The 29-year-old Bryon Dawayne Pierson first hit my radar in 2019 when, as editor of Out in STL, I was searching for dynamic LGBTQ+ St. Louisans for our Influence Issue, and Habitat for Humanity’s Michael Powers nominated the tech entrepreneur. Since then, Pierson has missed no opportunity to update me on his startup, EDUrain, which…
Get Out in the Ozarks
Metropolitan residents fortunate enough to live near natural wonders tend to cherish them, whether that’s the Catskills for New Yorkers or the Hill Country for Austinites. An argument could be made that the Ozarks are as impressive as those oft-hyped areas, but St. Louisans have had a complicated relationship with the wilderness at our southwest…
Letter from the Editor: Chris Andoe
The roar is seared in her memory. Writer Elizabeth Van Winkle recalls waiting for her first Pride Parade to start and not knowing what to expect — and then the Dykes on Bikes revved their engines. Van Winkle digs all the way back to the 1940s while researching the history of motorcyclists in our community,…
From Seminary to Coven: The Journey of Brother Zeeke
“I like these crackers,” said my roommate Zeeke Harris, 36, while happily munching on a multigrain wafer in the kitchen. “I give them as an offering to the spirits I work with. Ancient Greeks used to offer the first grains of the harvest.” Living with a witch is interesting. At 25, Zeeke left Dallas Theological…
The Influencers: 2020
Our editorial team assembled this list of influencers in January, before COVID-19, the subsequent financial collapse, and well before the seismic shift in the discussion on policing and race spurred by the murder of George Floyd. The world is a very different place than it was six months ago. We are proud to say that…
Joan Lipkin: Lifetime Achievement
It’s about 5:30 a.m. and I’m up early trying to finish the final task of the massive, unwieldy undertaking that is the Out in STL Influence Issue: a profile on theater guru and activist Joan Lipkin. “You’re writing the Joan piece? Good luck with that,” laughs a mutual friend I will not name. So much…
Jeff Small: The Comeback
We’d be hard pressed to think of a local LGBTQ+ celebrity who fell as far and as publicly as Jeff Small. A household name in St. Louis due to his years as a KDSK reporter and anchor, his January 2018 drug arrest made for shocking headlines and viral posts. While his life had seemed ideal…
Christine Elbert: “Lesbian Jesus”
In 2010, Christine Elbert was walking through the Pride Festival with a friend, and it took her 45 minutes to get through the throngs of folks wanting to say hello. Impatient to get another drink, the friend quipped, “We gotta wait for Lesbian Moses over here parting the Red Sea.” Somehow, “Lesbian Moses” quickly morphed…
Nicci Kincer: Pride With Purpose
It was the early ’90s when a fourteen-year-old Nicci Kincer came out of the closet. And what she found outside that closet was hostility and fear — and, ultimately, inspiration for her life’s work of making the way easier for the kids coming out today. “Back then if you were gay, you were the reason…
Here’s your one chance Andy, don’t let us down!
Photographer Andreu Wade Blackwell Talks OnlyFans In our lifetimes, side hustles have never been more important to survival than they are right now. Even The New York Times has examined how people are turning to subscription sites like OnlyFans to make ends meet. Andreu Wade Blackwell, widely known in St. Louis for his acclaimed drag…