#queer memory

Hey! My name is Reese and I am currently working on a thesis about Queeringthemap.com and queer archival memory! As a part of this research, I want to hear from you! I am seeking participants who would be interested in having (roughly) hour long unstructured conversations about your experiences using Queeringthemap.com, how you feel about posting, reading posts, and its existence in the world as a collection of queer memory. These will occur over a video call and be recorded with your consent.

The only qualifications to participate are: you must have used Queeringthemap.com before (even just visiting the site counts!), self-identify as 'queer' or LGBT+, you must be 18 years or older, and you must be located in the US. Additionally, I am able to provide a $25 incentive for an hour of your time!

If you meet these qualifications and are interested in sharing your thoughts, you can reach out to me at [email protected]. If your comfortable sharing, let me know your name, age, where your located, and how you chose to identify! You can also reach out with questions, comments, or concerns– I would love to elaborate about the project so you feel you can make an informed decision to participate.

Swiss historian, Johannes Müller, friend of Goethe, Schiller, Herder & Voltaire, describing a special "friendship" in a letter to his family (January 28, 1797)

In August 1802 he wrote in a letter to another "friend":

Remembering being a queer teen

with a crush on a “straight” girl

who called me “sunshine”

I 🖤 my sunshine, she wrote

We wrote notes to each other in

math class on our graphing

calculators

15 years later, embodied feelings of

young queer yearning still

documented in Facebook

Memories, paths diverged but

memories intertwined

Madonna - Open Your Heart

This music video is my first pop cultural memory.  I remember dancing on my living room table to this video at four years old, and I remember how disturbed my mother seemed when I was discovered.  

The sexuality was not on my mind at the time (though it likely created a curiosity about peep shows), but I was curious about the adulation of the this idol by a young boy, and her fun and innocent reciprocation at the end of the video made me want to know and adore her too.  I felt an implicit and total connection to the boy in the video who was infatuated with this glamorous woman with golden nipples.