Our mission is to serve and strengthen the St. Louis LGBTQIA+ community—by providing an empathetic listening ear, by connecting callers safely and reliably to LGBTQIA-affirming resources, and by increasing the visibility of LGBTQIA+ concerns, needs, and resources in the St. Louis region.

We are a community-based non-profit organization focused on creating opportunities and spaces for St. Louis LGBTQIA+ individuals to lead fulfilling lives. We have experienced firsthand the isolation, stigmatization, and fear that can arise from lack of understanding and acceptance by the people around us. Many of us would have led different lives or made different decisions if we had a supportive, empathetic LGBTQIA+ peer to talk to when we were going through a hard time.

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“I’m a trans-masculine, genderqueer, and pansexual individual who was born and raised in Singapore, which I experienced to be a highly homophobic and transphobic country. Without any LGBTQIA+ role models to look up to or queer-affirming peers to talk to, I grew up feeling alien and small. I only found the courage to come out when I came to the U.S., joined the St. Louis LGBTQIA+ community, and found myself in a much more queer-affirming environment.

I had always wished that there was an unconditionally supportive, non-judgmental queer-affirming peer I could confide in and feel understood by. That’s why I’m passionate about setting up a LGBTQIA+ peer support helpline for the St. Louis region—to create a resource I wish I had, and to give back to the community that welcomed me.”

—Luka (they/them), SQSH Co-Founder