Each year, transgender people, their families, friends and allies converge on Washington, DC, and go to their members of Congress to talk with them about the need for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes gender identity as well as other important legislation.

    This year Robyn Carolyn Montague, co-founder of Transhaven Missouri, Missouri's Trans Advocacy Organization, blogs from the National Center for Transgender Equality Lobby Day and Conference, March 14-16, 2010.

BY: ROBYN CAROLYN MONTAGUE

    NEW YORK - New York, Sunday, March 14, 2010 – Sigourney Weaver, Meredith Vieira, Alan Cumming, Bryan Batt, Sarah Paulson, Rosie Perez, Michael Urie, Gavin Creel, and Dustin Lance Black were among the celebrities who joined the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) as it honored Joy Behar, Cynthia Nixon, and the best in television and journalism last night at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York.

BY: CURTIS COMER

Family:  an excellent reminder as to why we have friends.

    Many of us in the LGBT community have experienced some sort of falling out with our families, whether because of homophobia or simply because we decided to move away from our small hometowns, furthering a sense of alienation. For me it was a combination of the two, having been raised in a strictly religious family and eventually moving to San Francisco when I was in my early twenties.

    ST. LOUIS - Catherine Neville, co-founder of Sauce Magazine, has sold her interest in the publication to business partner Allyson Mace. The March 1 announcement states that Neville will leave the publication and its related brand products, effective immediately.

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

    SPRINGFIELD, IL - The Illinois State Senate is considering a bill (SB3447) to roll back some protections of the Illinois Human Rights Act, which currently prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

    The bill would carve out exceptions to the Act, allowing certain employers and tax-exempt organizations to discriminate against Illinoisans on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.

    WASHINGTON – The highest-ranking leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines appeared before Congress this week and testified in support of the strategy to repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that was laid out by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
 

Dear Friends,

    Welcome to the NOH8 Issue of Vital VOICE Magazine. We are so proud to be a media sponsor for the upcoming NOH8 Project St. Louis whose gallery exposition will take place April 8 – 9 at the Duane Reed Gallery in the heart of the fabulous CWE.

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

    The NOH8 Campaign is now a phenomenon. In little under a year’s time the photographic silent protest created by photographer Adam Bouska and partner Jeff Parshley in response to the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which stripped Golden State same sex couples of their right to marry, has taken the nation—nay the world, by storm.

BY: AMANDA WICHERN

    Dorothy said it best when she sang to follow the yellow brick road. The five business professionals featured have done just that with the accomplishment of their careers through the LGBT community. Vital VOICE Magazine is awarding these individuals throughout the St. Louis area into our PROshop.

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

"Our greatest reward is when one of these individuals will call us in tears and thank us for making them beaufiful. It's really a pleasure because it's something that people need to see; they need to see themselves that way."

BY: AMANDA WICHERN

    Imagine for a moment you are being whisked away by that special someone to a place with the sweet southern French feel of New Orleans, blended with the chic, yet alluring surroundings of Los Angeles. The mood lighting is just low enough to see the twinkle in your date's eyes when they look at you from across the table. It's the hot new date place you have been waiting for.