Jet McDonald

Sep 22, 2023 | riverfronttimes.com | Jet McDonald

Flotsam River Circus, a touring troupe of circus artists and musicians, floated into town earlier this month on a “handmade, ramshackle raft” assembled largely from scavenged materials — and put on a show. At a Flotsam performance, the audience imagines that the world has ended, that what remains is just a few hungry humans on a boat surrounded by invasive mutant fish and existential threats — but that such a world can nevertheless contain camaraderie, beautiful movement, singing and laughter.

Jun 20, 2023 | outinstl.com | Jet McDonald

Beatriz Gonzalez knows firsthand the difficulty in securing housing as a trans person in Missouri. When he needed to seek emergency shelter with his children, Alternatives to Living in Violent Environments, a.k.a. ALIVE, supported Gonzalez with space in a motel while he made a multitude of calls to 211, the hotline for getting help with community services. Gonzalez was repeatedly told there wasn’t space available in local shelters.

Mar 21, 2023 | outinstl.com | Jet McDonald

Jessica Hicklin may be best known as the trans woman who took the state of Missouri to court over access to gender-affirming care while incarcerated, with a successful ruling in 2018. Now five years later, as Missouri state legislators are sponsoring an array of bills targeting transgender health care, she describes this as a dark time for the trans community.