ST. LOUIS — The 'Gateway to Pride' exhibit is open at the Missouri History Museum. The exhibit shines a light on the proud history of LGBTQAI+ culture here in St. Louis.
The 2024 Grand Pride Parade is coming up on June 30. The annual celebration brings our community together to march in support of the LGBTQIA+ community. The 'Gateway to Pride' invites attendees to take a look back.
Featured in the exhibit is Jym Andris. He attended the first St. Louis Gay Pride Parade in 1980. While youth was on his side, then, Andris looks back on it now after a lifetime of experience.
"For so long, there were just really negative stories told about people who were gay and lesbian. But now some other some of us are telling the truth, which is, you know, it's just like any other person. It's a mixture of good and bad," Andris said.
'Gateway to Pride' also features journals from trailblazers in St. Louis' LGBQTIA+ community like Barbara Goedde. Missouri History Museum Assistant Curator for LGBTQIA-Plus, Ian Darnell, says after growing up in St. Louis in the 1950s and 60s, Goedde came out while attending art school at Washington University.
"So just at this, you know, at the start of the 1970s, when the sort of modern Gay Liberation era was beginning and also at around the same time that there was this flowering of second-wave feminism," Darnell said.
Darnell says at the intersection of gay liberation and feminism was lesbian feminism, and it was a vibrant St. Louis scene in the 70s and 80s. Goedde had a front-row seat as illustrator for the magazine “Moonstorm.”
“She lived in women's cooperative housing she was just sort of on the forefront of the movement. And she recorded all of this in this absolutely amazing series of Sketchbook journals. And in those journals, she not only wrote down her day-to-day experiences, but she was an artist filled with drawings and paintings and photographs and mementos of her life," Darnell said.
'Gateway to Pride' will remain open for more than a year at the Missouri History Museum. For a full list of Pride events and activities in the St. Louis area this month, text the word "pride" to 314-425-5355 and we'll send you a link.
Want more local lifestyle news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Show Me newsletter.