We at Transracial were admittedly a bit late to Dwell — the indie shelter mag that celebrates all things homey and modern. But a cheap subscription offer got us on to sign up last year and we’ve been enjoying the magazine ever since.
Dwell’s new April issue arrived in our mail box yesterday — festooned with the over-line “Pefab Today”. Yet judging from the mag’s contests, it really should have read “PreFAG Today” — because Dwell has to be, like, the Gayest magazine ever.
Not in some sort of Lady Gaga/Johnny Weir/Dan Choi kind of way.
But in a refreshing-yet-subtle in-your-face manner that we’re keen to see more of.
Indeed, over the course of the issue, readers are introduced to three — yes three! — same-sex couples; including two who show-up in multi-page features.
Take a look at page 82 — where we’re introduced to outdoorsy dudes David McAdam and “his partner” Scott Smith. The duo live in a groovy pre-fab pad outside of Palm Springs complete with a soothing/sexy “cowboy” hot tub crafted from re-purposed steel troughs.
Clever!
The dudes are presented all desert-loving and hiking-mad — and clearly good with their hands (perhaps they’re, as The New York Observer might say, Bromosexuals…..but we digress).
Then on page 90 we’re introduced to lovely Lesbian couple Tanya Wexler and Amy Zimmerman, who spend lots of time in their sleek wooden Hamptons cottage with their four — yes four! — kids.
Nice! (though perhaps a bit noisy).
The couple — who also live in Manhattan — are all smiles, motherhood and some seriously good taste in mid-century modernist furniture. They’re kind of like soccer moms, only without the hubbys waiting at home.
Finally, some sharp-reading revealed the duo of Simon Pillard and Phillipe Rosetti, a Parisian couple who live, work (and we can only assume) love together over in France.
They’re both industrial designers, with a serious case of Lego-loving — as evidenced by the kitchen island they’ve crafted in their home from 20,000 Lego blocks.
The pair work under the name Munchausen and we think they’re pretty nifty.
What’s cool about Dwell is how they portray LGBTs in a nice, refreshing and much-needed matter-of-fact-manner. These aren’t buffed chested or headline-making homos — just regular Gay folk, who happen to live in some pretty sleek homes.
What’s also nice about Dwell is that this sense of sensitivity clearly extends to all. The cover story is about a cool California family whose son zooms around in an electric wheel chair and dad looks like a sexy Viggo Mortesen.
His disability is simply presented as fact — with little of the PC/BS analysis that typically accompanies such data.
The kid’s in a wheelchair, the family has two moms; the cowboy dudes are kinda Brokeback — move on, Dwell says.
Move on indeed.
Of course we can’t help but lament the lack of more minorities in Dwell’s pages and the fact that none of the homo-features made it on to Dwell’s website.
But, hey, no magazine in perfect.
At a time when Gay media can often be the worst place to find positive images of LGBTs, we salute Dwell for doing their part to make Gay folks — and their families — that much more…well…like the regular folks they probably are.