When They Knew

Obsessed with the Doan's Man

In the book When I Knew Robert Trachtenberg compiles poignant and often hilarious moments when gay men and women first came out to themselves.

Jon Kinnally, executive producer of Will & Grace, realized he was gay when he was 8 years old and felt a curious attraction to the illustration on a container of backache medicine. "I became obsessed with the man on the Doan's pill box," he remembers. "I thought his back was so sexy—it was a combination of this rugged muscle guy in pain and showing vulnerability. When my mother ran out of her supply and threw the box away, I went to the drugstore and stole another one."