.gay Community Spotlight on SQSH (The St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline)
This week we had the opportunity to talk with the folks from SQSH (The St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline) - a grassroots, community-based organization, dedicated to providing spaces and support for Queer St. Louisans to thrive.
They aim to make the world a better place for St. Louisans experiencing oppression based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Read our .gay community spotlight interview with them below!
How would you describe your organization’s mission?
We are a grassroots, community-based, queer-led, worker-directed organization dedicated to facilitating healing spaces and providing holistic support for queer St. Louisans to thrive. We work towards a liberated St. Louis Metro Area where people of all genders and sexualities live with power, safety, and abundance. We aim to combat interlocking systems of oppression to radically reimagine an anti-carceral, community-based, queer-centered mental health system, using a margins-to-center approach.
Tell us about how that mission is brought to life through your work?
Our mission is to support and empower the St. Louis LGBTQIA+ community through: Non-hierarchical, peer-based emotional support and non-judgmental space-holding, rooted in the principles of healing justice, community care, and holistic wellness; Fostering connections with identity-affirming resources, rooted in the principles of mutual aid and abolition; Building community power and systems of feedback and accountability, rooted in the principles of transformative justice; Facilitating education and advocacy to uplift queer St. Louisan stories, rooted in the principles of oral history and intersectionality.
What would happen if your organization suddenly did not exist?
The St. Louis region would face a gap in preventative mental healthcare, peer support, and community-building spaces for queer and trans St. Louisans.
What can people do to get involved and help make sure that never happens?
Supporters can donate, fundraise, partner, volunteer, or raise awareness about our mission, values, and work.
Why does LGBTQ+ visibility matter to you?
We believe that every LGBTQIA+ person is inherently whole. We dream of a world in which queer people (and all people) are powerful, have autonomy over the narrative of our lives, and are free to form liberated, non-hierarchical relationships with others in community.
In your own words, what does “LGBTQ+ safety and support” mean specifically?
LGBTQ+ safety support means that we're able to grow towards our collective liberation by: Harnessing the inherent power of peer relationships and support to build new systems of emotional healing outside of hierarchical, highly surveilled, and carceral institutions of mental health; Building spaces in which queer people can tap into our own strengths, create our own narratives, and be seen and uplifted by our community; Creating anti-hierarchical leadership structures that model our values of transformative justice and community accountability.
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