The New Yorker Has Done It Again

The New Yorker is raising eyebrows again--with a cover showing two male sailors locked in a passionate kiss in Times Square. The sketch is a lampoon of the famous Life magazine photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, who shot a euphoric World War II sailor kissing a nurse in the square on V-J Day.

The cover of the June 17 issue (on newsstands) also appears to be a comment on the recent compromise under which lesbians and gay men can serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientation private. The sketch by Barry Blitt is titled “Don’t Ask,” and the policy is known informally as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The New Yorker has drawn debate by tackling topics with the hip edge of Editor Tina Brown. Since she arrived from Vanity Fair four years ago, the New Yorker has taken on her in-your-face style. A 1994 cover featuring a Hasidic Jew embracing a black woman not only broke a religious taboo forbidding an ultra-Orthodox man to touch a woman in public, but also pushed the race button. The magazine has also printed nude photos and four-letter words--firsts in the 71-year-old publication’s history.