FROM THE EDITOR.

Throughout the year, the DNA team keep a personal list of the men who ping on our radar, and we watch the DNA website and social media to see who is cutting through. A couple of months before we start work on the issue, we ask our regular contributors to send in a list of their hot picks. Then we compare notes and reach our conclusions.

It’s always fascinating to see who’s making an impression on the greater gay consciousness. Sometimes, one of us will nominate a guy we think is a bit out-there or left-of-field, only to discover we’ve all got him on our lists. Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) and Nick Robinson (Love, Simon) fell into that category this year.

What I find interesting is that even though there’s only about 15 people who contribute to the list, there’s a lot of diversity. (Although, our only lesbian contributor, Vanessa McQuarrie’s suggestion of an obscure, existential crime writer did not make the cut this year.)

Working out who gay men think are hot isn’t that hard. Working out which men straight men think are hot is endlessly more challenging and fascinating.

Regular DNA readers will be familiar with Matthew Myers’ monthly feature, Our Straight Mates in which he interviews a straight celebrity and they chat about gay stuff. In every interview, Matt asks his subject who they’d turn gay for. For several years they all seemed to answer, without fail, either Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp. It was predictable and monotonous; as though Pitt and Depp with the safe default settings that straight men had permission to like.

But in the last couple of years that has dramatically changed. The answers have started getting more interesting and varied. No one says Pitt or Depp anymore and, in fact, the answers are rarely repeated. Perhaps straight men are now less fearful of expressing admiration or attraction to other men. If so, that’s a milestone cultural moment.

Over the last 12 months, the men Our Straight Mates have nominated have included Hollywood hotties Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, Michael Fassbinder and Hugh Jackman, and Australian actor Rob Collins, gay R’n’B star Frank Ocean, comedian Seth McFarlane, Canadian PM, Justin Trudeau and Ricky Martin. So, as we celebrate our own Sexiest Men Alive, I tip my hat to the Straight Mates for being open to crushing on bros! And having great taste.

Sadly, as parts of our world grow kinder and wiser, other parts seem to shrivel up with hate, prejudice and ignorance. I’d like to mention another regular DNA feature, Nuts: The Haters Are Still Hating, compiled each month by Torsten Højer. I started this column a couple of years ago to highlight some of the blatantly hateful, and just plain crazy, things that homophobes had said or done publicly over the month. Naively, I thought it wouldn’t last long; that we’d run out of things to report. That hasn’t been the case. In fact, it seems that each month we are reporting more and more instances of the public vilification of LGBTIQ people.

Often, the victims of these vicious attacks are our most vulnerable – trans kids. I find this column both distressing and depressing but, equally, feel the need to keep it, to remind ourselves that we must always be mindful of the threats we, as a community, still face.

On a brighter note, there’s so much good stuff in this issue: exclusive interviews with Troye Sivan and Gus Kenworthy, our on-set visit to Neighbours for the gay wedding of the year, our catch up with Jordan Bruno after winning Mr Gay World, and Our Straight Mate, hot cop, Daniel Rengering.

Enjoy our Sexiest Men Alive (feedback welcome) and happy reading.

Our only lesbian contributor’s suggestion of an obscure, existential crime writer did not make the cut this year.