Before GoNaked, There Was Naked. The Publication That Changed Everything

Some magazines entertain. Others leave a fingerprint on your life.
Naked Magazine did both for me.

Long before GoNaked Magazine existed, I sat with those glossy pages spread across a table, studying them like a roadmap. Here was proof a publication for gay nudist men did not need permission to exist. Here was community in print. Travel. Stories. Bodies without shame.

Naked Magazine showed me what was possible.

Published throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the magazine spoke to men searching for connection in a pre-app world. You did not open Naked to scroll. You opened it to find your people.
Inside were listings for resorts and gatherings, personal ads, travel features, reader stories, and photography grounded in confidence rather than spectacle. Each issue whispered the same message: You belong somewhere.

The publisher, Robert Steele, guided the magazine for more than a decade before the title disappeared after the economic shock that followed September 11. Like many independent LGBTQ publications, the archive never received the preservation attention given to mainstream media.

Yet the influence lived on.

When the idea for GoNaked Magazine first stirred in my head, Naked stood right there beside it.
To be honest, in those early days I tried to track down Robert Steele. I wanted to buy the name. I wanted to continue the tradition rather than start from zero. I searched. I asked around. I followed every lead I could find.

Nothing.

Robert Steele might have been a pseudonym. He might have stepped away from publishing. He might have died. The trail went cold.
So I made a decision many founders recognize. If the door does not open, build your own entrance.
I struck out on my own.
Here we are eleven years later, with a thriving community that grows stronger with each passing season. What began as inspiration became momentum. Momentum became a magazine. The magazine became a gathering place.

GoNaked did not replace Naked Magazine. No publication replaces the one that helped spark it.
Instead, we continue the spirit.
Both magazines share a simple belief. Visibility matters. Community matters. Seeing yourself reflected without apology matters.

Today, I hold every issue of Naked Magazine shown here and plan to complete the full run. (If you have an issue that I am missing, let me know!) Once finished, the entire collection will go to the GLBT Historical Society Museum.
Preservation protects stories from disappearing.
Future researchers will not need to guess how gay nudist culture found its footing. They will turn pages and see it unfold.
Print still carries power. A magazine freezes a moment in time more honestly than memory ever could.
Naked Magazine helped light the path.
GoNaked Magazine walks forward on it.