By Denise Mckenzie
Imagine a place when you can document precious queer epiphanies, romantic encounters, and other intimate moments without judgment or worry.
Queering The Map allows you to do just that.
The community-generated mapping platform documents LGBTQ2I+ memories, moments, and histories. What started as a school project at Concordia University in Montreal with only a few hundred pins, has turned into a living archive with thousands of queer moments tagged from all over the world. Pretty cool, right?
For Queering The Map founder Luca LaRochelle, it began with a familiar tree that triggered deep emotions. It was under this particular tree that they met their first long-term partner. This led them to think about other spaces where tender moments have happened to them but also wanted to know about others’ experiences.
At university, LaRochelle created an interactive map where individuals can geo-tag a location and submit a short description explaining how or why this particular place has become a queer space. Queering The Map keeps its user-friendly process the same as it has grown:
- Find the location of your queer moment and click on it
- Write a short description of what happened and how you felt in the text box
- Click “Add” to archive and share your moment
The online map gained traction locally before going viral. After a flood of trolling contributors adding negative comments and messages, Queering The Map went offline for a short time to clean house. The project went live again with a better-moderated website run by a fantastic team of volunteers.
Share your queerness with the world
Queering The Map is a unique way to express yourself and share personal queer experiences. The intent of the project is to normalize the idea that any physical location can be a queer space, and tender moments are often the catalyst.
Over 72,000 unique stories have been contributed in 23 different languages from across the world. No matter where you travel to, you are likely to stumble upon the place where someone stole their first kiss, realized their queerness, or came out to their family or friends.
By mapping the beautiful and sometimes ugly moments of queerness, you can discover how profoundly connected we all are. Queering The Map offers a chance to participate in a broader dialogue, allowing the LGBTQ2I+ community to grow and flourish.
Queer life happens everywhere and it is a beautiful thing to watch and to be apart of. Thanks to Queering The Map, we can participate intimately, anonymously, and on a global level.
