Metro Weekly magazine: 2017-12-21 edition (PDF)
By Metro Weekly Contributor
on
December 21, 2017
From the moment they slink across the stage, you're hooked and hypnotized, willing to follow them with reckless abandonment to the ends of the earth. That is precisely where the cast of Company XIV will take you in a reinvented version of their long-running hit Queen of Hearts.
Since 2006, creator Austin McCormick has been the engine behind this dance troupe that mixes Victorian-era propriety with the bawdiness and bodies of burlesque. Each show has been an irresistible treat. By now, loyal fans know that delicious visual snacks will be served.
This time, however, McCormick has outdone himself with a grand buffet that is so wonderfully satisfying. It feels like delightful gluttony, and indulgence has never been quite this rewarding.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will offer a third gender marker to make it easier for gender-nonconforming immigrants to apply for naturalization status.
USCIS's new intake form will include an "X" gender option for those who do not identify as either male or female.
"Historically, USCIS forms and associated documents have only offered two gender options: 'Male (M)' and 'Female (F)'," the agency said in an announcement of the updated form.
"The lack of an additional gender option on USCIS forms and secure documents for use by benefit requestors who do not identify with either male or female option creates significant barriers for those requestors."
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed a "religious freedom" bill that critics say will legitimize instances of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
The "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" passed on a party-line vote in Iowa's GOP-led Legislature, with all Republican lawmakers voting in favor of it.
Reynolds signed the measure at a private event hosted by The Family Leader, a conservative Christian organization opposed to LGBTQ rights. She also sought to justify her actions by claiming those with conservative religious beliefs are a persecuted group.
"Thirty years ago, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed almost unanimously at the federal level," she said in a statement. "Since then, religious rights have increasingly come under attack. Today, Iowa enacts a law to protect these unalienable rights -- just as 26 other states have done -- upholding the ideals that are the very foundation of our country.