Editor’s Note: November 2018

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Gay conversion therapy is not therapy at all; it is torture based on junk science. 

Nevertheless, in 2018 alone, an estimated 77,000 adolescents in the U.S. will be subject to this horrific practice. 

Garrard Conley, whom writer Ryan Leach interviews for our November cover story, has made it his mission to ban gay conversion therapy in all 50 states. But Conley acknowledges that religious leaders can still practice it, even in places where gay conversion therapy is banned.  

Conley, a conversion-therapy survivor, is the author of Boy Erased: A Memoir, the book that serves as the basis for Joel Edgerton’s blockbuster film coming out this month. Conley hopes the film, along with his new podcast, will raise awareness and help eradicate the root cause of conversion therapy: anti-LGBTQ bigotry. 

Speaking of noteworthy LGBTQ-related films, the new Queen biopic from Bryan Singer, Bohemian Rhapsody, will also be released this month. Writer Gregg Shapiro offers a sneak preview of the film in the form of an interview with three of its stars, Rami Malek, Joseph Mazzello, and Gwilym Lee. 

Elsewhere in this November issue, writer Don Maines chats with Tituss Burgess, star of the hilarious Netflix show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Burgess will headline the Houston World AIDS Day Luncheon on November 30. 

Maines also talks with Darius Hickman, a Top 10 finalist from So You Think You Can Dance who will be in Houston this month to reprise his viral, gender-bending performance from the reality TV show. 

Meanwhile, writer Marene Gustin profiles Jan Rattia, who serves as education director at the Houston Center for Photography and is perhaps best known for his Tease exhibit, which focuses on male dancers. 

Finally, the holiday season is officially upon us, and what better way to get into the spirit than with a drag-themed version of a yuletide classic?

Miss Gay Texas America Regina Blake-Dubois, one of OutSmart’s LGBTQ Heroes of Harvey from last year, stars in Obsidian Theater’s production of A Drag Christmas Carol, opening the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

Until then, gobble gobble!