One step at a time

A little over a year ago, while I was still dating George, I walked down from his apartment to grab the mail.  When I reached in and pulled-out a mazagine covered in a gray polyfilm bag, I had a reaction I think most guys will appreciate: "Yeah!  Porn!"

I very clearly remember my next reaction.  Anger.  No, it wasn't porn, it was that month's issue of The Advocate--the country's leading magazine covering gay issues.  I wasn't mad because I was deined a dirty magazine.  I was pissed that it was mailed like it *was* porn.

I fumed the entire walk back to George's apartment.  How could The Advocate stoop so low as to hide what it is?  It's a legitimate, 40 year-old magazine.  It wasn't until I got to the top of the stairs did I come to the simple, sinking realization why.  Many people couldn't subscribe to it otherwise.

Like me in the past, they would have been afraid of being outed by their mailman, neighbors or moms.  I'd been so relatively comfortable being out that I'd started to forget how completely and devistatingly it can ruin your life.  My anger melted into pity.  How far we have left to come as a country.

So, you can imagine how I felt when I opened this month's issue and saw the Letter from the Editor saying that I can now choose if I want my copy to come in a wrapper.

I immediately went online and told them they can keep the wrapper for someone that still needs it.  I don't need mine anymore.