Now this is the kind of story I like to read:

Doug Jefferies

As he watched the death toll rise from the Southeast Asian tsunami, Doug Jefferies felt that a simple donation wasn’t going to cut it. “They had plenty of money coming in—what they needed was the hands-on assistance,” he says. As the owner of the popular Results the Gym in Washington, D.C., Jefferies tapped into one of his greatest resources: his membership. He posted signs in his gyms’ two locations, and immediately 21 people (most of them gay and lesbian) signed on to put their well-honed muscles to truly good use, working in Sri Lanka with Habitat for Humanity.

Jefferies, 38, and his fellow volunteers spent the sweltering month of August rebuilding houses in places where the infrastructure includes no electricity or running water. “I’m not naive—I know we’re living in the richest country and that when you travel in the Third World you’re usually in this sort of bubble,” he says. “But when you live and work and eat with the people, you realize how people are really living. We consume way too much as a culture and a society.”

Next, Jefferies plans to draw even more volunteers from his 10,000-strong membership to build houses for Hurricane Katrina survivors. “It’s affected my life forever,” he says. “I’m so much more grateful for what I have, and I’m not going to take for granted the endless possibilities to better your life and the life of people around you.” Chelsey Johnson

That's from the Out 100, which is just...out. I often think about kicking the pumped boys in my neighborhood who sprint up the long, steep stairs to the J train, oblivious to the smallish mother carrying a baby, hoisting a stroller, pulling a conscientious-objector toddler, and trying to avoid losing both her bag and her mind. Guys: Muscles are (to a point) cute. It's nice to be strong. Using your biceps and divine six-pack only to make your t-shirts look good and ease the introductions at clubs, however, is not not nice, not neighborly, and really sad. While you're at it, could you stop spitting all the time? Do you think we don't see that? Do you think it makes us think, "God, why can't I sleep with someone who spits on the sidewalk in front [yes] of him like that?" It doesn't.