By Monica Obradovic The Missouri attorney general’s restrictions on transgender health care will not go into effect today as planned. Circuit Court Judge Ellen Ribaudo granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the restrictions from going into effect until a lawsuit against the rules is adjudicated. The temporary restraining order expires May 15. The restrictions…
LeeAnne Lowry’s short film “The Treadmill Switcher” is based on an actual incident. One day, she was in the gym and saw someone get on a treadmill a short distance from her and start running. “I couldn’t tell if they were a lesbian or a child,” she says. But the story didn’t occur to her…
On April 13, 2023, the Missouri attorney general issued an emergency order effectively barring access to gender-affirming care for transgender individuals in our state. This stunning and profoundly concerning decision undermines the well-being of a vulnerable population and sets a dangerous precedent in allowing the state to intervene in personal medical decisions. Gender-affirming care is…
St. Louis’ LGBTQ+ ancestral family tree includes countless drag performers and gender nonconforming individuals. Currently, St. Louis lays claim to having the world’s oldest performing drag queen – John Chaney, who performs at the age of 94 as Bonnie Blake, a St. Louis legend. Chaney and others have paved the way to advance LGBTQ+ rights…
This march served lewks. Fishnet bodysuits, tiaras and opera masks were just some of the outfits at the first ever It’s All Drag March held in The Grove on Saturday, March 25. At this protest, what people wore meant everything. As one sign read, “I can wear whatever the hell I want to wear!”…
Jessica Hicklin may be best known as the trans woman who took the state of Missouri to court over access to gender-affirming care while incarcerated, with a successful ruling in 2018. Now five years later, as Missouri state legislators are sponsoring an array of bills targeting transgender health care, she describes this as a dark…
“We are all born naked, and the rest is drag.” -RuPaul Prism owners Sean Abernathy and Jade Sinclair, along with RFT Society Columnist Chris Andoe, and Pride St. Louis’ Jordan Elizabeth Braxton, have formed an ad hoc group called “It’s all drag!” to respond to the nationwide drag bans and other anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced.…
A recent piece by Jamie Reed titled “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle” frames itself as an exposé of the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, suggesting the program is “morally and medically appalling.” But dig deeper and it becomes clear that this article is filled…
In the dressing room at St. Louis’s newest gay bar, Prism, nine drag performers are in varying stages of undress. They pass around duct tape to secure their genitals and help each other shimmy into breast plates. Their voices are low, and they always need something: safety pins, concealer, eyelash glue. Usually, I have whatever…
A collaboration between Planned Parenthood and Metro Trans Umbrella Group has helped almost 700 gender-expansive folks in the region access gender-affirming hormone therapy in the past year and a half. The program, funded by a four-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health, is called TRANSforming Community, TRANSforming Care, or TC2. TC2 prioritizes access for…
