Read Naked

“Reading, Diversity, and Hot Guys Comes Together in #ReadNaked Campaign”

By Caleb Rainey

#ReadNaked is a campaign that aims to encourage young gay and bisexual men to read more books, but especially books by gay or bisexual authors of color. Gay men of color are often invisible or underrepresented in LGBT media and the same goes for gay authors of color. So in addition to getting more guys to read, #ReadNaked wanted to celebrate the strength, intelligence, and diversity of gay and bisexual men of color. In the #ReadNaked calendar you will find men who are living openly and proudly and who hail from 11 different ethnic backgrounds including Venezuelan, Vietnamese, Pakistani, Mexican, Nigerian, Brazilian, Korean, and African American. Together these men help provide a glimpse into what the gay male world could be like. A world where gay men of all colors are loved and celebrated and where art and a diversity of voices is appreciated and protected.

#ReadNaked also tries to give literature and reading a much needed PR makeover. If Comic Con can make comics and superheroes sexy after years of people stereotyping comic book lovers as men who lived in their mothers basements well into their 30s, then we believe we can certainly save literature and reading from their current image problem. Take a moment and picture a reader. Who comes to mind? If you’re anything like the average twenty something, the image that surfaces is probably a middle-aged white woman sitting in her living room sipping a cup of herbal tea while holding the latest best seller. Needless to say, this is not an image that most gay men identify with. But as the men in this calendar prove, literature is anything but a passive, unsexy, and socially suspicious hobby. It is essential to building the mind and becoming the type of well-rounded and culturally literate gay man that is in demand in the 21^st century.

So I want to leave you with a challenge. Choose one of the books featured in this calendar. Get it from the library or Amazon or a second hand book store. And read it this year. Spend time living in someone else’s world. In the same way that many of us work our muscles into things of wonder, let’s dedicate a similar focus to expanding our minds and spirits to the realities of people very different and yet very similar to ourselves.  Let’s work out our empathy muscles with as much vigor as we work out our pecs. After all, both are sexy and both are best done naked.