Out of Place: Lesbian and Queer Community Formation in St. Louis

• In Event: Revisiting and Reclaiming Queer History and Activism

Abstract

“Out of Place: Lesbian and Queer Community Formation in St. Louis” uses interview and archival research to examine how LGBTQIA+ St. Louisans have sustained networks, from the 1970s to the present, despite changing access to public space. This presentation highlights the use of books, choral media, archival initiatives, and theater productions to create queer community, arguing that connections continue even as public spaces decline. “Out of Place” complicates narratives of decline and progress, offering a complex picture of LGBTQIA+ community formation in which space is a factor, rather than a determinant, and in which continuity features as heavily as loss.

Presenter

• Mary Maxfield, Saint Louis University