Ever since being transfixed by Torvill and Dean’s Bolero routine in Sarajevo or  dazzled by the pageantry of Los Angeles – I’ve been an unapologetic Olympic fanatic since 1984. It turns out I’m not alone – the quadrennial games enjoy a huge gay following worldwide – including Tyler Duckworth and Charley Cullen Walters of Olympics or Bust.

After an 11 year absence from competition, female impersonation legend Kirby Kolby seized the moment to turn her “Sunset Boulevard” into a Broadway finale at last fall’s Miss Gay America Pageant. Kirby’s Norma Desmond was spot-on—haunting, beautiful, revolting—a truly insane seductress.

I had the honor of participating in the first on-the-record LGBT interview with St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay for Vital VOICE in 2002.  The cover story hit the streets around the one year anniversary of his taking office on April 17, 2001, and in re-reading that feature, it’s clear that our community has had a staunch advocate in Slay from the very start.

Drag queens are the very heart of our vibrant queer community. They, along with our transgender sisters and gay brothers—with tribal lesbians, homeless youth and people of color—led the charge at Stonewall to breathe new life into the modern day LGBT rights movement.