Earlier this summer, someone made headlines—and a statement—by defacing the “Welcome to Alton” billboard with hate-filled messages targeting the town’s fearless, 6’3”, genderqueer, hard-hitting journalist, Cory Davenport, 36. It’s hard to imagine a progressive firebrand rattling this many cages in the region since 1836, when abolitionist publisher Elijah P. Lovejoy fled the slave state of…