Romney Refused To Provide Accurate Birth Certificates For Children Of Same-Sex Parents

Romney Refused To Provide Accurate Birth Certificates For Children Of Same-Sex Parents: pFurther clarifying Mitt Romney’s insensitivity to LGBT people and their families (which he didn’t even know they have), the Boston Globe reports that as governor of Massachusetts, Romney prevented the Department of Health from issuing accurate birth certificates for the children of married same-sex couples. After marriage equality was ruled into law by the Massachusetts [...]/p

Wrong Direction's "Disclosure" - A Full Frontal Freedom production

Rue 13 closing its doors Saturday : Entertainment

Rue 13 closing its doors Saturday : Entertainment

Downtown Washington Avenue nightclub staple Rue 13 is closing its doors Saturday in what will be a low-key final night.

Owner Tommy Gray confirmed the closing, which marks the end of an era for St. Louis partying.

Rue 13, at 1311 Washington Ave., operated for 11 years.

On his Facebook page, Gray wrote: "It is official. Rue 13 is closing this Saturday. I will be making my last appearance as bartender, so you better get your (behind) down here and buy me a shot of Grand Ma! Just kidding. Come down one last time and relive some great memories with some great people."

In another posting, he wrote: "As we clean out the office at Rue, we keep finding cool stuff like Velvet menus, posters, champagne glasses. Anyone interested in a piece of STL history let me know. I will take some pics and post soon."

Wake the F**K Up (NSFW)

Gangnam Style - USNA Spirit Spot

Democratic Convention Speakers Celebrate LGBT People And Equality

Democratic Convention Speakers Celebrate LGBT People And Equality: pThe contrast between the Democratic and Republican conventions has already been stark, but perhaps no distinction stood out more than the attentive inclusion of LGBT people. Almost every speaker last night made at least some passing reference to LGBT equality, including celebrations of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and endorsements of marriage equality. [...]/p

Expelled Gay Teen Sues Indianapolis School For Not Protecting Him From Harassment

Expelled Gay Teen Sues Indianapolis School For Not Protecting Him From Harassment: pDynasty Young’s story is tragic: When he arrived at his new Indianapolis school, he was constantly bullied for his perceived sexual orientation and gender non-conforming dress. Rather than interrupt the harassment, school officials at Arsenal Technical High School blamed Dynasty’s dress, holding him accountable for ending his own harassment by dressing more masculine. Bullies regularly [...]/p

Fashion's Night Out 2012 - Dress You Up by Darren Criss [HQ]

Why Missouri’s Students Might Believe Todd Akin’s Junk Science

Why Missouri’s Students Might Believe Todd Akin’s Junk Science: pAddressing the controversy surrounding Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) offensive comments that “legitimate rape” doesn’t lead to pregnancy, President Obama joked last night at a fundraiser that the Missouri Senate candidate must have “somehow missed science class.” Obama’s point that Akin must not be aware of the actual science behind female sexuality, conception, and sexual assault [...]/p

Dramatic video: 71-year-old taken to the ground for questioning Paul Ryan

"One Term More!"

In this pageant, he's not just another pretty face : Stltoday

In this pageant, he's not just another pretty face : Stltoday

ST. LOUIS • By his own admission, he was never the prettiest woman on the stage. There was always a contestant who cut a more attractive figure, who wowed the audiences and the judges with his beauty atop a pair of high heels.

But Michael Shreves knew winning a pageant was not just about beauty. His true strength was in talent, the portion of the contest that he would win every time.

Still, when the final scores were added up each year, he would fall just short. Whatever it was the judges were looking for, he didn't quite have.

For 30 years, Shreves has put on the wigs, the nails, the gowns to entertain as Michelle McCausland. He has become one of the best drag performers in the region, impressing audiences with his wit and impeccable lip-syncing.

Despite the admiration, though, the ultimate reward eluded him: the crown of Miss Gay Missouri America. And aggravating the snub for three decades has been the ribbing from friends in the business.

"Michael has been teased for years. People say: 'Here comes the first runner-up,' " said Daniel Flier, who, as Vanessa Vincent, won the Miss Gay Missouri crown in 1982 and is now one of the owners of the state pageant.

