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  • Cho-sen One

    Cho-sen One

    Margaret Cho has also managed to carve out an impressive career that’s as diverse and artistic as her famously tattooed skin. But with her latest CD release, Cho Dependent, she adds another role to the Cho roster: Chanteuse.

  • Patches of love: AssistHers’ Vicki Parker (l) and Karen Morry display the AssistHers Memorial Quilt, a major silent auction item at Decadent Dessert and More, scheduled October 10. As OutSmart went to press, the quilt had already garnered a $1,000 bid, according to Parker, who created the quilt.

    Culinary Care

    Each year for the past decade, more than a couple of hundred altruistic nibblers gather to sample “decadent” desserts and hors d’oeuvres provided by local restaurants and caterers, all in the name of Assist-Hers “charity.”

  • Nate Berkus’ Grand Design

    Nate Berkus’ Grand Design

    So why the big push to make certain the latest talk show host is positioned as the designated hunk to millions of middle-American housewives? It couldn’t be because Nate Berkus is gay.

  • Beauty school dropouts: Theatre Under the Stars mounts the musical version of Hairspray, the John Waters camp classic, this time cleaned up for the enjoyment of the whole family.

    The Arts: Hotter than Houston

    Houston’s 2010 theatrical fall season has something for everyone. There’s a psycho looking for his missing hand, a wild boy who refuses to grow up and lives with a fairy, a detective who falls in love with a painting, a southern Jewish woman who can’t drive, two ditsy gold diggers out for a transatlantic cruise, a crazy aunt who wants to “live, live, live”…

  • Homo Romeo: Chris Rivera (l) plays Romeo, and Joey Hancock plays Julian in a new production of Romeo & Juliet at Phoenix Inc. Theatre Company.

    R&J, The Gay Way

    Phoenix Inc. Theatre Company takes on the Bard this month with two versions of the classic, tragic love tale Romeo and Juliet. Same cast, different orientations….

  • Jim Nowakowski in Stanton Welch’s "Clear."

    According to Jim

    You might think that being an adopted South Korean gay kid with a cleft palate taking dance lessons would make for a rough childhood. But Jim Nowakowski just shrugs it off….

  • QuACker: Daaimah Mubashshir, a co-founder of Houston’s Queer Arts Collective (QuAC) returns to Houston for DiverseWorks’ Come as You Are: Houston!

    Queer and Muslim

    From a quiet Chicago coffeehouse, Texas-born writer and performance artist Daaimah Mubashshir discusses her undefinable self, her work in progress, and growing up queer and Muslim.

  • The new gay in town: Kevin Keller gets friendly with Archie, Veronica, Jughead, and the gang in the new comic book that hits the stands this month.

    To be Young, Gay, and in Riverdale

    In 1941, Archie Andrews made his first bumbling appearance, creating a line of comics that has survived nearly seven decades of uninterrupted publication. This month, Veronica #202 hits the stands with the first appearance of a teenager named Kevin Keller, who moves into Riverdale not hiding the fact that he is gay…. EXPANDED WEB VERSION

  • Stages’ Auntie Mame director and star, Kenn McLaughlin and Sally Edmundson, demonstrate the joie de vivre that permeates Patrick Tanner’s signature character, Mame Dennis.

    Rediscovering ‘Mame’

    Going into this,” director Kenn McLaughlin says of Stages’ upcoming revival of the 1957 Broadway smash Auntie Mame, “I thought it was a true story. I found out that it’s a completely fictional story, and that Patrick Dennis created this incredible character.”

  • Jill Jordan

    Texans and Tiaras

    One historic homecoming deserves another for Johnny Maddox, who caps his 35-year career as female impersonator Jill Jordan at the 25th crowning of Miss Gay Texas USofA at Large, just two months after attending the 75th anniversary of the Texas preliminary to Miss America.

Stars Beach Club

News

[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Community Center Hosts Awareness, Art, and Exercise Events

Preparing for its 15th anniversary in 2011, representatives of Houston’s GLBT Community Center say the Center is set to participate in the “Building Our Community from the Center” GLBT Center Awareness Day

[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Episcopal and Lutheran Policy Changes…One Year Later

In the summer of 2009, both the General Convention of the Episcopal Church and the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America made historic changes in their polity. In both cases, possible roles and participation in these denominations expanded for LGBT people.

[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Houston Stonewall Young Democrats Seek New Members

“We forget that our life here in the city is very different from what life is like 10 or 15 miles down the freeway.”

