QCAD nonprofit that started LGBTQ+ support in Quad Cities 33 years ago is now offering Joyce Wiley Memorial Scholarship
Joyce and Jack Wiley started Quad Citians Affirming Diversity in 1990, after watching their son suffer through “coming out.” QCAD is now offering the Joyce Wiley Memorial Scholarship.
PHOTO GALLERY: Community members enjoy Pride Party at Bass Street Landing 2023
QUAD CITIES — The 3rd Annual Pride Party at Bass Street Landing Saturday drew a non-stop crowd all afternoon and evening, and The Real Mainstream’s photo gallery focuses on community members taking in the vibe.
The Pride Party, in Moline, is among more than two dozen Pride events that are part of this year’s Quad Cities Pride season. A reminder: Pride Month is a commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn bar in New York City stood up against police that had been harassing and intimidating the bar’s patrons.
Those patrons included not only drag queens and kings, transgender/nonbinary people, gay men and lesbians, but also people from other walks of life who felt unaccepted by the “mainstream.”
Enjoy the gallery.
New Bolingbrook youth program helps fill growing mental health support needs of LGBTQ youth
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.
From family to BLM to boudoir, Wezz de la Rosa captures special moments
Quad Cities photographer Wezz De La Rosa can often be found at Pride events like the Pride Party at Bass Street Landing 2022, capturing special moments like the cover shot of the Quad Cities all-female band Been There Done That performing live, or a pic of local drag legend Sinclaire Snaps hugging a young girl.
He also undertakes an annual photo effort to help document the area’s LGBTQ+ community by taking photos of everyday people he meets at LGBTQ+ events. And in 2020, De La Rosa focused on gathering members of the Quad Cities’ Black community holding variations of “Black Lives Matter” signs.
All the while, he’s also providing wholesome family portraits, classy corporate head shots, and tasteful boudoir shots, both indoor and outdoor. Check out a sample of his art here.
Body positivity, self-discovery through burlesque on stage in Moline at Striptease Academy Showcase
Burlesque as therapy, self-discovery, empowerment and exploring gender will all be part of tonight’s Striptease Academy 2022 Showcase at The Spotlight Theatre in Moline. It’s one of the year’s last big events for Mary Quite Contrary’s House of Burlesque. It’s one of the year’s final events for MQC’s, a Quad Cities burlesque troupe that’s been performing and providing burlesque and striptease education for six years.
Tim Sullivan thrives despite 1965 expulsion during “gay purge” at UNI
Before Stonewall, there was the gay purge. It happened at universities across the country, mostly targeting gay male students and professors, as far as any reports know.. The University of Northern Iowa is one of the few universities nationwide that have publicly...
Elias pioneered cannabis policy in Iowa before House run
Michelle Servadio’s cannabis policy advocacy began when she met cancer patient Benton MacKenzie of the Quad Cities.
Levitation Jones brings “ambiguous and androgynous” vibe to bass music
Levitation Jones is a bass music star hailing from the Northeast who aims to attract “anybody that feels a little more misunderstood.”
Illinois fills void of abortion care left by surrounding states’ bans, restrictions
Now that abortion is no longer a constitutional right in America, the state of Illinois and its commitment to supporting “a woman’s right to choose” is pivotal to many other states’ responses to the historic overturn of Roe V. Wade two months ago. It’s happening in...
