This year marks an important milestone for the Saint Louis Anti-Violence Project (STLAVP) as the agency celebrates 10 years of incorporation and commitment to uplifting LGBTQIA+ survivors of relational violence. STLAVP’s mission is to bring awareness of relational violence within and to the LGBTQIA+ community. Over the past decade, STLAVP has: Conducted field research of…
This past Saturday, October 4, a legend was honored in a way only legends can be. The National Blues Museum in Downtown St. Louis awarded Martha Wash a Lifetime Achievement Award, celebrating her immeasurable contributions to music—and to the hearts and dance floors of multiple generations, especially within the LGBTQIA+ community. Often referred to as…
There’s nothing like being in a room full of talented musicians, and that’s exactly where I found myself Monday evening as socialites Russell Jackson and Alex Gutierrez opened their beautifully converted Lafayette Square firehouse for an intimate gathering. The guest list included some of St. Louis’s finest entertainers—Ron Bryant, Adam Levinskas, Chuck Flowers, Kim Fuller,…
Former St. Louisan Steven Reigns (he graduated from Parkway South in 1994), now an LA-based poet and activist, is not afraid of spending time with life’s unavoidable finale – death. He founded the Gay Rub Project in 2011, a collection of rubbings of LGBTQ+ historical markers and monuments, including many gravestones. The Gay Rub Project…
Named ‘Best Group/Duo’ in the International Acoustic Music Awards, acoustic duo Ryanhood got their first break as street performers at Boston’s Quincy Market. It was there that they were spotted by a college booking agent and thrust into the college touring scene, where Campus Activities Magazine would name them “one of the most requested acts by college…
Dagger Polyester may still be flying under the radar, but the LGBTQI+ community—and the wider music world—won’t be sleeping on him for much longer. His debut album, Perversion for Profit, dropped in early August 2025 and is already stirring conversation with its provocative concept and daring sonic vision. Taking inspiration from the tragic murder…
Many people envision October as cooler weather, pumpkin spice lattes, scary movies, and ghoulish good times. However, this month you may also notice neighborhoods, landmarks, and businesses glowing purple. That’s because October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). Throughout the St. Louis region, advocates, organizations, and businesses are coming together to create spaces of support…
Union Avenue Opera (UAO) is proud to present its first-ever One-Act Festival, October 10–12, featuring two compelling contemporary operas: As One and dwb (driving while black). Together, these works explore urgent themes of identity, justice, and resilience, brought to life on the UAO stage. As One, the most produced contemporary opera in the United States, follows the journey of…
University of Kansas women’s, gender, and sexuality studies professor Katie Batza claimed some of the terrain of research into LGBTQ healthcare infrastructures and socio-medical responses to LGBTQ patients with her 2018 book Before AIDS: Gay Health Politics in the 1970s, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. She’s annexed more of the territory of health…
There’s only one thing Dent County, Missouri hates more than the free-thinking, outspoken Julie Heyn Strebe living among them, and that’s a bunch of St. Louis liberals opening their purses to move her here. They’re livid, vowing to harass every employer of hers going forward, and trying to get GoFundMe to pull the fundraiser. Now,…
