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LGBTQ St. Louis on the Map

By Miranda Rectenwald

Happy 6 Month Anniversary to Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis!

Online and freely available to everyone since October 2017, Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis allows viewers to explore the locations and stories behind lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and queer life in St. Louis.

Since the site’s public debut, the Mapping project team has received great feedback from community members, and are working to add even more images and background information to the site — and correct those (few!) typos and tech glitches. Please keep sending in your comments and feedback about the site! 

At the launch event in October, we were grateful to several community members who shared their personal stories about some of the places marked on the map. Recordings of their presentations are now online, and available below.

Erise Williams offered a look back at what the Zebra Lounge and the local bar scene meant to him as an African American gay man, especially as the AIDS crisis unfolded:

The fabulous Sherie White, recalled what it was like to attend and perform at Miss Fannie’s Ball in the 1970s (and win twice):

And Flowing Johnson spoke about direct organizing actions taken by St. Louis groups such as Queer Nation in the 1990s:

You can also watch the entire evening’s presentation, including an audience Q&A with the three presenters.

*We apologize that currently these videos are without captioning or written transcripts, making them inaccessible to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. This is a task we hope to accomplish in the future, and will update the links accordingly.

Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis is an interdisciplinary humanities project examining the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class & society in St. Louis, Missouri (USA).

Further details regarding methods and sources are available on the About Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis page.

We welcome questions, comments, and feedback. Please contact the project team using this online form.