Here’s a fact that many Chicagoans, and certainly few people living on the coasts, seem to know: In 1961, through legislative action, Illinois became the first state in the country to strike down its anti-sodomy laws. It would be a full decade before Connecticut followed suit (California didn’t repeal its laws until 1976, while New York state waited until 1980). In Quearborn and Perversion, Ron Pajak’s 2007 documentary on Chicago’s LGBT history, screening Sunday 18 and Tuesday 20 at the Music Box, we discover that our city’s role in gay rights isn’t too shabby.

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For the third year, Carpenters Halloween delights in the giddy teen thrill of watching a slasher flick: Freshly pubescent characters explore their newfound sexuality and get rewarded for it with a knife in the chest. Except here the venue isn’t your bf’s house while the ‘rents are away, but Mary’s Attic, above Hamburger Mary’s in Andersonville. I caught the press opening on Wednesday 14.

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I wasn’t sure what to expect from last night’s reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Seems like some of the organizers weren’t totally sure either; About Face Theatre artistic director Bonnie Metzgar had to vamp on the Goodman’s Owen stage for a good 15 minutes or more due to technical difficulties in New York. The event was the debut of the Tectonic Theater Project’s new sequel to its groundbreaking docuplay about Laramie, Wyoming, in the months following the 1998 murder there of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Last year, as the tenth anniversary of the brutal crime approached, members of Tectonic decided to return to Laramie to see what had changed. Last night, on the 11th anniversary of Shepard’s death, the new piece would be premiered near-simultaneously in more than 150 cities across the globe.

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There was only one constant last night at the UIC Pavilion, a smiling petite blond with a gold microphone—and lasers. Otherwise, everything about Kylie Minogue’s first live show in Chicago changed completely about every 15 minutes—the dancers’ costumes, the lighting and bold graphics flashing on the vertical scrims, the Aussie diva’s wardrobe, the style of music—the whole theatrical scenario.

In one two-hour show we got Barbarella-style sci-fi airline hostess (“Come into my World”), Stephen Sprouse-inspired ’80s acid-house flashback (“Shocked”), buff guys showering in a gym/bathhouse while Kylie sings on a pommel horse (“Spinning Around”), cheerleaders with marching-band horns (“Wow”), military chic (“Like a Drug”), Hollywood starlet on chaise lounge flanked by rococo gold hounds (“I’m a Diamond for YouWhite Diamond”), New Orleans brothel with Kylie in lingerie (a reworking of “Locomotion”) and occasional “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore” and video wall interludes—the whole night opened with echoes of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Kylie might be something of an unknown in American pop circles—and she’s never played here, so she was extra thankful and warm—even inviting a superfan on stage for a photo opp. Later, she and her leggy back-up singers joined together for an impromptu acapella by request.

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In Outrage, an exhilarating new film from director Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated, Twist of Faith), the lives of closeted gay politicians are brought to light. It points to a number of Washington lawmakers including Florida governor Charlie Grist and former New York City mayor Ed Koch among others as examples of how closeted politicians damage both their own lives as well as that of gay and lesbians Americans. We spoke with Dick about the film’s impact so far. Outrage debuts on HBO on October 5.

Some critics noted that the film sets out to expose closeted lawmakers, but that isn’t at all what Outrage is about, is it?
Not at all. I was reporting on the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who vote anti-gay. This is something the gay press has been reporting on for 20 years. In fact, this film is built in large part on the work of the gay press, and they’ve been making the case very persuasively that this kind of hypocrisy is really damaging to gays and lesbians throughout the country. Audiences were completely taken aback by this information—even a majority of gay audiences—because the mainstream media hasn’t reported on this. I think this film has already gone a long way toward changing how this issue is reported on by the mainstream media.

The film was released theatrically last spring. What have been some of the responses you’ve heard so far?
I expected some people to be opposed to this kind of reporting. I haven’t had that happen in one single Q&A, and I think it’s a testament to the fact that the film makes a very strong case for reporting on closeted politicians who vote anti-gay. Also, what I found is that audiences seem to be very grateful. I have people line up just to shake my hand and say, “Thank you so much for making this film.” I think there was a real feeling that this is a story that just absolutely wasn’t being covered. It’s a very important story, and audiences are very grateful that this film is out there.

