This issue brought to you by the state of being FABULOUS.

At every given turn, we have the opportunity to express, and at every other turn, people have the opportunity to judge us for it.

Each article of clothing we don, every accessory we fasten, the footwear we’ve selected, our hair, our gait, our voice… all of it is subject to verdicts — good and bad — from the court of public opinion.

Good. Let them look. Let them stare. Let them assess. You just keep moving, honey.

Some folks, though … some really brave folks go out of their way to challenge the status quo and dress/accessorize with feminine fervor. They charge at life in colors that scream, attitudes that won’t be hushed, a self-possession that expresses itself any damn way it wants.

That’s what we mean by fabulous.

But there’s a repressed side to fabulous, for some … a stigma born of the fact that, in order to be fabulous, you must be self-assured enough to put your feminine side on blast. For some lesbians, it’s a given. For most guys, it’s a risk.

I took a bit of heat for my decision to include male femininity in this issue. Last year, Out Front published “Butch,” a celebration of masculinity in women, as defined by our interviewees. The question was posed: Why, with the infatuation with and saturation of the gay male that LGBT media possesses, can’t the ladies have their own issue once more, to counterbalance the “Butch” issue? It’s a fair question and I’d like to address it, lest anyone else feel the same way traipsing through our pages.

I’m a lover of perspective and I have an issue with things being “this” or “that.” What a trans woman may find eye-opening (pg. 52 ) about being a woman full time, a feminine gay man might find epiphanic (pg. 16 ). These are stories I don’t want to leave out simply because they don’t fit a theme or properly juxtapose an issue that was published before my time as editor. To be honest, I never would have published an issue devoted to what has the potential to be a singular perspective.

But because the young woman taking me to task was so passionate with her line of questioning, I ruminated. It’s my nature to toss and turn at night, wondering if there’s something I’m not seeing. That kind of thing eats me alive. Ultimately, I decided that inclusion is my conclusion and we must move on. I invite anyone to write me and address your concerns of this nature, and I thank the young woman and all her fire.

This issue is dedicated to all the men and women in our community who let their inner goddesses take the wheel. We see you. We’re staring. We’ve assessed that hotness and honey …

You are fabulous.