MintMALE

OCTOBER 2009 TEASER ISSUE

The gay man's guide to living in mint condition

09.09MintMale Mission StatementMint Male is a movement that encourages gay men to live a happy, healthy life with the assistance of those who are passionate about the issues and interests of modern gay culture. We are a multimedia community that promotes the highest quality of health, fitness, culinary techniques, fashion, art, sex, and livelihood for a sophisticated market.

CONTENTS

09.09CONTE

NTS

Letter from the Founder 36Puerto Vallarta: Is Mexico's Boystown

7 Autumn 2009: Dress Up Your Casual

11Bush's Civil War

13Cazwell Preview

15Dr. Yate 's Medical Corner

Co-Founder: Josh Shores

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Co-Founder: Lisa Kimmey

Founder: Joey Grant

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Dear Mint Reader,

I’m writing to tell you a little about Mint Male and what the future has in store for us. I’m Joey Grant, the founder of this fantastic online publication. Our mission is a movement that encourages gay men to live a happy, healthy life with the assistance of those who are passionate about the issues and interests of modern gay culture. We are a multimedia community that promotes the highest quality of health, fitness, culinary techniques, fashion, art, sex, and livelihood for a sophisticated market. We pull from our staff, and their passion is what drives us. Our diverse team is full of excitement and ready to deliver you the best online magazine we possible. We strive to better ourselves every month so that we can offer you, our a reader, a great forum for tips, advice, and entertainment. We are here to spark conversation, spread awareness, and show you what Mint loves suggests. We know life is a rollercoaster of emotions, changes, and stumbles. We know how to help, not hinder, and advise, not scold. Mint condition, to me, is the condition in which you’ve found balance between living a healthy lifestyle while still having a hell of a good time and living life to the fullest. Thank you all for your interest, and please come back on October 1, 2009 for our official launch. We also have a blog, www.MintMale.wordpress.com, so check back for updates and to find out more about Mint Events.

Thanks so much,Joey Grant

Ps. Are my co-founders adorable or what?

SEE YOUR AD HERE.

Contact Joey@MintMale.com for more information

Puerto Vallerta is Mexico’s Boystown

Puerta Vallarta is off of Banderas Bay and is snuggled into what is also called Zona Romantica. The sea of gay men vacationing as well as living there are eager to meet and mingle amongst each other. It’s easy to fall into the ritual of spending your days at the two most popular spots Blue Chairs and their neighbor, Green Chairs. You may feel bombarded with the mobile vendors selling everything under the sun, all in beautiful, warm colors. You can find anything from jewelry and clothing to trinkets and temporary tattoos. You will be amazed by what merchandise you will see, and sometimes there are some spectacular deals. To keep your self from constantly being pestered to purchase items, you can nod the vendors away or just ignore them. It sounds rude but there are at least one hundred people working the beaches at all times, and sometimes that can disturb your nap time, or worse, day drinking! Continued in next month’s issue.

Puerta Vallarta the boys-town, Castro Street, and South Beach of Mexico. You can experience a fantastic vacation on a considerably low budget. The dollar is worth nearly double of the US, and the cost of living is considerably lower. Airfare will be the largest expense, but hotels, such as Blue Chairs, have insanely good deals. Puerta Vallarta is a beautiful place, and is rich in colors, nightlife, and culture.

SEE YOUR AD HERE.

Contact Joey@MintMale.com for more information

Dress up your casualAutumn

Glasses by: Oliver Peoples

Bowtie by:American Apparel

Dress shirt by:American Eagle Vintage Fit.

Suspenders by:American Apparel

Jeans by: Levi's 511Skinny Jean

Shoes by:Converse Black Leather

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We’re trying to raise the bar for casual wear this fall. We’re recommending accessories like scarves, ties, and suspenders to dress up a simple casual look. You can also reverse it, if after a long day at the office when you want to run back out for a drink or bite to eat, just dress down the business/formal wear you have had on all day. Examples can be a pair of dress paints, some converse, and t-shirt. A solid colored bow tie with suspenders to accompany formal pants is a huge hit. This look keeps you modern and stylish without feeling frumpy. You can add youth to your suit by trading the dress shoes for a pair of nice sneakers. Scarves are becoming an even bigger hit than last year. We are seeing more colors, sizes, and embellishments. Join us in our October launch for more on “Dress up your Casual.” We’ll be featuring ideas on how to ties scarves, simple touches to bring your style up to date, and much more.

