A&E / Life&Style

Charlotte’s first drag restaurant, Boulevard 1820, is set to open in South End and it’s going to be fabulous!

Cartoonist Kevin Siers takes aim at President Trump’s delayed denunciation of racists.

In 1990, Tonda Taylor, along with human services professionals, educators, physicians and clergy, assembled to discuss the needs of young LGBTQ individuals who were struggling with their sexual orientation. They knew that there was a desperate need for a place for them to turn for help and support. So on April 8, 1991, four gay and lesbian youth gathered for a discussion group under the guidance of Taylor and others for what would later become the premier organization in the Charlotte, N.C. area to address the needs of LGBTQ youth.

Charlotte-based Campus Pride continues its advocacy work to make colleges and universities more welcoming and affirming spaces for LGBTQ students.

Being an LGBTQ teen isn’t always easy; in fact, it usually isn’t. But for students like Syeem Sanders, 17, with the ingenuity and ambition it takes to achieve, the resources are out there for the taking. Sanders was an ordinary high school student last year, a pansexual member of Vance High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). The Vance GSA enabled him to connect with Time Out Youth Center (TOY), a local non-profit focused on helping LGBTQ young people.

This LGBTQ resource list of organizations and support groups for college-age students spans North Carolina.

The return of Charlotte Pride Festival and Parade is upon us. A weekend-long event, the festival is set for Aug. 26-27, with the parade to be held on Sunday, Aug. 27 from 1-3 p.m. at N. Tryon St and 9th St. Organizers say that the Charlotte Pride team has worked hard to continue the event’s upward momentum, after the 2016 event drew more than an estimated 130,000 visitors over the weekend.

Years have passed since major corporations began to take notice of the LGBTQ community’s buying power, as well as its growing prominence. Companies are still developing strategies to target the LGBTQ consumer market. One major way to reach these consumers — tried, true and effective — is through sponsoring major events, like Pride festivals and Human Rights Campaign (HRC) projects.

Here’s a very gross oversimplification: Your body is either feeding or fasting. There is either insulin in your blood or glucagon. You’re either storing energy or you’re accessing it.

A reader asks: “Why are some of us cursed with being forever single while everyone else gets to be in love or married? Doesn’t being single just suck?”

The ancient roots of the entertainment industry are inseparable from the concept of drag, although the term itself is a recent development. Men have dressed as women for performances from ancient Greece to Shakespearean times, even across continents as kabuki troupes demonstrate.

As the proud, public face of the LGBTQ community, drag queens are mourned and remembered in a special way. In past decades, too many scintillating performers — and good hearts — have been lost. For this year’s Kind of a Drag issue of qnotes, we’d like to pay homage to some of the local queens who are so missed.

An overview of five top national pageants from across the U.S.

Much of the Charlotte drag scene is dominated by veteran divas. Breaking onto the stage soon after legal adulthood wasn’t entirely smooth for Carrie Chanel. In the years since, her wit and energy have brought her far. Beginning at a Scorpio talent show in 2012, Chanel, now 24, has won four titles at drag pageants across the state.

Hopefully one thing we can all agree upon is that drag is entertainment. There are many forms of drag and ways to express gender through the art form known as drag. But at its core, drag continues to be entertainment.

Embassy Suites by Hilton hosted and was the presenting sponsor of Charlotte Black Gay Pride 2017 from July 19-23. The theme of this year’s festival was “Just Be.” The organization’s leadership intended the theme to inspire introspection, independent thought and peace of mind.

Long before there was Adele, there was Alison. Moyet, that is. A British singer in possession of powerful and expressive vocal abilities that could make Whitney and Mariah blend into the background.

I look down in the palm of my hand at a tiny blue pill and think with nervous anticipation of what the future holds for me. Could taking these really make everything better? Of course, they can’t solve everything — I know better. However, in the two weeks I’ve been taking them, everything feels better than it ever has.

Chastity Brown’s tour visits North Carolina to share music driven by identity, a meld of genres: soul, folk and R&B.