared?
I didn't buy my first - I got three that were castoffs from a gay friend in college. And I pored over those things like they were the Dead Sea Scrolls. Mainly because it was such foreign territory. I literally knew ZERO about homosexuality other than "gays have sex with other guys". So I read the entire things front to back, several times, soaking in all this information. It's funny how much information I got, and still how much information I needed, mainly because I was missing context. I remember seeing all the ads for doctors, and wondering if that meant gays just got sick more often. (No. It meant many gays were afraid to have a "gay-unfriendly" doctor.) I saw ads for escorts/hook-ups - this was pre-internet days - and wondering what "8 cut" meant. I remember reading the rules for "safe tricking", and being both shocked and majorly aroused. "Maybe *I* should try that!" (I didn't.) I remember even then noticing that the models tended to look the same - the white, buff bodybuilder was THE look - but all the pictures of gay men at fundraisers and whatnot looked more...normal. Like regular folk. Like me. Except they seemed to wear Hawaiian shirts a lot. Maybe there was a fundraiser luau, or maybe that was just the scene back then. Lex
