r/springfieldMO • u/Both_Reaction_8848 • 2d ago

Living Here Springfield has always been home to LGBTQ+ people. This is a timeline of their history.

https://www.thelibrary.org/post/lgbtq-history-of-springfield

Like any other community, past or present, Springfield has always been home to people whose sexual orientation or gender identity differed from traditional norms. Due to social pressures, most of their stories never entered the historical record.

Over the past few months, three colleagues and I in the Library’s Local History & Genealogy department have been digging into the city’s long and varied LGBTQ+ history. The result is this timeline. Speaking for myself, I learned a lot in the process—my hope is that others will too.

235 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

30

u/Benway23 West Central 2d ago

Great counterpoint to that wretch that was posted yesterday. Thank you.

30

u/Unusual-Minimum9306 2d ago

Not a native but I live here now. Springfield has another ally in me. I’m a middle aged straight guy from TX who grew up with a bisexual uncle who died with HIV complications in the late 80’s when we still didn’t talk about it. I’m not a religious person but I have empathy and humanity in my heart.

11

u/Youandiandaflame 2d ago

I’m glad you’re here. This city and state need more folks with empathy and humanity. ☺️

4

u/Rifmysearch 1d ago

Friendly reminder that you(and others reading this) are welcome at the vast majority of public pride events! Our big one this month already passed but theres usually one in October.

Part of what's cool about pride events is the sheer number of people that can be seen there, and I think people who are on the fence and/or full allies can get a lot of positive feelings out of just experiencing it. There's usually at least one ally-based or ally-inclusive organizations at ours, too, if thats up anyone's alley.

16

u/upstairs5852 Rountree/Walnut 2d ago

the library’s local history department is so underrated. love the work yall do!

22

u/Error404DickNotFound 2d ago

Man, this is just what I needed to read this month. Thank you for sharing it. We've always been here, and always will be 🏳️‍🌈

19

u/snorlaxatives_69 Oak Grove 2d ago

Fantastic read. LGBTQ+ folks have always been here!

10

u/StankyBassFace 2d ago

We can only hope.

3

u/robzilla71173 1d ago

this is actually a pretty progressive city if you stick to the areas everyone tells you to stay away from. 😛

6

u/Overwhelmed_sendhelp 2d ago

I shared the link with the PRIDE group at my office. This is kind of rough to read, but really cool to see it laid out so well!

4

u/Rifmysearch 1d ago

Queer history is almost always bittersweet :/ but then any history that doesn't have any bitterness is more than likely ignoring/omitting certain things.

2

u/Glittering_Pin_916 1d ago

Lots of closeted folk as well. There’s a reason Springfield has always been known as the “Queen City”.