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Chef Graham Elliot Bowles is a big-bellied boy, and based on Caroline Ahn's review of his restaurant's menu, there's no question as to why. Root beer glaze? That sounds insane, and delicious.

In the latest edition of Local Dish, Food Editor Caroline Ahn goes to Graham Elliot, and if she ate everything she reviewed, she and Bowles may be joining the same Jenny Craig sometime soon.

In celebration of GLBT History Month, Equality Forum is showcasing videos of historic LGBT Icons on their web site, GLBTHistorymonth.com.

Today, October 14's video, features Margarethe Cammermeyer, the highest ranking officer ever discharged on basis of sexual orientation. The rest of the week's line-up includes the likes of Melissa Etheridge, John Waters and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Chad Allen joined Desperate Housewives Kathryn Joosten and Dana Delany along with Loni Anderson and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a Love Honor Cherish fundraiser held at the Mondrian Hotel's SkyBar last night in Los Angeles.

Thrown in conjunction with Equality California and GLAAD, the event raised $250,000 for the efforts to defeat Proposition 8, an initiative that would eliminate marriage equality in The Golden State.

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Photos by wireimage.

Locally famed lesbian comic and MC, who flubbed her lines at this year's Chicago Takes Off (*snicker*) Jessica Halem performs at the Lincoln Lodge tonight at 9 pm!

She's funny.

Lincoln Lodge at Lincoln Restaurant
4008 N. Lincoln Avenue.
Free Parking!

With National Coming Out Day soon approaching this Saturday, October 11, 2008, OPEDs are appearing all over the internet. Some are calling for celebration: Don your most fabulous feather boa with your tightest designer T-shirt and hightail it to your local gay disco. Others are requesting a show of solidarity: Attend a vigil; hold your partner’s hand in public. In observation of Coming Out Day, people are coming out everywhere and in all kinds of ways, even at trade schools—ITT is throwing a ball. And while all that is great and everything, I’ve decided not to take part.

Inaugurated in 1988, National Coming Out Day has evolved into an cross-continental event, recognized all over the globe as a day of civic awareness promoting LGBT acceptance and equality. However, with PrideFest, Pride, Market Days and dozens of gay-service related organizations throwing dozens of gay-service related affairs throughout the year, Chicago affords many opportunities to freely fly your freedom flag for the entire world to see. So, I save October 11 just for me.

National Coming Out Day isn’t national for me. It’s a day for the individual, a day to remember the hardships every closeted person must face and a day to hone strength and foster continued perseverance. Because coming out isn’t about parties and public displays at first; it’s an internal conflict of fears and misconceptions that bids your surrender in order to bravely engage a world where bigotry will suppress you, disease will try to kill you, drugs will tempt you and true love may forever evade you because gay guys are all fucked in the head. For the as-of-yet still repressed L, G, B or T, the land beyond the closet poses more peril than promise, and choosing to make that dangerous journey means that you may never be able to return home.

Coming out as gay forces us to become soldiers, fighting for freedom against social, familial and self-instilled oppressions. While feather boas and hand holding may help us forget the battle, the scars from that battle never really go away. And equality has yet to be achieved; whether in or out of the closet, the war isn’t over.

So on National Coming Out Day, I’m not going to hit up the hotspots on Halsted and I’m not going to kiss any boys in the street. I’m just going to remind myself that I’m still here, I’m still queer, and, despite for a few bumps in the road since my coming out ten years ago and the bumps that are yet to come, I’m ok. I’m going to make it.

And to all questioning LGBTs out there: You’re going to make it too.

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What's your Coming Out Story?