GLBT News

Pride St. Louis is hosting a benefit drag show tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 22. Enterntainment will be provided by Tabbi Katt (Miss Gay St. Louis) and Madison Elise (Queen of Pride). The night will also feature a "Drag... You're It" competition--where you can pay to have your friends perform in drag.

CHARIS, the St. Louis Women's Chorus, is hosting a Pasta Extravaganza from 5-7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25. The annual event includes all-you-can eat pastas, salads, breads and a dessert bar catered by chef David Hietter. Tea and lemonade will be served, although attendees may bring their own bottle of wine.

The Pasta Extravaganza will be held at First Divine Science Church, located at 3617 Wyoming in Tower Grove Heights. Dinner is $12 for adults and $5 for children age 3-12. Costumes are welcome, as the theme is Halloween.

BY SHANE COHN

October being GLBT History Month, it’s important to reflect on the progress we’ve made as a community within the business sector. Many companies are just now starting to implement policies to protect employees based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, but those are policies that didn’t even exist just a few short years ago. We still have a long way to go toward fair and equitable workplaces. In many cases, we still fight barriers to feel accepted in our places of work.

For National Coming Out Day, That Uppity Theatre Company and the Playback Workshop Theatre present two free performances of "Coming Out Stories 2008: Yours, Mine and Ours" -- where the audience is part of the show. Audience members will be given the opportunity to share their own coming out stories as professional actors enact them through improvisation in a live art technique known as Playback Theater.

Legislation protecting America's GLBT citizens in the workplace is tragically overdue, and ENDA aims to make amends.

American Airlines is helping in that regard. Several American Airlines executives have signed a letter of support to Congress in support of ENDA legislation. The Washington Blade has more on this news.

Congratulations, AA.

BY BRITTANY L. WHITLOW

When the News Telegraph, St. Louis’s long-running gay, lesbian, bisexual and trangendered (GLBT) focused newspaper closed its doors in 1999, Pam Schneider knew the city would need another newspaper that served the GLBT community.

“Where there is a need, and I can make a contribution, I try to do what I can to fill the need,” Schneider said.

Schneider got in touch with News Telegraph editor Jim Thomas and hired him as her first editor. The Vital VOICE debuted in June 2000, at the annual PrideFest.

BY PHILIP DEITCH

The Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis (MCCGSL) celebrated the groundbreaking of its new home after services on Sunday Sept. 7.

Tobias Wolff, Co-Chair of Sen. Barack Obama’s National LGBT Policy Committee is visiting St. Louis this Saturday. He will answer questions from the general public in a community forum on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Moolah Theatre, 3821 Lindell, (314) 446-6868, www.stlouiscinemas.com/moolah/.

The event, co-sponsored by the Vital VOICE newspaper, is free to the public. Please come down and ask Mr. Wolff pertinent questions about his job and the Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

BIO

To Blue, the executive director of the new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Metropolitan St.Louis, her facility is more than just a place for people to meet and network, it is also a home.

“This is where you can be you,” she said. So far, Blue said, she’s welcomed more people home than she was initially expecting.

“I’ve had some folks looking for help, and I was delighted to give what I could,” she said. “Community members have been coming in to see and congratulate and to see what their house looks like.”

Erise Williams Jr. has been a part of St. Louis Black Pride since it emerged eight years ago from the B Boy Blues Festival, an intervention program sponsored by Williams and the now defunct BABAA (Blacks Assisting Blacks Against AIDS).