A dozen years ago, Shreves walked away from competing but continued his weekend performances at various gay clubs.

Then, earlier this year, at 53, he decided to give it one last shot. Shreves, an interior designer who lives in south St. Louis County, went into debt hiring a choreographer and backup dancers from Chicago. He wanted the crown too badly to think about money.

"I couldn't just stand there and sing a ballad. I had to pull out all the stops," Shreves said. "If I didn't win after giving it my all, it wasn't meant to be."

BROADWAY GOAL

Shreves never wanted to be a girl — just to be a part of the sisterhood of winners from the Miss Gay Missouri America pageant, now in its 40th year.

But long before he ever donned a wig, his dream as a young boy in Mount Vernon, Ill., was to make it to Broadway. He did high school musicals then summer stock, including a stint at The Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, Mo.

The performance was "Cabaret," which includes an all-girl band.

"Nobody in the company knew how to play piano but me," Shreves said.

So the director told him to dress as a woman.

"It was in the late '70s, early '80s when this kind of thing wasn't really acceptable," said Shreves. "It got in the newspaper. But everyone thought it was the trumpet player who was actually the man."

Later that year, he dressed in drag for a Halloween party at a Carbondale, Ill., bar.

The bar owner and the DJ got into a fight that night, and the DJ quit. Shreves volunteered to fill in. The bar owner was happy with the results, asking Shreves to consider moving to Carbondale to DJ full time.

"I've got one stipulation," Shreves recalls the bar owner telling him. "I want you to do it in drag."

As a DJ, Shreves began going onto the dance floor and lip-syncing, the first time to a disco version of "Singin' in the Rain."

"People started bringing me dollars," Shreves said.

Eventually, Shreves got booked at Faces, a now-closed nightclub in East St. Louis known for its drag shows. But he needed a drag name. Michael is similar to Michelle. To complete his stage name, he thought of the most beautiful girl in his high school. Her last name was Macaslin. He would be Michelle Macaslin. But when he took to the stage, the announcers kept calling him Michelle McCausland, assuming he had used the St. Louis street as inspiration. Eventually, the name stuck.

Not long into defining himself as a female impersonator, Shreves found himself in a legal tangle for dressing in drag.

He and other performers at a gay bar in St. Louis were arrested in January 1984 during a police raid. Shreves was charged with violating a city ordinance that made it unlawful to cross dress.

He and another performer challenged in court, prompting a federal judge to deem the cross-dressing law unconstitutional.

Becoming an activist was not the kind of attention Shreves hoped to get from dressing in a wig and dress. Media accounts of his legal fight referred to him as a female impersonator.

But he wanted to be the female impersonator.

'I LOST BY SIX POINTS'

Shreves came close to the Miss Gay Missouri America crown in 1988, when he was named first runner-up.

"Six points. I lost by six points," he said of a contest where a perfect score totals 3,750. "The little things will screw you up."

Shreves tells the story of how the ultimate winner had "totally the wrong shoes for her evening gown." Shreves knew a pair he had with him would be perfect for his opponent.

"I said, 'girl, put these shoes on,' " he recalled.

Shreves soon realized he had not only given away his shoes, but, most likely, his crown.

"I wasn't mad. But my heart was crushed. My eyes were welling up. They are now," Shreves said, as he took off his glasses to dab at tears.

Standing with his bouquet of first-runner-up flowers, he recalled, "I walked backward off the stage and wrapped myself in a curtain so the audience couldn't see me cry. I stayed in the curtain until everybody was gone."

The pain in his voice from something that happened 24 years ago helps explain why he decided to give his all one last time.

Earlier this year, he easily made it through a preliminary pageant, something he'd done a dozen times before, but he knew the hard work was before him at the state level. He'd been out of competition for more than a decade. He'd have to turn heads in a crowd of younger and fitter contestants.

For two months, he drove to Chicago every Sunday to work with a choreographer, who set Shreves up with six professional dancers, four men and two women, to perform the Broadway song "Anything Goes." It was a hit with the crowd at the state competition earlier this year at a Columbia bar where the 2012 Miss Gay Missouri America contest was held.