Arts and Entertainment

‘25’ TO LIFE
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

‘25’ TO LIFE

An interview with out singer/songwriter Patty Larkin: Musicians have found a variety of ways to commemorate musical anniversaries, including massive concert tours and expanded reissues of hit albums. Out singer/songwriter Patty Larkin has taken a fascinating and rewarding approach with 25 (Signature Sounds), a double-disc set on which she revisits 25 love songs from the course of her prolific career….

‘Glee’: Wheeeee!
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

‘Glee’: Wheeeee!

You’ve heard about it everywhere. Your friends follow it with cultish obsession. But unlike other pop-culture crazes that rule our country right now—like a certain soporific vampire saga involving depressed teenagers—Glee’s talent, creativity, and energy make it live up to the hype.

The Boys in the Barnyard
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

The Boys in the Barnyard

Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge tell about their urban-rural transformation in “The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers.”…

Columns

Confessions of a Funny Aunt
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Confessions of a Funny Aunt

Hi Honey!
It was great to talk to you last night; thanks for calling your Aunt Nancy. Did you receive the birthday card I sent? A camp-out birthday party sounds like a fun way to celebrate—good idea! Wish I could be there with you; have a big, gooey s’more for me! I’ve been to a few camp-outs, myself. Someday I’ll tell you all about them….

Happy birthday sweet Virgos!
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

SignOut

Some of the harsh alignments of the planets during the last four months are finally behind us. We should have some intense times during the third full week of September, but that will pass.

Houston, Human Trafficking, and HIV
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Houston, Human Trafficking, and HIV

At a recent AIDS Foundation Houston all-staff meeting, we heard a presentation on human trafficking that left me feeling stunned and horrified….

Photos

MSL Awards at House of Blues
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

MSL Awards at House of Blues

Montrose Softball League Awards Banquet at The House of Blues, July 31, 2010. Photos by Dalton Dehart.

The Masquerade Theatre at Guava Lamp
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

The Masquerade Theatre at Guava Lamp

Boa Sales for Rent with The Masquerade Theatre at Guava Lamp, July 28, 2010. Photos by Dalton Dehart.

BCPA Benefit at House of Blues
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

BCPA Benefit at House of Blues

“House of Diva” Benefit for Bayou City Performing Arts at the House of Blues’ Fuse Sundays, August 1, 2010. Photos by Dalton Dehart.

Features

Cho-sen One
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Cho-sen One

Margaret Cho has also managed to carve out an impressive career that’s as diverse and artistic as her famously tattooed skin. But with her latest CD release, Cho Dependent, she adds another role to the Cho roster: Chanteuse.

Patches of love: AssistHers’ Vicki Parker (l) and Karen Morry display the AssistHers Memorial Quilt, a major silent auction item at Decadent Dessert and More, scheduled October 10. As OutSmart went to press, the quilt had already garnered a $1,000 bid, according to Parker, who created the quilt.
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Culinary Care

Each year for the past decade, more than a couple of hundred altruistic nibblers gather to sample “decadent” desserts and hors d’oeuvres provided by local restaurants and caterers, all in the name of Assist-Hers “charity.”

Nate Berkus’ Grand Design
[ 0 ] September 1, 2010

Nate Berkus’ Grand Design

So why the big push to make certain the latest talk show host is positioned as the designated hunk to millions of middle-American housewives? It couldn’t be because Nate Berkus is gay.

Blog

[ 0 ] September 2, 2010

On Katrina anniversary, Houston Center Raises Funds for New Orleans Center

On the fifth-year anniversary of the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Houston GLBT Community Center will raise funds for the LGBT Community Center of New Orleans at the Houston center’s monthly charitable bingo game. The funds will be raised through the sale of tickets for the raffle that is one of the features of First Saturday Queer Bingo, a Center program. This month’s bingo will will take place on Saturday, September 4, beginning at 4:30 p.m.

[ 0 ] September 2, 2010

Republican Ploy for Redemption

Ken Mehlman, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and co-chair of President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, who ran what was arguably the most hate-filled homophobic campaign in American political history, came out last week in a slick public-relations campaign-type interview served up by The Atlantic magazine.

[ 0 ] August 18, 2010

Last Week, A Quarter Million People Pledged to Boycott Target

Target Ain’t People In January … the Supreme Court ruled that corporations can spend unlimited $$ in our elections. In July … Target gave $150,000 to the anti-gay, anti-worker candidate for Gov. of MN. Last week … a quarter million people pledged to boycott Target In August … this happened …