HERO Magazine^TM was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 glossy gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 co-founded in 1997 by Sam Jensen Page

Sam Jensen Page

Samuel Jensen Page, formerly Samuel Francis, is a fitness journalist and trainer in Los Angeles, California. He legally changed his surname in August 2007 to that of his domestic partner, Bronson Page, via the Los Angeles Superior Court.-Early life and education:Born September 19, 1974, in Murray,...

 and Paul Horne. The magazine stopped publication in January 2002.

Overview

The magazine rode the wave of the "mainstreaming" of gay culture and was the first gay magazine to be classified as "highly recommended" by Library Journal. It published the first automotive column in a national gay magazine, the first gay man's wedding guide, etc. HERO turned away from the "sex sells" attitude of many other gay publications, and did not accept adult or tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

 advertising. The magazine was also more inclusive of couples and men over 40 than other gay men's magazines at the time.

After fast growth in its first 3 years, the magazine's financial backing was frozen after September 11, 2001, and the publication ceased operations in January 2002. Parent company HERO Media^TM continues to develop other online and print publications, including SpaTravelGuy.com.