"Nick Carter embraced his gay fans before it was trendy -- at 17, he posed for the cover of a gay teen mag, unheard of at the time. Now, with a new Backstreet album in stores, Nick is sober, happy, and, most important, back," writes David Michael Conner for his new interview with Nick Carter for the Advocate.

Advocate reports:
David Michael Conner: You did an Advocate “Big Gay Following” interview with Brandon Voss a few years ago, and years back, in 1997, you were a cover model for XY [pictured at right], a magazine for gay teens. Not everyone in a boy band would be so involved with gay press, and these have followed you for years, for better or worse. If you did something like XY now and you were the same age and at the same stage in your career, do you think it would be such a big deal?

Nick Carter: I don’t think it would be as much of a big deal. I really don’t. Honestly, I have so many gay friends, family members who are gay… it’s not a big deal to me. It may have been a big deal back in the day when I was young, but, you know, whatever. It’s part of our culture now and that’s what’s great about it. People accept it now. I love it.

Read full interview here.