Drum (American magazine)

Drum (corporately styled DRUM) was an American LGBT-interest magazine based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Published monthly beginning in 1964 by the homophile activist group the Janus Society and edited by Clark Polak, Drum took its title from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears the beat of a different drummer."

Drum differed from earlier homophile magazines in that it included a combination of news and erotica. Beginning in April 1965 it featured the first ongoing gay-themed comic strip, the erotic parody comic Harry Chess: That Man from A.U.N.T.I.E. by "A. Jay". In December 1965, Drum published the first full-frontal male nude pictorial in an American magazine. DRUM also took a more militant editorial and political stance than other publications of the day. This combination quickly led to a monthly circulation of 10,000, the largest circulation at the time for any magazine of its kind.

In 1967, a federal grand jury indicted Drum editor Polak on 18 counts of publishing and distributing obscene material. In exchange for avoiding a prison sentence, Polak agreed to cease publishing Drum and relocate from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.