Queering the Map

Queering the Map is a community-based online collaborative and counter-mapping platform on which users submit their personal queer experiences to specific locations on a single collective map. Since its inception, users have contributed more than 500,000 posts in 23 languages to the platform.^[1]

Queering the Map

Type of site	web mapping
Founded	May 2017
Country of origin	Canada
Founder(s)	Lucas LaRochelle
URL	www.queeringthemap.com
Current status	Active

History

In 2017, Canadian artist and designer Lucas LaRochelle began working on Queering the Map for a class project at Concordia University in Montreal.^[2] The project was launched in May of the same year. LaRochelle has cited the lasting impact of personal memories on their perceptions towards places and Sara Ahmed's ideas on queerness as an orientation towards space as influences behind the project. For LaRochelle, a queer space can be a relational experience created by and/or shared between queer people.^[3] LaRochelle has stated that their main intent for initiating the project was to archive these spaces, which transcend the traditional notion of queer spaces as fixed places (like businesses or neighborhoods) that are reclaimed by clearly defined communities.^[4]

In February 2018, Montreal DJ Frankie Teardrop shared Queering the Map on Facebook, greatly increasing its visibility.^[2] During this month, the number of pins on the map increased from 600 to 6,500 within a three-day span. The same month, a cyberattack generating pins with comments in support of U.S. president Donald Trump forced LaRochelle to take down the site and ask for help on its URL.^[4] Over the next two months, 8 volunteers developed a more secure version of the site on GitHub,^[2] and the project qualified for Cloudflare's free Project Galileo cybersecurity service. Notably, a moderation system was developed for the platform through this process.^[3] In April 2018, Queering the Map was relaunched.^[5]

In 2019, LaRochelle began developing QT.bot, an artificial neural network trained to generate hypothetical queer stories using the data submitted to Queering the Map.^[6]

Reception

Queering the Map has received press coverage through media outlets based in Australia,^[7] Brazil, ^[8] Canada, the Czech Republic, ^[9] France, Spain,^[10] Switzerland,^[11] the UK and the U.S., including Autostraddle, CBC Arts, CityNews,^[12] Condé Nast Traveler, ^[13] Fugues,^[14] Numerama, Paper, rabble.ca,^[15] The McGill Daily, The Skinny,^[16] VICE, and VOGUE.^[17]

In 2023, an article by Reckon reported on LGBTQ Palestinians turning to Queering the Map to share their stories during the Gaza war.^[18] In the article^[18], Reckon reported that queer Palestinians are sharing their last words to their queer lovers through pins on the map. A pin from an LGBTQ user in Jabalia says, “I’ve always imagined you and me sitting out in the sun, hand in hand, free at last. We spoke of all the places we would go if we could. Yet you are gone now. If I had known that bombs raining down on us would take you from me, I would have gladly told the world how I adored you more than anything. I’m sorry I was a coward.” Another pin reads, "“I don’t know how long I will live, so I just want this to be my memory here before I die. I am not going to leave my home, come what may. My biggest regret is not kissing this one guy. He died two days back. We had told how much we like each other, and I was too shy to kiss [him one] last time. He died in the bombing. I think a big part of me died, too. And soon I will be dead. To Younus, I will kiss you in heaven.”

Accolades

In 2018, Queering the Map received an honorary mention at the Prix Ars Electronica^[19] and was longlisted for the Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards^[20] and the Lumen Prize for Digital Art.^[21]

Context

Queering The Map is becoming widely known in the design field and is part of a larger 'queer turn'^[22] in design seen in work by designers and design researchers like Ece Canli, Emeline Brulé, Luiza Prado de O. Martins and Tiphaine Kazi-Tani, which has been described as "radical, chaotic and deconstructive."^[23]