 Just when you feel like May just started here we are already in a new month! May was filled with so many great things and turned out absolutely wonderful! First, I would like to thank Andy Chamber and Shane Linden for my amazing official MGMA 2016 promo shots they are a great team to work with!  This month was spent doing one of the things I love the most, COSPLAY! First we traveled to St Louis for AnimeSTL. This is a yearly convention for anime lovers. The convention was a great time with so many wonderful costumes and so many great people were met in the process. While in St Louis I got to experience some of the night life. Our first stop was the “Strictly Drag" show at The Monocle with Karma T. Cassidy, Adria Andrews, Jessica Leigh Foster and their special guest, Krysthal Leight. It was the first show of many in a really great venue. The girls delivered show stopping performances all night! Our next stop was RBar to watch the pride royalty pageant. Being my first time watching a Pride pageant I wasn't sure what to expect, that being said it was a great experience to see the different forms of performance art portrayed on the same stage. It was an honor to be recognized as Miss Gay Missouri and to watch a fellow MGMA sister capture the title of Queen of Pride. I'd like to give a huge shout out to Adria Andrews on capturing the title of Miss Gay Pride for St. Louis. Next up on the busy schedule was Planet Comicon! This is my all-time favorite convention. It was a weekend filled with friends, family and fun. I flew my best friend from Florida up (friends for 15 years) and it was great to see all the hard work we put into making the convention happen pay off. It was an honor to have my 501st and Rebel Legion family support me and to honor me as Miss Gay Missouri. As a member of these organizations, we do cosplay for several different charity events. One of my favorite moments of the weekend involved my husband running a Jedi training Academy. He ran a very special solo session for a little boy named Rylan. Now Rylan is going through chemo treatments battling a brain tumor. During the Jedi training. It is important to teach kids how to purge Dark side emotions by having the student think of things that make them happy. Kevin asked Rylan what makes him happy and his response was "seeing other people smile". There wasn't a dry eye around after that, and in that moment we were all reminded yet again why we do what we do. The one who set up this opportunity was Jessica Meditz-Porter (elite super girl). She has a personal relationship with Children’s Mercy hospital and she is truly amazing for the work she does and her dedication to charity work is inspiring. Taken from my husband’s Facebook: “I'm going to need everyone and their "problems" to just stop and reassess your situation. Whatever it is you are fighting, you are clearly looking at it the wrong way. I met a little boy battling a brain tumor over the weekend while leading the Dantooine Jedi Academy. Part of the Jedi training is to learn how to offset dark side emotions with things that make them happy. Now a child, battling a brain tumor, that when I asked him what makes him happy he replied, "Seeing people smile". Think about that for a second. Take all the time that you need.”  Read more about Rylan here: https://www.facebook.com/teamrylanforthewin/ My first “in person” Miss Gay Missouri Preparation camp will be held this month and I'm excited to help prepare all the contestants for the next season of Miss Gay Missouri.  My excitement level for my first preliminary is also very high! The first chance to qualify for Miss Gay Missouri 2017 is June 5th, Miss River City. Promoter Jade Sinclair and her reigning Moltyn Decadence will be handing down as we find the first two contestants who will compete for MGMA 2017. Miss Gay River City America Held at QPEX church in Hannibal June 5th, 2016 contact Jade Sinclair for further information. It is also an honor to be asked to join the Miss Gay Quincy family as the welcome a new sister into their legacy. Miss Gay Quincy will be held on June 18th at the Complex Nightclub in Quincy Illinois. See you there! FROM THE BOARDHappy Gay Pride MGMA family and friends
After a very rainy wet May that has left our state drenched but beautifully green and full of color from all the flowers June has decided to start off bright, sunny and warm just in time for pride month celebrations. As we begin our month enjoying our pride across the state and country we must not forget how we got here and take a moment to stop and thank those who fought for our right to gather as a people, a community, a family that deserved and expected to be treated fairly as all American citizens. It has been said that the youth of today take for granted what they have in front of them and don’t realize what those before us actually went through. The Stonewall Riot was followed by several days of demonstrations in New York and was the Impetus for the formation of the Gay Liberation Front as well as other gay, lesbian, and bisexual civil rights organizations. It is also regarded by many as history’s first major protest on behalf of equal rights for homosexuals. The Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 is widely considered the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement. The six-day riot, which began inside of the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, was the breaking point of years of tensions between police and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender street youth and pedestrians, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people grew increasingly intolerant of continued harassment and arrests by police. LGBT people were subjected to civil laws that criminalized sodomy and, in New York City, allowed bars to refuse service to LGBT patrons. Arrests, harassment and instances of entrapment by police were frequent. Civil laws reinforced their actions. Establishments often cited Section 106, Subsection 6 of the New York State Penal Code to refuse service to queer patrons. The code barred premises from becoming "disorderly houses." Many, including the courts, considered homosexual patrons to be disorderly. And, in establishments where LGBT patrons were served, they could not touch each other while they danced. Section 722, Subsection 8 of the New York State Penal Code made it an offense to "solicit men for the purpose of committing a crime against nature." Again, it was argued that homosexuality was an act against nature. Queer patrons were often entrapped by plain clothes police officers, posing as regular bar patrons. Transgender people were openly arrested on the streets. One establishment where LGBT patrons found refuge was the mob-run Stonewall Inn. To enter, bar goers paid a $3 cover and signed a register (often with a fictitious or humorous name). Bar management was often tipped off when the local police district planned a raid on the bar and would warn LGBT patrons by turning on the lights. However, on the morning of June 28, 1969, Just after 3 a.m., a police raid of the Stonewall Inn–a gay club located on New York City’s Christopher Street–turns violent as patrons and local sympathizers begin rioting against the police. Although the police were legally justified in raiding the club, which was serving liquor without a license among other violations, New York’s gay community had grown weary of the police department targeting gay clubs, a majority of which had already been closed. The crowd on the street watched quietly as Stonewalls employees were arrested, but when three drag queens and a Lesbian were forced into the paddy wagon, the drag queens and street youth fought back. The altercation spilled into the streets and more queer street youth joined in the uprising. As word spread, more LGBT people from surrounded neighborhoods joined the riot. There were reports of the crowd throwing bottles ,stilettos, coins, bricks and debris thrown at the police. The officers were forced to take shelter inside the establishment, and two policemen were slightly injured before reinforcements arrived to disperse the mob. The protest, however, spilled over into the neighboring streets and order was not restored until the deployment of New York’s riot police. The rebellion, which lasted six days, marked the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement. (NY Post) The definition of pride- a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people, a feeling that you are more important or better than what other people think of you, a feeling of happiness that you get when you or someone you know does something good, difficult, etc. The definition of celebrate- is to observe (a day or event) with ceremonies of respect, festivity, or rejoicing. So as you celebrate your pride in your festive wear with your friends, boyfriends, girlfriends dancing together, holding hands gathered together in the park or on the street, riding on a car in a parade, carrying your pride flag in full drag and high heels remember you can do all of this because of those who fought for the very right you are celebrating and stop and take a moment hold up your drink or hand and say “THANK YOU”! The MGMA 2017 Pageant season is already off to a great start. With a new preliminary and so many great preliminary’s returning! Here they are ladies get your tickets early so you have time to prepare.
Be thankful and prideful. Emilio Olvera aka Lexsus Chaney And the MGMA Board and the MGMA Family of Formers
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