BY: ANDREA BRAUN - THEATRE ARTS CORRESPONDENT

    "Find out what they like, and how they like it, and give it to ‘em just that way." Kim Furlow followed Fats Waller’s advice when she chose Steel Magnolias for the christening of Dramatic License Productions new home, the company’s second play but first in Chesterfield Mall.

BY: CURTIS COMER

    It’s funny how music can magically transport the listener back in time. Like the scent of perfume or the smell of coffee brewing, it can remind us of long-lost friends, short-lived loves and sunny picnic tables that we had all but forgotten with the passage of time. Taste in music, too, can tell a lot about the listener and even divulge his age.

    DALLAS, TEXAS - The 22-annual National Conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality (Creating Change) is getting underway at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel in beautiful downtown Dallas, Tex., Feb. 3 - 7, 2010.

Grady Goes Ga Ga for Ga Ga

BY: AMANDA WICHERN

    "JUST DANCE" has been 23 year old St. Louis native Christina Grady’s motto since she was two. And that is just what she has done for well-known pop artists like Avril Lavigne, Chris Brown, Cassie and Space Cowboy. But a new curtain soon opened for Grady’s career. Grady worked with the new madam of mistress, music, fashion and eccentric behavior Lady Gaga.

    WASHINGTON – Today, the effort to repeal the discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law received a monumental boost of support from General Colin Powell. The former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1990’s, who supported the laws passage back in 1993, changed his position in a statement sent out today saying, "attitudes and circumstances have changed". In voicing his support for the law’s repeal, Gen.

PHOTO BY: TIFFANY PARRETT

    Scores of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and allied supporters joined friends, family, co-workers and comrades to celebrate the life of Missouri Highway Patrolman Dennis Engelhard, January 30. The Memorial Eucharist was held at Christ Church Cathedral and followed by a reception open to family and friends.

Dear Friends:

    I am honored and so very proud that you have embraced the new Vital VOICE magazine. My goal is to continue to celebrate how diversely amazing our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community truly is. For it is because of you that Vital Voice can showcase the many facets and modern lifestyle of today’s St. Louis LGBT community.

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

    It was bound to happen. A major case of Ga Ga fever swept The Lou following the announcement that the pop culture icon’s, The Monster Ball tour was coming to town on Jan. 7 and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community had it bad.

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

    The Carnival season is again at hand and Mardi Gras, as it must from time to time, falls in early February with coats and hats being the costume of choice over scantily clad women and shirtless men. But the cold has never stopped revelers of every stripe—both gay and straight—from converging on historic Soulard. This year marks the 31 - annual celebration of what has become a destination event for our fair city—where the beaded and bedazzled celebrate day and night.

 BY: DANNY GLADDEN

    David Letterman, Hugh Grant, George Michael, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Tiger Woods, Senators’ John Edwards, Larry Craig and David Vitter; Governors’ Elliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey and Mark Sanford and Congressman Mark Foley—indeed, the 2000s were full of sex scandals following the sexcapade of the century starring Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

Stopping the STD Epidemic……..It’s as easy as……One, Two, Pee!

Did you know that St. Louis ranks #2 in the nation for new cases of Gonorrhea and Chlamydia?

And #5 for HIV?

Did you know that you can contract the HPV virus without ever having sex?

Did you know that most STDs do not have symptoms, especially in the early stages?

 BY: MARK WEBBER

    A lot of talk and hype was made about Pi Pizzeria in St. Louis after we all learned how much Barack Obama loved the stuff. It was certainly reason to take notice.

    President Obama, as influential as a living man can be, loves a pizza restaurant in St. Louis?

 BY: MARK WEBBER

    So maybe Karen Jones got lucky when she first opened Marbles Yoga in Lafayette Square in 2003. At that time Lafayette Square may have been on the rise, but since 2006, the historic neighborhood has been considered a restored fashionable commodity of St. Louis.

    She couldn’t be happier with her luck.

    "Location is very important for yoga and the location is pretty fantastic," Jones says.

    ST. LOUIS – Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based on the songs of ABBA, returns to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis. Performances begin on February 16 and run through February 21.