Were you surprised by any of the politicians outed in the film?
I guess the surprise came right at the beginning when I was in Washington, D.C., and people just started rattling off names. I said, “But there’s been no mainstream coverage of this and this issue of hypocrisy?” and people said, “No,” so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to make a film.

Was there a specific incident that acted as the catalyst for making this film?
It was August 2006, this is before the Mark Foley scandal and before Larry Craig, I was in Washington, D.C., and somebody mentioned, just in passing, that Karl Rove [who is not mentioned in the movie] was gay, and I did a double take. That would make a great film. I just started probing and then everything else came out about the closet in politics, and it was really at that point that it had everything going for it as a film. It was an urgent political issue in the way that it affected policy, it was psychologically very complex, and it was something the mainstream media had avoided covering for two decades. I had been working on another film at that time, hadn’t started production, and just put that aside and decided this is the film I want to make.

What was it like then, in the middle of filming this, having the Mark Foley and Larry Craig scandals unfold around you?
It was definitely helpful. It put the story on the map so that when the film came out people were ready for a more in-depth look at it. It made the film seem extremely current.

Were there closeted politicians you were following that you would’ve like to have included but you just couldn’t get enough information on them to make a credible case?
There were a number of politicians that I’m aware of that I strongly believe are closeted, that do vote anti-gay; I just didn’t feel like I had enough information to conclusively report on them in my film. What’s interesting is that people really keep these secrets for a long time. I’d talk to people who would have information and be very supportive of the film, seem to want to go on camera, and then when I’d get back in touch with them a few days later they’d had second thoughts. People were very afraid that either personally or in terms of their business, there’d be very serious repercussions. These politicians are very powerful, certainly within their district, and certainly within D.C., and people are very careful. Careers could be destroyed if people come forward and tell the truth.

Any response from people inside Washington about the film?
No. Classically, the way that politicians have dealt with this reporting is to ignore it. And this was for the most part no different. Ed Koch did come forward and say that he was outraged by Outrage. I have to say I appreciated the fact that he mentioned the title of the film twice in his comment.

Why does the media tacitly go along with this?
There’s a number of reasons. I think reporters, over the last decade in particularly, have wanted to report on this and the decisions have been made higher up not to report on this. Some of these journalistic outfits are afraid of turning off or offending readership by reporting in detail on issues that have to deal with homosexuality. Other [media outlets] have close relationships with these politicians and they feel like, why should they anger them or jeopardize their access to politicians by doing this kind of reporting. It’s the responsibility of the press to report on hypocrisy wherever they find it; they shouldn’t in any way limit or censor themselves.

Will this film really enact a change in dialogue among the public or will we let this tacit agreement of not talking about the issue continue?
No single film can really change things. It has influenced the press, and the press has influence over the public. But in another way, I think it influences people going into politics and people in politics. Many, many people who are gay and young and going into politics are going to see this film and they’re going to realize that it’s the wrong decision and very destructive personally and politically, and I think this film is going to influence that group of people. As a result of this, I think you’re going to see more people running as out politicians over the next generation.

Flanked by State Rep. Greg Harris, out alderman Tum Tunney and other local politicos, and with a handful of members of local media present, State Senator Heather Steans (D-7th District) introduced legislation (SB-2468) that would legalize same-sex marriage across the Land of Lincoln. “I’m really honored to follow in the footsteps of my colleague Representative Greg Harris who has previously filed this bill in the House,” Steans said. “This is a first step to advance the basic freedom in our world, the right that we should all have to define our own families. Lesbian and gay couples deserve absolutely to have the same rights and responsibilities me and my husband have.”

