A magical fairyland with equal amounts glitter, hustle, and human excrement, early ’90s New York was the ideal nexus of time and place to birth Out. Officially launched in the summer of 1992, the magazine by and for queers sprung from the minds of established Gotham journalists like founder (and editor in chief) Michael Goff and Sarah Pettit, the first editorial hire.
“Half the first issue was produced at the Esquire offices,” Goff, a former editor of that iconic — and at that point, very straight — publication, recalls.
Even though Goff was initially wedded to naming his new publication , it became clear the magazine had to be a bold declaration of queerness. “If we’re going editor Ingrid Sischy to use the name, since her publication already had a party column called “Out.”
