Three decades after gracing the cover of New York magazine's salacious 1997 feature "Trophy Boys," Adam Turner has shared his reflections on that defining moment in gay media history. In an essay published this week in Vanity Fair, the now-54-year-old recalls being chosen for the cover and what that choice revealed about gay culture at the time.
The Story That Made Him Famous
Turner says a friend approached him on a beach and suggested he model. The next day, he showed up to New York's offices for a casting call—and landed the cover. The article, by journalists Eric Konigsberg and Maer Roshan, explored the world of kept boys and their wealthy sugar daddies in gay enclaves like Miami Beach, using the sensational backdrop of Andrew Cunanan's murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace to frame its narrative. Turner appeared in a pool chair, dark sunglasses and cocktail in hand, embodying what the magazine called the era's gay ideal: fit, white, and meticulously groomed.
Why That Image Mattered Then
In the mid-1990s, Turner explains, gay men were desperate to distance themselves from the visible toll of AIDS. The aspiring Broadway actor describes himself and peers as "Chelsea clones"—men who went to great lengths to project health and vitality. The cover was seductive and racy, which Turner knew when he signed on; he was looking for a way to launch his career. But the article sparked backlash within the gay community, with many feeling it was gratuitously sensational and played into harmful stereotypes about gay men and desire.
Reckoning With Legacy
Turner soon found himself receiving unsolicited propositions from strangers. Yet he's made peace with his role in that moment of gay history, keeping several copies not "out of vanity," he insists, but as a document of a specific time. Looking back now as a single man watching his own visibility fade, Turner describes his feelings as bittersweet—a reminder that even controversial media can capture something true about a community trying to survive and be seen.
Source: Queerty
Cover photo: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