But scores in other categories such as an interview (out of drag) and evening gown also are weighed in the overall results.

As Shreves stood in the Top 10 this year, the announcer began naming the five finalists. When it got to first runner-up, he expected to hear "Michelle McCausland." Shreves looked at the remaining contestants and thought: "Surely, I didn't finish out of the Top 5."

He did not.

The crown was finally his. His coronation song, Whitney Houston's "One Moment In Time," began playing.

"I couldn't sing it. I cried most of the time," he said.

It would be one of the rare times Michelle McCausland did not lip-sync perfectly.

Sunday night, Shreves begins his formal reign as the 2012 Miss Gay Missouri America, appearing at the first preliminary contest. He will perform and sit with the judges "to make sure everything is legitimate."

And he will keep performing each Friday and Saturday night at Meyer's Grove on Manchester Avenue, honing his skills as he prepares for the national Miss Gay America pageant in October, to be held in Ohio.

Shreves said he will never get tired of putting on the crown, which he stores in a fur-lined box.

"When you want something for 30 years and get it and never thought you would, it's amazing."

---

PATH TO THE CROWN

Miss Gay Metropolitan, the state's first preliminary pageant to qualify for the 2013 Miss Gay Missouri America crown, will be held Sunday, at Attitudes Nightclub, 4100 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis

When • Performers take the stage at 9 p.m. Admission is $8.

More info • mgmpageantry.com

Tom Daley & Team GB -- Sexy And I Know It (LMFAO Lip Sync)

Mitt Romney Led "Gang of Bullies" - Presidential Elections 2012 - Fieger...

Sarah Palin Gives Thumbs Up To Anti-Gay Chick-fil-A

Sarah Palin Gives Thumbs Up To Anti-Gay Chick-fil-A: pSarah Palin is joining a who’s-who of conservative activists — Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Rev. Billy Graham, The Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America — in supporting Chick-fil-A, the fast food chain that has donated millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations, including “reparative therapy” groups like Exodus International. “Stopped by Chick-fil-A in The Woodlands [...]/p

More From Anti-Gay Chick-fil-A President: ‘We Have Been Left Victim To The Foolishness Of Our Own Thoughts’

More From Anti-Gay Chick-fil-A President: ‘We Have Been Left Victim To The Foolishness Of Our Own Thoughts’: pChick-fil-A might be pretending to distance itself from president Dan Cathy’s anti-gay remarks condemning marriage equality activists as “prideful” and “arrogant” for “inviting God’s judgment” with the “audacity to define what marriage is about,” but that was not the last of Cathy’s remarks. Today, Jeremy Hooper found a clip of him speaking at Hope Community [...]/p

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is Now Online

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is Now Online

It Could Happen To You

Creve Coeur passes measure to protect gays from discrimination

Creve Coeur passes measure to protect gays from discrimination

CREVE COEUR • The Creve Coeur City Council voted Monday to update a non-discrimination ordinance to include gender identity and sexual orientation.

The amendment, which was passed 7-0, prohibits any discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in such matters as housing, employment and use of public spaces.

The law will ensure that “the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community can live without fear in (Creve Coeur) that they would be discriminated against,” said Andrew Shaughnessy of PROMO, a Missouri organization advocating for equality gay, lesbian and transsexual individuals.

Beth Kistner, a council member, said she has received numerous letters and emails from residents in support of the ordinance.

Creve Coeur is just the latest on a list of local communities that have recently passed similar legislation, including St. Louis, University City, Olivette, Richmond Heights and Clayton, Shaughnessy said.

Muppets Abandon Chick-fil-A Because Of Its Anti-Gay Policies

Muppets Abandon Chick-fil-A Because Of Its Anti-Gay Policies: Gonzo doesn’t have to worry about Camilla and his other chickens anymore, because the Muppets are officially going to be eating less chicken. In a Facebook note posted Friday evening, The Jim Henson Company, which currently offers toys in Chick-fil-A kids’ meals, announced that will no longer partner with the fast food chain on any [...]/p