When Luka Cai moved to St. Louis in 2016, the Tivoli Theater was a special place.
Cai came here from Singapore, a “queer-phobic” environment where they say they felt pressured to be straight and cisgender. But St. Louis, and the Tivoli at that time, felt different.
“When I moved here, the movie theater was a really important social and cultural place,” Cai says. “It was where I watched my first queer movie, where I hung out with queer friends.”
Cai and several other members of St. Louis’ LGBTQ+ community, the arthouse movie theater in the Loop was one of a dwindling number of safe spaces to be openly queer. That is, before the theater’s then-owner, Joe Edwards, sold the building to a church in 2021.
For years, One Family Church had rented out the Tivoli for weekly services (its offices are also next door). But as Edwards has been unloading properties in the Loop, the church decided to purchase its rented home. Now, this Friday, the nondenominational church plans to once again show movies in the theater as part of a monthly series on the first Friday of each month.
News of the beloved theater’s reopening was mostly met with excitement. But several queer-identifying people felt shut out. They’re calling for a boycott of the Tivoli because of the church’s perceived lack of support for queer people.
Angelo Ossessivo, co-founder and lead coordinator of Tower Grove Pride, tells the RFT he felt “cautious dismay” when he learned of One Family Church’s purchase of the Tivoli. The theater hosted years of Rocky Horror Picture Show performances and booked queer films as far back as the early 1990s. One Rocky Horror cast member says the church threw out thousands of dollars worth of props and memorabilia that was left at the church.
Ossessivo decided to dig deeper. In 2021, when the church’s intent to buy the Tivoli was announced, he says the church refused to give anything other than vague responses to his questions on whether the church fully accepted queer people for their identities. Tower Grove Pride created an online petition to keep LGBTQ+ movies at the Tivoli that year.
In July this year, Ossessivo criticized One Family Church on social media when it announced plans to show movies in the Tivoli. Pastor Brent Roam agreed to meet with Ossessivo afterward, he says, and elaborated the church’s stances in detail.
Ossessivo says he was told that all people are welcome in the church, where there are out LGBTQ+ members who reconcile with the church’s stances in various ways, but that the Tivoli would not screen anything related to LGBTQ+ representation, no matter the rating.
Ossessivo later wrote a blog post on Tower Grove Pride’s website titled “The Tivoli Will Never Show Another LGBTQ+ Film.”
“The truth is: No film representing the LGBTQ+ community will ever be shown at One Family Church’s Tivoli. Rocky Horror was kicked out, as was any other institution that didn’t fit in with the church’s agenda or beliefs,” the post reads.
In a statement to the RFT, One Family Church reiterated information on its website about the church’s beliefs. In part, the statement read:
“As a non-denominational Christian church, we are grounded in the teachings of the scriptures as they have been passed down from the time of Jesus to today. Like many of our brothers and sisters around the globe from nearly every Christian tradition, we wholeheartedly embrace the New Testament’s teachings about every aspect of our lives: prayer, worship, work, rest, money , sex, service, relationships and more.”
When reached directly, Roam, the church's founding pastor, said much of the same. He said One Family Church affirms Christian teachings in the New Testament that call for fidelity “within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.”
“Obviously, sexuality is a deeply intimate and personal matter, which is best discussed in person within a community, rather than online or in a newspaper,” Roam wrote in an email. “But for the sake of clarity, this statement best describes One Family Church’s teachings on this topic.”
In a 2014 sermon, Roam preached that Christians should treat gay people with love and empathy. Christians, Roam said, have wrongly treated them as if they’re “uniquely condemnable.” Still, scripture is “not ambiguous” when it comes to homosexuality, Roam later added.
“The Bible prohibits us as Christians from engaging in same-sex practice, or any kind of practice that is outside the covenant bond of marriage between a man and a woman,” Roam said during the sermon.
Queer-identifying people and their advocates who spoke to the RFT acknowledge One Grace Church has a right to do and believe what it wants. “They bought the Tivoli and it’s theirs now,” Cai says.
Yet they feel compelled to press the church to be transparent about its beliefs and whether they believe being queer is a sin so the LGBTQ+ community can decide whether they truly feel welcome there.
“We want open and honest dialogue,” says Reverend Katie Nix of Grace United Methodist Church in the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood. “If this is what you believe, that’s fine, but don’t hide it. Make it clear so we can make a decision about whether this is truly a safe space for us or not.”
Queer people may be “welcome,” at One Family Church, Ossessivo says, but without a full acceptance of queer identities, he says that welcome doesn’t go far.
“I want people to know what they’re supporting if they’re supporting this particular space,” Ossessivo says.
But Ossessivo also recognizes One Family Church’s “wonderful” mission to use all profits generated from so-called First Fridays to fund its nonprofit aimed at eliminating race as a factor to homeownership in St. Louis. The nonprofit, called Fair Access to Mortgages, provides down payments and closing costs to prospective homeowners who’ve been affected by St. Louis’ history of housing discrimination, according to One Family Church’s website.
Ossessivo also understands why a church may not want to host Rocky Horror or certain films with queer themes. But there are also movies on One Family Church’s docket that include other actions considered sins, such as violence and stealing.
“I get it, Rocky Horror is sexualized,” Ossessivo says. “There are a lot of LGBTQ movies that are not family friendly, but there are also an increasing number that are just as palatable as anything depicting heterosexual relationships in a Disney movie.”
For some, One Family Church’s ownership of the former Tivoli Theatre marks the loss of yet another LGBTQ-safe space — particularly one that wasn’t centered around alcohol. The pandemic led to the closing of at least five queer bars in St. Louis. And the Grove, long thought to be the city’s “gayborhood,” has gradually changed to become less of the concentrated haven of queerness it once was.
Cai, who co-founded an organization called SQSH (St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline), says hotline calls have increased tenfold since the pandemic began. One of the most common call topics relates to relationships and community.
“Entertainment spaces are not just entertainment spaces for the queer community,” Cai says. “They’re also spaces where relationships are made, where we form chosen family ties with each other.”
It may seem like people should give One Family Church a pass because churches should be able to run their spaces however they want, Cai says. “But in this specific incident, there’s a lot of anger and hurt and rejection,” they add. “We want to say this is not something we should condone, especially if it’s not communicated to the public.”
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