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But if Islam and Seacrest, not to mention a mock questionnaire by cartoonist Aaron McGruder and a whole treatise on shirts and ties, are fit for the magazine--particularly for an examination of the "State of the American Man"--then where are the articles on men who come home at night to their devoted, loving, male spouses?

Where are the exposés on the effort, in some Mid-Western and Southern states, to exclude same-sex households from qualifying as foster or adoptive parents? Where are the gorgeously lit and exotically posed full-color photos of pretty male models with tight tee shirts and coral shell necklaces?

Is this the issue devoted not to the American man, but rather to the American heterosexual man?

The articles seem anodyne and general enough that charges of homophobia would be an exaggeration. It's not as though gay readers need to see a "Pink Triangle Issue"--though that would be nice--but surely, issues of gay interest have some place in the pages of even the most middlebrow men's magazine. One in ten of the readership is likely to be queer, after all, so where in the July Esquire do they see their lives represented and fretted over?

And it's not just this month's "State of the American Man" issue. Esquire doesn't exactly have a sterling track record when it comes to gay topics. Indeed, it's a legitimate question as to whether Esquire's editorial team might not have been scared off from gay topics altogether following a pair of gay articles that brought the magazine mixed attention in 1997.

First came the excerpt that never was. Writer David Leavitt saw his novella "The Term Paper Artist" sail through various levels of editorial oversight with no hint of trouble before abruptly--and at the last minute--being axed.

Buzz and speculation started up at once: the magazine's advertising department was afraid the story would alienate big-name corporations. The phrase "blowjob" was deemed too risky--and risqué--for the magazine's pages (though a story by The New York Observer pointed out that in the year previous, that word had appeared in the publication no less than seven times).

Newsweek magazine wrote about Esquire's change of heart in gamely puzzled tones ("Leavitt does call a penis a penis in this story, but there's nothing gratuitous or exploitative…").

Both Leavitt's book Arkansas, in which the novella was published, and Esquire magazine, received a tidal swell of national publicity. Esquire's fiction editor quit over the issue, and readers who paid any attention had to wonder if the fracas might have played a role later in the year, when Edward Kosner handed over the reigns as Editor in Chief to his successor, David Granger.

For his part, Granger lost little time in making his mark with an article written by the National Magazine Award-winning Tom Junod. The October 1997 issue of Esquire came complete with actor Kevin Spacey's face on the cover and the banner-sized headline, "Kevin Spacey Has a Secret."

In the article, which played swift and loose with rumor and insinuation, Junod amped up and elaborated on whispers that Spacey was gay. The piece was so carefully written neither to confirm nor deny anything that the online publication Salon Magazine took a swipe, saying that the story "drags the actor in and out of the closet like a vacuum cleaner."

Newspapers across the country once again took note, but this time from the moral high ground: Esquire's story was roundly condemned. Spacey himself responded by calling the article "malicious" and "homophobic."

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