The Sixth Annual History Happy Hour, hosted by Just John on October 26 and benefitting the St. Louis LGBT History Project, brought together an extraordinary gathering of writers, editors, publishers, photographers, broadcasters, and community storytellers whose work documented decades of LGBTQ life in the St. Louis region. More than a reunion, the evening was a…
History
My Gay Uncles and the Lives They Never Lived
One of my mother’s older brothers, Paul Monroe Gamble, died in an automobile accident eleven days before Christmas 1959. He was 24. Twenty years later, in January 1979, my mother’s youngest brother, Clifford Lee (Ricky) Gamble, also died in an automobile accident. He was 29, the youngest of eighteen children. Uncle Paul died before I…
October 2026: “You’re Living Through LGBTQ+ History Right Now”
Thirty-two years ago today – Monday, October 3, 1994 – the first-ever public event (as far as I know) for the nascent and then-named Lesbian and Gay History Month took place at Lucas Hall 100 at the University of Missouri at St. Louis (UMSL), where I was a nighttime graduate student in history while serving…
The Camelot Collector: Steven Brawley’s Impressive Jackie Kennedy Collection
It’s not entirely incorrect to say that Steven Louis Brawley is obsessed with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. “Obsession,” though, undersells the rigor and dedication he brings to the task of cataloging and contextualizing her history. His business card bears an iconic pink pillbox hat, but Brawley’s no mere fanboy. The 60-year-old Kirkwood resident is the custodian…
Betty Neeley: Riding Ahead of Her Time, Preserving the Herstory of St. Louis
Long before St. Louis had an organized LGBTQ motorcycle scene, before women riders had a place in groups such as Dykes on Bikes, Betty D. Neeley was already riding. Neeley, turning 90 this month, began riding motorcycles in 1949, at an age when a teenage girl taking to the streets on a motorcycle was…
America 250: Queer Revolutionaries
Much has been written this year about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and much has been written during the past few decades, including full biographies, about the queer (at least, queer-adjacent) lives of three who served in George Washington’s Continental Army: Deborah Sampson, Casimir Pulaski, and Baron von Steuben. This piece provides…
Scott Lokitz is the OG Community Photographer
I first blew into St. Louis from Oklahoma in 1997, at age 22. I remember hearing about this city’s larger-than-life household names as I was learning the ropes. There was nightclub owner Howard Meyer, who would entertain in his opulent West End mansion. There were entertainers everyone flocked to see, like Dieta Pepsi, Petrina Marie,…
Butch in the Streets: A South Grand Lesbian Story
When I was pretending to be straight in my early twenties, I met one of the most incredible women in South City. Her name was Bay Tran. Bay’s family came to St. Louis from Vietnam. Fast forward to the streets of South Grand in the early 2000s—I reunited with the one and only Bay, one…
Our Lesbian Bars, Our History, Our Future
As a 55-year-old lesbian, I often look back on my twenties and the “safe” spaces we created for ourselves—spaces that became our family. Coming out of the closet (as we called it back then) meant you’d better know how to survive and how to find your people. I came out at a time when it…
“Mayor of Gay OKC” Floyd Martin to Celebrate His 60th on Saturday
He eats terribly. He drinks like a fish. He never has any money—if an employer won’t give him time off for an event, he simply quits. He’s tumbled through a second-story plate glass window at The District Hotel. He’s been run over by a car. He’s been struck by lightning—twice. It’s almost incomprehensible that “Mayor…