Tuxedo Pants by:Dolce + Gabbana

Scarf by:Diesel

Shirt by: American ApparelV-Neck

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Queer Ass Politics andPreemptive Civil WarWritten by, Joseph Johnson

OURS IS THE GREATEST NATION, or so we are constantly being told, but often we here atMintMale Magazine are embarrassed for our country. We have grown weary of pompous politicians continually braying, “This is the greatest nation on earth.” Oh, really, greater than Canada, Mexico, Australia, and all of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Central and South America? How nice you should point this out and give people around the world yet another reason to love us – for our humility. When we visit those places for our travel section, we surmise that we may find something to like better. For example, we wouldn’t mind living in a country where local TV news covered visual and performing arts instead of devoting one-fifth of their total air time to franchised sports. That’s just us, but surely there are countries that elect national leaders who unabashedly advocate equal rights for all citizens.We live in a country that has overthrown fourteen foreign regimes since 1893. We still enjoy self-rule at home; however, even after the election of President Barack Obama, minority citizens continue to face racial profiling and institutionalized discrimination. Meanwhile, the American Dream seems mired in a nightmare of jobless recovery. The rich get richer, while the rest work harder, only to be left behind when their jobs are outsourced abroad. Perhaps there’s a country with less than ten-percent unemployment that permits any two people in love to marry – and provides national healthcare. We would prefer legislators who don’t attempt to interfere with personal medical decisions, a high court that doesn’t undermine national elections and elected leaders who don’t advocate discrimination based on sexual orientation. We also would favor a nation that doesn’t torture prisoners of “preventive” war. In fact, we’re inclined to side with President Harry Truman, who once noted that the only thing you prevent by war is peace. (And this from a man who dropped two hydrogen bombs on Japan!) Today, while President Obama looks ahead with the audacity of hope, we are all still paying for mistakes made by greedy, hypocritical neoconservatives who have sucked all compassion out of American politics.Despite such shortcomings, we love our country and believe it can be rescued from past leaders who called it the greatest, but sold our nation short. Our political focus at MMM will target gay rights, championed in the context of human rights for all. This is not a new concept, for it was Jane Addams, the first American woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, who said, “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated in our common life.” To be continued in next month’s issue.

CAZWELLin Mint Magazine October ‘09

Exclusive Photos + Interview of

MEDICAL CORNERMintMale strives to help MEN stay in MINT condition. While we’ll take on difficult issues and discuss clinical issues that can’t always have a happy ending, we’ll always take a positive approach. The physician at MintMale will be available to readers to answer e-mailed questions at DocYates@MintMale.com.

MintMale’s medical section will be written by Doctors, Nurses, Researchers and medical/nursing students. Opinions expressed in stories with political implications will be those of the authors and not necessarily those of the publication itself.

If you have questions or a special area of interest that you’d like to share with our readers, please write to: DocYates@MintMale.com.

What does it mean for me?

Everybody’s talking about health care reform, whether he’s trying to push it or stop it. But what are the possibilities and what does it mean for me?

The other night, while working as the emergency physician at a local hospital, a twenty-something year old hairdresser named Jon (name changed for this article) was brought to me having suffered injuries in an automobile crash. He had enough pain that we suspected he might have internal injuries. As usual, I ordered a CAT scan to be done.

The man summoned me into his examination room and introduced me to his young life partner. They were both reasonable-appearing people with above average intelligence. They had discussed the young man’s injuries and, despite the possibility he had more than we could tell just from a physical examination, they were going to refuse the CAT scan.

Why? The two men had decent jobs, but no health insurance. Having an expensive test done in the emergency department would jeopardize their ability to start saving some money and move from their apartment to a house they wanted.

Since thely were reasonable people and could understand my explanation of the risk they were taking, there was nothing I could do but allow them to refuse the test.

This type scenario is happening with increasing frequency every year that I practice emergency medicine. Worse yet, people repeatedly come in for asthma attacks and seizures, usually because they simply can’t afford the medicines that prevent such events.

Forty-seven million Americans don’t have health insurance. You may be one of them. If not, you pay too much for your insurance to keep hospitals afloat while they provide service to the uninsured and unnecessary tests to people just to prevent malpractice losses.

A research paper that examined 2007 health care data concluded that, over a three-year period, 12.6 million non-elderly adults were denied coverage by an insurance company due to preexisting conditions. The paper was published in July by the Commonwealth Fund. Illness or medical bills contributed to 62.1% of American bankruptcies filed in 2007, according to a study published in the American Journal of Medicine.

Reform will be difficult and painful. There must be compromise.

HEALTH CARE REFORM

Continued in next month’s issue of Mint Magazine.