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I was delighted to find out that we now have the option to have the Advocate and Out Magazines come to us without opaque plasticwrap around them. If you’ve been a subscriber, you know that this has been the tradition for 40 years for these magazines, often delivered to locales where tolerance was thin and too much knowledge about a person’s minority status could be harmful.

I immediately chose the no plastic wrap option. Good for the environment, and easier to handle this magazine when it comes.

At the same time, this brings up an interesting issue. How many conversations about equality are not happening because our lives are wrapped in opaque plastic. If we continue to be wrapped in opaque plastic, do we simply perpetuate all the misunderstandings? isn’t it a reality that after some time, people will figure out that a white plastic wrapped magazine probably has something in it that would cause controversy?

It will be interesting for the publishers to think about creating a “plastic wrap index” of how long it takes for the entire subscriber base to go without plastic wrap. Does that mean we’ve arrived? And does waiting mean we will arrive later?

I say let the plastic go, starting with my subscription. There’s nothing pornographic or controversial about equality.

Let every unwrapped magazine start a revolution of understanding.