In recent months, discourse about queer people has dominated many state legislatures and school board meetings. Since the passage of bills in Missouri limiting access to gender-affirming care, many conversations in mainstream media have been about queer people and don’t center queer people themselves.
Founded in 2019, the St. Louis Queer Support Helpline serves as a resource for LGBTQIA+ people. The goal of the helpline is to facilitate healing spaces and provide holistic support for queer St. Louisans to thrive.
Since its inception, the helpline has seen a rise in operating revenue, staff, volunteers and calls for help, but the goals go beyond receiving a certain number of calls. “The depth of the relationships we form with the community can’t always be captured by the number of calls we get,” explained Luka Cai, SQSH’s executive director.
Cai said that the ‘H’ in SQSH is for helpline, not hotline, and that the calls greatly differ from what crisis lines receive. “[SQSH callers] often just want another LGBTQ queer person to talk to. But I think we've also grown in terms of the kinds of programs we offer and how we think about and strategize towards queer liberation,” they said.
SQSH’s services have been built in direct response to the needs of the community it serves. Programs include the helpline as well as a resource guide and annual community healing event.
For more of Luka Cai’s reflections and lessons learned while leading St. Louis Queer Support Helpline, including how queer liberation works in tandem with different social justice efforts, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Ulaa Kuziez is our production intern. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
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