GAYLETTER

It’s always an appropriate time to buy new underwear, but now you don’t have to feel guilty about the whole spending money part. In support of Visual AIDS, Yuasa has teamed up with International Playground and GAYLETTER contributing photographer Benjamin Fredrickson to create a special pride edition of their already beloved undergarment. The look is cute and simple. A white boxer short featuring a small printed image of naked boys in various compromising positions. Choose between a front or back view, a man all tied up, and one crawling towards his destiny.

“Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the a contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today. Visual AIDS produces and presents visual art projects, exhibitions, public forums and publications – while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS.”

In Yuasa’s own words, their “short boxers are designed to be right for any occasion, whether you’re wearing jeans, shorts, dress pants, or nothing else at all.” Pick your preference of boy and use these boxers as the bedroom dream board you never knew you needed. If you wear it…he will come.

Proceeds from the boxers go directly to Visual AIDS. You can purchase them here. …

Skateboards, after their rise to quintessential coolness in the 70s, have continued to be a focal point for fashion throughout the years.  Since their rise into popular culture, skateboards have gone on to do something not many objects end up doing, that is, transcending beyond object and becoming a symbol. Skateboards are cool by definition and have a heavy connotation with a certain laxity — all of this while paying no mind to class boundaries. Ultimately, they are a universal message of chill. For his Spring/Summer 2017 collection, Julian Zigerli has taken skateboards and used them as a playful prop to supplement his menswear that is full of lively prints, popping colors and men and women aware of how chic they look.

Infusing loungewear with classic separates and a few really great coats, Zigerli’s SS 2017 collection seems to pay homage to the city kids who travel in packs, dress effortlessly well and always damage the pavement. Featuring clouds, some lighthearted phrases, smiley faces, sunflowers and more, the look book strikes a modern chord for a generation drenched in eclectic colors and various graphics. It’s colors and long silhouettes keep an eye interested. Knits almost touch the ground, shorts go way below the knee — it all looks very breathable (the cloud print point nods to this quality as well) while still continuing to show off the ease Zigerli’s clothing often exudes.

In the trailer for the collection, boys traipse down a Parisian street riding skateboards, having cigarettes and letting the wind hit their outfits. …

Gay bars are important to the queer community. One in particular, The Stonewall Inn, is where the modern gay rights movement started. Please enjoy our 360 visit to the Inn, with commentary from Tree, who has worked there, on and off, for 47 years. He was there in 1969, on the night the bar was raided, and the patrons decided to finally fight back.

Please congratulate the bar on it’s designation by our President Barack Obama as the first National Monument to LGBTQ rights.

Check out the 360 video we made with a Samsung Gear 360 camera.  …

Pride month is definitely not the time to blend in with the crowd. As every other Queen in town takes a glitter bath, the objective becomes finding an outfit that stands out, but still actually looks cute. If you’re over “queer” themed shirts that feature slight innuendoes or double entendres, then boy, do we have the shirt for you! No beating around the bush with this one, only maybe beating your bush. Valentine Amartey has created five different shirts displaying tender (and not so tender) love making for you to wear.

Featured here we have “The Kiss,” which is not your grandmother’s “The Kiss,” and a shirt that’s able to capture the delicate moment where a bottom looks back in thanks to his top. Last but certainly not least, “Ying Yang” is Armatey’s answer to Chinese philosophy. I suppose you can pick out which one to wear depending on your mood, but be warned that once you put these shirts on, you might forget whatever plans you had and just stand in front of the mirror…

Amartey is a Brooklyn based designer who has previously dressed Shakira and Lady Gaga. You can’t get much gayer than that. He has a background in costumes, and in addition to designing, also teaches part-time at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. We chatted briefly with Valentine and he explained how he sees the two sides of his business; “The T-shirts embody my masculine side and the costume side is all about celebrating the female spirit. …

I think about fashion a lot. Sometimes I’m walking down the street and I see someone throwing it, feeling themselves in their labels, and I’m like yaaassss, wow, *grunts*, ok then. But don’t get it twisted — just like size isn’t everything, neither are labels. The best kind of fashion comes from within and that’s why when I see a mom with her wild-ass children, in yoga pants and Versace sunglasses, I nearly fall over. Not only is she enduring motherhood (which is cunt) but she’s still expressing herself. Converse are unique in the way that they transcend that kind of class barrier. Converse are the original progressives in the way in which they don’t care if you’re black, latino, gay, trans, queer, mom, dad, step-sis, or half-brother. Whatever you define your style as, and however you choose to identify,  a pair of Converse can turn your look out!

If you are like me, then your first memorable pair of Converse were black, and purchased during middle school where you wore them into the ground and wrote cultish phrases on them during Italian class. I’ve since owned several other pairs of Chuck Taylor’s that, in their own way, serve as symbols of who I always felt I was and who I wanted to be. My icons, and the cool kids I looked up to in media, always wore Chuck’s. In 2016, you’ll still look effortlessly cool in a pair. They are timeless! Following their decades old mentality, and “encouraging the creative community to be their most authentic selves, Converse proudly unveils the 2016 Converse Pride Collection — three colorful new Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers designed to be worn at pride parades, concerts, jubilations and beyond. …

Like everything else in New York, Pride week is packed. This year it is really important to remember that NYC Pride is a direct result of the Stonewall Inn riots of 1969. Following the Pulse Nightclub shooting, many of us LGBTQIA New Yorkers gathered there on Christopher Street to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters lost in Orlando. It was powerful and a simple reminder to the world that the LGBTQIA community is here to stay, and that we are larger and stronger than ever.

As you will see below, nearly all of the Pride events detailed have some part, if not all of their proceeds going to the victims in Orlando. If there is one thing the community knows how to do, it’s party and provide unwavering support. After every one in the world has tried to kick us down, we have gotten right back up, which is exactly what we’ll be doing this week.

NYC Pride is another testament to why our community is the one of (if not THE most) most creative, resourceful, understanding and powerful communities in the world. There is so much shit to do this week and I think if this was a perfect world, each of us would be doing our best to get to every event to show our love and dance the night away. Perhaps the best advice the world could learn from the LGBQTIA community comes from Mama Ru… if you don’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?  …

Golden is a short film by award-winning German director Kai Staenicke that follows the life of a boy who is noticeably different. The hesitant glances and awkward interactions are all too familiar to anyone who identifies as queer. Our protagonist shuffles through life until he finally finds someone else he can relate to and experiences what it’s like not to be lonely. At a time when standing out has never been scarier, it’s important to remember how special it is to be different.

Check out Golden here.

Kai Staenicke has won many international accolades such as “Most Promising Award” from Videonale in Berlin, “Outstanding Artistic Achievement” from Filmout Festival in San Diego and “Creative Directors Award” from the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival. His other work includes music videos and more experimental shorts.

Watch more of Staenicke’s work here. …