From The Editor: Fight Club
Andrew Creagh on the joy and conundrum of the Sexiest Men Alive issue – who is in, who is out, and why Luke Evans keeps missing the cut.
Cutting together the Sexiest Men Alive issue is always a joy and a conundrum.
Who gets included, who doesn’t, and why? It’s not the biggest question of our age, but it’s something that reflects what DNA readers are liking, thinking and feeling at a particular point in time, so getting it accurate feels important.
How do we do it? It’s a combination of things. We choose men who have had a strong response from our online community: who attracts the most likes, shares and comments on our social media, and which web posts accumulate the most views?
We also take correspondence and feedback from our print and digital subscribers into account. And, as always, I encourage you to send me your thoughts. See the email address below. But we can’t just reflect what DNA fans like now; we also need to predict who will be our next up-and-coming crushes.
Sometimes I feel bad about who gets excluded. For example, we often post about Welsh actor Luke Evans and his long-term boyfriend Fran Tomas online, and those posts are popular. But Luke has been in our Sexiest Men Alive list twice before, so it’s time to give someone else some space. We still love you Luke and Fran, and if there is ever a wedding, we’ll gladly accept the invitation!
I’m pleased with the men who have made our list this year, and I hope you are, too. I look forward to your feedback.
Elsewhere in this issue, we speak with Marc Svensson, who has founded a London-based not-for-profit called You Are Loved. Marc was overwhelmed by the number of gay, bi, trans and queer men who are dying prematurely from suicide, drug and alcohol addiction, and accidental overdoses.
His organisation hopes to reduce these numbers, which are significantly higher among gay men than straight men. Their first achievement was finding statistical evidence that supported what we in the community already know. Now they are working with the police to help accurately record causes of death, which are often overlooked. And on top of that, they offer grief counselling to survivors. It’s a worthy project and something that needs to be rolled out everywhere.
We also have fantastic interviews with Dash Kruck, who stars in Here You Come Again, the Dolly Parton-inspired musical, and actor/musician Jim Verraros, and young Neighbours hottie, Ben Jackson is our Straight Mate.
I hope you enjoy the issue and thank you for reading.
Andrew Creagh, Founding Editor
Email your feedback to [email protected]
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