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In case you hadn’t noticed, anti-LGBTQ bigots have launched a full-scale assault against the Houston Public Library’s Drag Queen Storytime program.
In addition to protesting outside the Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library during the monthly children’s program, they’ve started spewing their hatred at Houston City Council meetings.
Among the groups leading the LGBTQ community’s response to these attacks has been the Space City Sisters, a new convent of drag-queen nuns that recently became the first Houston mission of the international Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
But the Space City Sisters’ activities are hardly limited to Drag Queen Storytime demonstrations. Read more about this welcome, colorful addition to Houston’s panoply of LGBTQ community groups in writer Lourdes Zavaleta’s January cover story.
And, speaking of “sisters” doing “big” things, don’t miss writer Ryan Leach’s piece on local LGBTQ mentors in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, which is expanding its outreach to the community. Among their mentor volunteers is Kristine Anthony, a commander with the Houston Police Department, and her wife, Kristy Miller, a clinic social-work manager at Legacy Community Health, who serve as a “Big Couple” to a 14-year-old girl.
As it turns out, Anthony is one of two police department employees featured in this issue. Writer Jenny Block profiles Mimi McCloud, who co-chairs the department’s LGBT Committee and will soon be teaching free Pilates classes at the Montrose Center.
Elsewhere in this January issue, writer Don Maines chats with Jackson Neal, the queer teen who was recently named Houston’s Youth Poet Laureate. Maines also sits down with Will Davis, the first transgender director in the Alley Theatre’s history, and previews the Bayou City Burlesque & Circus Arts Festival, which will feature bisexual dancer Honey Moonpie.
As usual, our inaugural issue of the year also includes astrologist Lilly Roddy’s annual Astrocast. Roddy’s 2019 horoscopes are complemented by the stunning Zodiac artwork of Janie Whateva, who discovered her gender identity through astrology—which she now uses to promote queer visibility.
And finally, while we’re on the subject of queer visibility, writer Marene Gustin reports that Rainbow on Ice, the annual LGBTQ celebration at downtown’s Discovery Green, is set for January 11.
Bundle up, and we’ll see you there!
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