Kamrah brings boundary-breaking belly-dancing to Carbondale’s Rainbow Variety Show

Feb 25, 2023

Kamrah is a trans-masculine belly-dancer from Chicago who defies stereotypes and will headline the Rainbow Variety Show in Carbondale tonight.

As someone who also studies microbiology and anatomy, and identifies as autistic and a “geek,” Kamrah also brings a new level to the term “intersectional.”

Read about Kamrah and other local performers who will take the Rainbow Variety Show stage tonight in Carbondale. The featured performers include author Rafael Frumkin, dancers Kimea Rhines and Darryl clark, vocalist and sound healer Pat York, and acoustic performers Shane Bruce, Jacqui, Elana Floyd-Kennett, Shane Bruce, and Curt Wilson.

The show raises money for the Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center and its work of LGBTQ support and social opportunities, HIV and AIDS testing, harm reduction, and more.

Poet Rainey performs with colleagues, Clock Inc. speaks out, marriage equality pioneer Jim Obergefell visits Iowa City, and more

Feb 22, 2023

You can take in an evening of music with singer/songwriter Namoli Brennet, or a night of poetry with Caleb Rainey and friends. Or, you can hear marriage equality “accidental activist” Jim Obergefell give a speech.

Learn, too, about Clock Inc.’s strong stance against the anti-LGBTQ moves in the Iowa State Legislature, plus a new name for the former Quad Cities Pride Festivals. It’s now called Quad Cities Pride Alliance.

It’s all part of the new TRM Eastern Iowa Weekly Update.

Learn about 19th-century transgender war hero in Russia, “second-wave Klan” roots in southern Illinois

Feb 19, 2023

Acclaimed sci-fi author Cheryl Morgan, the first-ever openly transgender winner of the Hugo Award for literary achievement, will lead an online talk Feb. 21 about Aleksandr Aleksandrov, a Ukrainian-born Russian war hero in the 19th century who lived as a man after being born a woman.

Historian Darrel Dexter will share his research Saturday into the “second-wave Klan” history of southern Illinois. Dexter’s talk at the Carbondale Public Library, also available online, will outline the rise and fall of the Klan during its second life in the early 1900s.

These two online events are part of TRM’s new weekly Online Event of the Week, highlighting virtual events that help present a more complete picture of society that includes marginalized identities.

Kings and Queens Club in Waterloo will reopen no matter what, owner vows

Jan 20, 2023

John Hayes vows to keep Kings and Queens Club, Waterloo’s only LGBTQ+ bar, open no matter what.

He announced the bar’s temporary closing right after New Year’s and now has at least a dozen people who have made serious inquiries.

Kings and Queens Club opened in 2001 under Jona Von Blaricom, and Hayes took over in 2011. The bar has a long history of supporting causes and nonprofits and bringing out a spirit of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area.

New Bolingbrook youth program helps fill growing mental health support needs of LGBTQ youth

Jan 19, 2023

The new Bolingbrook Pride LGBTQ youth program provides a monthly drop-in “safe space” for youth in Bolingbrook and Romeoville.

Allies and partners in the project include the Valley View School District, a University of Chicago professor, a suburban Chicago all-LGBTQ+ counseling service, and PFLAG Bolingbrook. Read about how this new drop-in program helps build on existing efforts in public schools and by other groups to help LGBTQ+ youth feel safe and accepted.

Category: LGBTQ+

Kamrah brings boundary-breaking belly-dancing to Carbondale’s Rainbow Variety Show

Poet Rainey performs with colleagues, Clock Inc. speaks out, marriage equality pioneer Jim Obergefell visits Iowa City, and more

Kings and Queens Club in Waterloo will reopen no matter what, owner vows

New Bolingbrook youth program helps fill growing mental health support needs of LGBTQ youth

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