Happy Birthday Attitude

Celebrate Attitude Magazine’s 20th Birthday With Its 20 Hottest Covers, Part One

Attitude magazine, one of the U.K.’s longest-running and most popular gay magazines, has just celebrated its 20th birthday. Here’s a look back at some of the hottest covers in the past 20 years. Happy birthday boys!

January 1998

1. Mark Whalberg Jan 98

Going back to 1998 and the U.K. was a very different place. Tony Blair was Prime Minister, and the relaxation of laws surrounding homosexuality, including equalising the age of sexual consent for gay people, was just happening. Here’s Mark Wahlberg, appearing on the cover to promote the movie Boogie Nights.

We recently featured Wahlberg in his underwear. Here he is again if you missed it…

markwhalberg-670x543

June 2002

2. David Beckham Jun 02

The David Beckham feature of 2002 was — Becks was one of the biggest sports stars on the planet to do an exclusive gay press interview. Over 10 years later, and we still love you Becks! But do you think he should be called underwear model of the century?

David-Beckham-posts-for-his-HM-Bodywear-range-1264178-446x670

November 2004

Screen shot 2014-04-02 at 22.25.58

In November 2004, pop star Robbie Williams was at the top of his game and enjoying speculation about his sexuality. He’s still playing the ‘might be gay’ card 10 years later! He’s also been featured naked in the mag a few times…

84649_AU1GCMAEN7ZYWRMICNRNCN4YH2EYMK_04attitude3_H183321_L

January 2006

4. Heath Ledger Jan 06

In 2006 Health Ledger stared on the cover to promote the massive hit, Brokeback Mountain. R.I.P. Heath. Here’s a montage of image from the hit film.

6a00d8341c730253ef010536580608970c-640wi

June 2007

5. Rufus Wainwright Jun 07

This summery cover from 2007 has some very lovely boys in speedos. Things have moved on a lot since Attitude’s early days, and now mid ’00s, it’s OK to show some butt. Oh, and there’s Rufus Wainwright too.

December 2008

8. Tom Hardy Dec 09

The beautiful Tom Hardy heads up the final issue of 2008.  When Attitude asked whether he’d had sex with men before, Hardy said:

“As a boy? Of course I have. I’m an actor for fuck’s sake. I’m an artist. I’ve played with everything and everyone. But I’m not into men sexually. I love the form and the physicality but the gay sex bit does nothing for me.

To me it just doesn’t compute now I’m into my 30s and it doesn’t do it for me and I’m done experimenting.”

shirtless-TomHardy

Here’s Hardy looking buff in 2011’s Warrior. Oh yes.

March 2009

6. James Franco Mar 09

Here’s James Franco, one of the strongest straight allies we have, in his first major gay role, for the movie Milk. That’s March 2009. God, I’m starting to feel old.

He’s on the cover of the April 2013 edition of Attitude too. Here’s a hot scene from his super-sexy gay film, Interior. Leather Bar. Here are nine of his gayest moments.

interior-leather-bar

September 2009

7. Nick Youngquest Sept 09

Australian rugby stud Nick Youngquest posed naked for “The Sex Issue” in September 2009.

Youngquest is another strong straight ally. In 2013, he became the face of the new masculine fragrance Invictus by Paco Rabanne. So here he is a few years on with longer hair…

pacorabanne-invictus-player

And here is the lovely video…

 Summer 20109. Kele Okereke (Bloc Party) Summer 10

This was the first time that Block Party vocalist Kele Okereke had spoken about his sexuality, since coming out in a Butt magazine article a few months before.

May 2011

10. Blue May 11

Things really got hot with boy band Blue’s naked cover for “The Naked Issue.” Duncan James (top centre/main image) came out as ‘bisexual’ a few years ago, however he referred to himself consistently as gay during interviews in 2013. The sexuality of Lee Ryan (left/main image) has been in the news only this week.

Here are some more photo of the boys from their shoot!

4597724737

You’re in luck. There’s a video too!

Part 2, 2011 – 2014 coming soon…

11. Gareth Thomas (UK Gay Rugby) Jun 12

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated