An Ignoble Experiment: A Mehlville teacher came out 1994. Has Missouri learned anything?

2021/11/04

A Mehlville teacher came out 1994. Has Missouri learned anything?

Plus a St. Louis pastor will get his day in court

Rodney Wilson with a copy of the 1994 Riverfront Times story about his decision to come out — and the reactions it sparked.

Coming Out in 1994 Nearly Cost Rodney Wilson His Teaching Job. Has Missouri Learned Anything?

By Jenna Jones

Room number 115 at Mehlville High School was decorated with posters in the spring of 1994. Student-made work hung alongside posters of Gone with the Wind characters Rhett and Scarlett kissing, as well as Jackie Kennedy and JFK. Escape from Sobibor, a dramatic retelling of a World War II concentration camp, was playing on the roll-in TV in a class full of fourteen- and fifteen-year-old social studies students. The class was discussing the Holocaust, and when the movie was over, teacher Rodney Wilson pulled out a poster of the patches Jewish people were forced to wear in concentration camps.

Find out more

Latest Stories

Here's What to See at the St. Louis International Film Festival

Over the past eighteen months of pandemic times, restaurants have closed, bars have shuttered and local hangouts have hung on by a thread. Many nights a quiet eeriness looms over the Delmar Loop — and not just because it's Halloween season. Its marquee dimmed, its ticket booth vacant, the landmark Tivoli Theatre seems suddenly a bit ... haunted. For decades, St. Louisans attended the cinema's indie and arthouse films in droves; the lobby was the rare place you might run into your boss, your ex or your best friend's father (hopefully, not all the same person). Purchased by the One Family Church last spring, the theater has yet to open its doors to the public. November 4 through 21, that all changes.

St. Louis Standards: O'Connell's Is the House that Jack Built

By Cheryl Baehr

Hartmann:Eric Greitens Must Love His Latest Scandal

Disgraced ex-Missouri Governor Eric Greitens got a nice boost last week in his campaign for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in 2022.

Creole with a Splash of Soul Is a Dream Realized

Just as you cannot fully describe the splendor of seeing the sun rise over the Grand Canyon to someone who's never had that experience, it's difficult to fully communicate the grandeur of the Creole chicken-and-shrimp nachos at Creole with a Splash of Soul. Less the sort of bar staple you pick up with your hands, these are closer in spirit to Mexican chilaquiles; the seasoned tortilla chips are not a vehicle for shoveling toppings, but rather a base for a mountain of bell peppers, onions, jalapeños, juicy hunks of Creole spiced chicken and flawlessly cooked shrimp covered in a sauce somewhere between blackened alfredo and a luscious fondue. Akin to an open-faced chicken-and-shrimp pot pie, you find yourself eating it not with a fork, but with a spoon to lap up every drop of this delicious cheesy nectar, your only thought — other than "I should stop gorging myself but my heart won't let me" — that whoever came up with this stunning display is not simply a culinary genius but doing the Lord's work.