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These Organizations Are Creating Community for LGBTQ+ Creatives

09.23.20 | By
These Organizations Are Creating Community for LGBTQ+ Creatives

With National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day and National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day both this month, we wanted to call attention to some organizations focused on making space for the queer community and LGBTQ+ individuals in the design industry. These organizations are working to give designers in the community a safe space where they can share their voices and connect with others who identify as LGBTQ+.

QSPACE is an architectural organization for student and professional research projects focused on queerness in built environments. The organization encourages action through exhibitions, publications, digital archiving, and design guidelines. Some of the covered research topics have been on gender-inclusive bathroom design, LGBTQ homelessness and housing, and queer histories in architecture.

QSPACE’s Queer Graphic Design Project archives graphic work from the LGBT liberation movement, like the 1987 Act Up “Silence=Death” AIDS activism poster.

Architecture LGBT+, a not-for-profit organization, is committed to creating a safe and inclusive space for LGBT+ architects through networking events, learning opportunities and mentoring.

Build Out Alliance is a non-profit that promotes and advocates for inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in the building design and construction industries. Its mission is to change these industries to better value inclusion and be a place where LGBTQ+ professionals work openly with pride and where everyone has access to equal opportunities and a diverse professional network. Build Out Alliance does this through visibility, mentoring, networking, leadership and outreach.

Queer Design Club is on a mission to create a community for queer creators and support the work happening at the intersection of queer identity and design – all while connecting the community with queer creative history. On the Queer Design Club site, you’ll find a Designer Directory (an independent listing of queer-identified creators across industries) and an online community that offers a safe space to connect with other queer design professionals and more.

Dani Howell has an MA in literary and textual studies and enjoys writing about everything from coffee to pop culture.