It is almost a year to the day since we took over Wrapped and gave the magazine a face lift and your support of this decision has been overwhelmingly positive.

Our December edition increased sales of the magazine by 60%, and our past edition attracted a lot of media attention around our article “Does the church still hate us?”. I spoke on various radio shows to discuss this very controversial issue. For many of you this issue was close to home. Your emails and letters telling us your stories were inspirational.

The citizens of Knysna recently complained bitterly about the Pink Loerie Festival which is hosted in this town every year. Year after year we migrate to Knysna – to celebrate our freedom and to spend some of our hard-earned cash with retailers, hotels, airlines and car rental companies. But, judging from the negative response from the local Knysna community – pink money is different from straight money…which makes me think that maybe we shouldn't support this town any further. I think we should boycott their tourism initiatives and rather visit other towns, such as Cape Town, where business understands the value of our money.

In this edition we tackle the issue of how gay people are perceived. Are we all still seen as horrid drag queens, flaming fairies and scary bears which, or can we go about our lives without social stigma?

This past week we launched our WrappedTV Channel on our website. Visit the site and see what WrappedTV has to offer. We will be featuring behind the scenes interviews from our next fashion show, host our own talk shows and much more. If you think up a cool TV show, upload it to YouTube and let us know - maybe your video blog or daily news makes the grade! If we like it, we will feature it on our channel.

This edition is full of good reads. Find out what happens to us when we get old, how to end your civil union and get to know the guys of Watershed.

For those of you who attended our fashion shoot at Therapy – thank you. Eugene and his team has managed to create a wonderful club-fashion spread which was shot on location at Therapy in Johannesburg. We are planning more joint events with Therapy - so watch our website for more information. From our next edition we will be introducing you to some of their hot international DJ's!

We hope that you will enjoy this edition of Wrapped.

Morne Ebersohn
Publisher | WRAPPED MAGAZINE

EDITION 16

LONDON

I had been to London before, for about seven hours, and I had hated it. I'd been on holiday in Amsterdam, and the London thing was a business day-trip. Get up at six (on my holiday, for God's sake!), taxi to Schiphol, plane to Heathrow, tube to some godforsaken station in the suburbs, walking in the rain, meeting, back in the rain, back on the tube, back to the airport, back to Schiphol, back to the hotel. And they made me take off my shoes at the airport! Do I look like Richard Reid?!

Please click here to download the complete London Travel Feature.

EDITION 15 - THE SUMMER EDITION

PARIS

I have always had a rather ambivalent relationship with France. Not that I had actually been to France, nor that I thought France had much of a relationship with me. France, in my mind, has been both the country of Napoleon, trampling Europe to save it from those who would trample it, and of Astérix, defeating the Roman invaders as much with mockery as by the sword. France is the country that straddled the world, and the only One to give the English a run for their colonies, yet was straddled by Nazi Germany in all of five minutes.

Please click here to download the complete Paris Travel Feature.

EDITION 14 - THE SPRING EDITION

AMSTERDAM

I hadn't been planning to go overseas in August. August is always busy, but this year it came after a couple of months of hell at work. Not the bad kind of hell where you have an awful boss or a boring job, but the kind where the work just never stops. I was looking forward to December. Three weeks on some tropical island with cute boys who speak French or something. Then I had a birthday, and the boyfriend decided against buying me a tie and we went to Paris and Amsterdam instead. I think I got a good deal.

Please click here to download the complete Amsterdam Travel Feature.