Quite frankly, it’s about time someone introduced this legislation into the state senate, but with a stalled civil unions bill (HB-2234) sitting in the House Rules Committee since May (the legislation was initially introduced in 2007), her primary opponent, openly gay Jim Madigan is crying foul. His campaign offered this response: “Today’s ill-timed press conference by State Senator Steans demonstrates that she is more interested in pandering and politics than in doing the hard work of crafting a strategy and passing legislation…Not once, but twice State Representatives have introduced marriage equality bills in the Illinois House. Senator Steans did not sign on as a Senate sponsor of those marriage equality bills since she was appointed in February 2008.”

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In a rousing, if not thrilling, 90-minute show at the Chicago Theatre last night, the Pet Shop Boys, purveyors of energetic synth-pop, proved that you can go homo again. I use the word “homo” because stateside at least, PSB haven’t scored any major hits since the late ’80s, although they continue to appease their mostly gay (and by now middle-aged) fan base with consistently good albums every few years. Yet their songs continue to provide a compelling soundtrack of the gay experience. Judging by crowd reactions and post-show fan discussions last night, each number seemed to provoke a reaction of nostalgic exuberance.

For example, the show kicked off with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe arriving on stage in fetching black windbreakers with colored cubes covering their faces to sing Heart, a song that die hards will recall was meant to be submitted to Madonna to record, but ended up becoming a U.K. #1 for the Boys instead. As images of heart-shaped balloons flooded the giant screen behind him, Tennant, sounding as droll and bewitching as ever, belted out the song’s classic lines before segueing into new tracks Did You See Me Coming?, Pandemonium (which mixed in a few verses from Can You Forgive Her?) and Love, etc. from their newest album, Yes.

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About Face Theatre is expected to announce later today that Mayor Daley has signed on as honorary chair for its reading of The Laramie Project—10 Years Later on October 12 at the Goodman’s Owen Theatre. Members of Tectonic Theater Project, the makers of the docuplay about Laramie, Wyoming in the aftermath of gay college student Matthew Shepard’s brutal 1998 murder, returned to Laramie last year to put together this new epilogue; About Face, which produced an all-star reading of the original Laramie Project last October to mark the tenth anniversary of Shepard’s death, is one of more than 120 theaters premiering the piece on the same day. Mary Beth Fisher, right, will anchor the cast as Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard. About Face’s production will serve as a fundraiser for the About Face Youth Theatre project Queertopia, a Laramie-style oral history exploring discrimination and violence against LGBTQ youth in Chicago’s schools. Queertopia is set to premiere in July 2010.

Gargantuan Boystown bar Sidetrack has been named a finalist in the category of “Best Gay Bar in the World” by the TripOut Gay Travel Awards, presented by LOGO. The bar is competing alongside clubs from Rio, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles and Montreal. TripOut is asking readers of its site to select their choice from these top six bars. Vote here now. We have to at least beat out L.A.’s crappy boy bar The Abbey.

Shakespeare Festival Saint Louis announced this morning that it’s hired Rick Dildine as the company’s executive director. Dildine has served for the last 13 months as managing director of Chicago’s About Face Theatre; he arrived here last year from Brown University with artistic director Bonnie Metzgar.

Metzgar, who joked in a phone call this morning that St. Louis had “poached my precious Rick,” notes that this marks a return to outdoor theater for Dildine, who previously served as artistic director of Bardstown, Kentucky’s Stephen Foster Theater. Dildine’s not the only staffer Metzgar’s losing to the Show-Me State: Development director Mollie Spear has joined the staff of Kansas City Rep, now helmed by About Face founder Eric Rosen.

Earlier this year, About Face’s future looked uncertain, as the company postponed the world premiere of Ann Marie Healy’s What Once We Felt to focus on an emergency fundraising campaign. At the theater’s Flip Flop Pop cabaret event last Monday, Metzgar and Dildine reported the campaign’s success, announcing that the theater’s back in the black. Longtime LGBT community leader Stevie Ball will join the staff as interim development consultant while the board begins a search for Dildine’s replacement. Meanwhile, the company’s Chicago XYZ Festival, featuring new works by Adam Bock, Holly Hughes and Patricia Kane, kicks off September 21, and Healy’s play will follow in 2010.