Justin Myers / The Guyliner

Sending naked pictures has long been possible, but in the 21st century it's astonishingly easy. Justin Myers spoke to men and women about when to send them, how to shoot them and how to keep yourself safe.

LGBT+ people have a difficult lot: asked to conform but constantly questioned even when they do. As part of GQ’s 30th anniversary in partnership with Gillette UK The Guyliner looks into the many factors that cause people in the queer community to have a higher rate of suicidal thoughts than straight people.

What was dating like in 1988, back when GQ first hit the shelves in the UK? Lonely hearts columns, dating agencies, useless matchmaking through friends, picking someone up in a bar. A little bit of playing the field, maybe, before settling down with “The One”, or the nearest approximation. In a way, everything has changed and nothing has changed.

How to flirt: in the 21st century the art of seduction is a many-headed hydra. The Guyliner has the best tips for being respectful, interesting and irresistibly sexy.

Remember the depressing dating craze where so-called pick-up artists gave you tips on how to make women fall for you immediately? While there’ll always be people who fall for these con tricks, it’s hard to deploy them and still come out of it a decent guy, so here are some alternatives to those pickup pointers.

Dating online is much like going out with someone you met in a kebab shop, or next to a huge speaker in your local neon ’n’ snakebite cattle market, but it comes with its quirks – an inability to admit you’re “a thing” and an irresistible urge to keep dating apps on your phone once you start seeing someone, “just in case”.

Autumn catwalks were awash with models dressed like laundry piles. Why stop at two coats when three (or more) is fashionable – and practical, too?

Sex is one of the most exciting things we can do, whenever we like, that doesn’t cost us any money. Usually. And yet, permanently dissatisfied and demanding as we humans are, we’re always trying to find ways to make it more of a thrill. One of the easiest ways to do this is to have sex somewhere “unusual”.

Despite what loud-mouthed columnists might tell you, true diversity on TV has a way to go. Oh sure, a female, LGBT, or non-white panellist is occasionally wheeled out on a comedy show, or soaps cover a gay “issue” every now and again, but when it comes to gay-led TV, viewers are left wanting.

Are we right to blame advances in tech for all our dating ills? I'm not too sure, you know…

In days of yore, when homophobia was very much still on trend, gay men felt ageless, spared the usual heterosexual milestones: marriage, children or spending our Sundays lathering up our Ford Mondeos on the driveway. Now, thanks to marriage equality, along with increased open-mindedness heading off bigotry as best it can, we are catching up fast and lapping up equality like a free charcoal shot.

Already you may be screaming STOP at your screen, but I’m afraid full disclosure is as full disclosure does. The “mushroom character in Mario Kart”—an enchanted, sentient toadstool called Toad, for any non-gamers out there—is mentioned as a potential doppelgänger.

Alamy
While you could argue that if a relationship is meant to be you shouldn’t have to work too hard at it, keeping one going is no picnic. One in five couples are sexually incompatible – but it doesn’t have to be the end.

The witching season is almost upon us – cosplay Christmas for attention-seekers. It’s remarkable what Halloween can do to even the meekest of men. Hand them a lurid cocktail, a pair of novelty fangs and an acrylic wig, and suddenly they’re the life and soul of the party.

Though he became famous in later years for partying with Cilla Black, or good-naturedly rolling his eyes at witless contestants on lottery quiz In It To Win It, the jewel in Dale’s eclectic CV was Supermarket Sweep, the surprise daytime smash of the nineties that became a cultural phenomenon.