More than 50 LGBTQ people and allies kiss to mark 50 years since Stonewall for Attitude’s Summer Pride issue

Some special occasions are more special than others, and when the 25th birthday of the UK’s best-selling LGBTQ magazine coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which kick-started the modern march towards equality, then you go big or you go home. And Attitude has gone bigger than ever.

Yep, the Attitude Summer Pride issue is officially here, featuring more than 50 cover stars across 25 different covers – each of them telling a story that defines the heart, diversity and joy of the LGBTQ community in the modern age.

(Clockwise from top left: Drag SOS stars Tete Bang, Cheddar Gorgeous, Anna Phylactic, Lill, Asttina Mandella and Liquorice Black; Dr Ranj Singh and Strictly’s Jannette Manrara; Gok Wan and director Jake Graf; Cabaret stars Jonny Woo and Lavinia Co-op)

Stars including Jake Bass, Gok Wan, Dr Ranj Singh, Jodie Harsh, Juno Dawson and the cast of Channel 4’s new drag makeover series Drag SOS join partners, friends and members of the wider community to share kisses which signifiy the love that defines our individual identity and collective sense of community, as we reflect on what Pride means in 2019.

The Attitude Summer Pride issue is available to download and order globally now, while any of the 25 covers ordered individually in print (with free postage and packaging) by emailing attitude@attitude.co.uk.

Jake Bass, shot by Francisco Gomez de Villaboa exclusively for Attitude’s Summer Pride issue

Inside, our cover stars reveal what love and Pride means to them, while former adult entertainer Jake Bass poses for an exclusive shoot as he sits down for a candid conversation with poet Max Wallis about sex, intimacy and life after porn.

Meanwhile, the breakout star of Netflix’s Tales of the City, Garcia, discusses how they’re pushing the boundaries of trans representation as Jake in the TV revival of Armistead Maupin’s beloved book series, and Michael-Anthony Nozzi – one of the youngest people at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 – gives us an eye-witness account of one of the most famous events in LGBTQ history.

(Clockwise from top-left: Jodie Harsh and her ‘boy’ self, James; solicitor Stephen Clissold his artist partner Andrew Lumsden; LGBTQ activist and political commentator Shahmir Sanni with sexual health activist Phil Samba; Lady Bunny and British artist Daniel Lismore)

Elsewhere extreme explorer Aldo Kane takes us into uncharted territory in Active, while London drag queen Mary Mac is this month’s Big in a Wig. That’s alongside all your usual news, reviews, fashiona dnt ravel, of course.

“This is a glorious, giddying and unabashed celebration of love, in all of its beautiful forms,” says Attitude Publisher Darren Styles of the new Summer Pride issue.

“The love of one man for another, one woman for another, a mother or father for a son or daughter, between friends and family, between those who identify as LGBTQ or those who choose not to identify at all.

(Clockwise from top-left: Fetish club promoters Rob Rutt and MJ Palmer; KU Bar PR Manager Stefanos Dimoulas and his father Neoptolemos; Sink the Pink’s Glyn Fussell and drag queen Rileasa Slaves; Drag Syndrome’s Danny Smith and Otto Baxter)

“Above all, it’s a celebration of those who feel Pride, in who or what they are, regardless of sex or sexuality, age or gender, race, religion of the colour of their skin.

“It’s our unique, wonderful and multi-dimensional rainbow community saying – as did those brave souls who took a stand at the Stonewall Inn half a century ago when enough was enough – we’re here, we’re queer, so get over it!

(Clockwise from top-left: ‘Burnt Roti’ magazine founder Sharan Dhaliwal and comedian Sophie Duker; Denim’s Glamrou and Crystal Rasmussen; XXL founder Mark Ames with his partner James McNeil; singer Le Fil)

“We are at a crossroads as these key anniversaries intersect. As a proud Ambassador for the GREAT Britain Campaign, which promotes Great Britain and Northern Ireland overseas, I can say that LGBTQ people in this country have never been more equal or better protected.

“We understand that Love is GREAT. In many respects, our statute book is a model unequalled in the world. But it’s not enough.

(Clockwise from top-left: DJ Jeffrey Hinton and performer Kevin Le Grand; ‘A Gay and NonGay’ podcast hosts James Barr and Dan Hudson; drag queen Jackob Mallinson Bird and Cinematic Masterpiece’s Hatty Carman; BET’s first out presenter Darkwah with his partner Ross Geelan)

“It’s not enough because there are those who would harry, harangue and protest schools for explaining to one child that it’s OK that their best friend has two mummies or two daddies, while trying deceitfully to pass that off as sex education for schoolkids.

“It’s not enough because some of our elected politicians think that’s OK, or believe that science will find a cure for homosexuality when it isn’t a disease.

(Clockwise from top-left: Author Juno Dawson with her partner Max Gallant; Attitude Publisher Darren Styles with his mother Gillian Styles; Sex Shells comedy troupe members Doctor Le Strange and Dom Top; Poet and author Dean Atta with his partner Thomas Sammut)

“And it’s not enough because that hate speech discourse empowers those who would abuse or assault LGBTQ people in the street, on buses or on trains as they think (because they’ve been told) that two people of the same sex kissing is a punchline.

“Well, it isn’t. And how better to demonstrate that than with 50 people, many of them kissing, on 25 covers of the greatest LGBTQ magazine in the world? Happy Pride!”

Attitude’s Summer Pride issue supported by the GREAT Britain campaign is out now, featuring 25 special edition covers which can be ordered individually with free postage and packaging by emailing attitude@attitude.co.uk.

Buy now and take advantage of our best-ever subscription offers: three issues for £3 in print, 13 issues for £19.99 to download to any device.