A new mobile app called Quist is now available worldwide to engage the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community in their shared history and help isolated LGBT youth feel less alone.
“Presenting LGBTQ history through this interactive medium is one of the most engaging ways these stories have been shared with the world,” says the creator of the project, Sarah Prager, 26.
Each day when a user opens the app on their smartphone or tablet, they will see the events from LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS world history that occurred on that date. Each event entry contains a brief description and an image, links to websites, videos, and products like DVDs or books, and a cited source. Events are searchable by date, year, country, and U.S. state. A Baltimore-based firm, Natural Fusion, did the coding and design of the app, while a team of volunteers from Massachusetts to Belgium collected the historical content.
Events range from LGBTQ individuals’ contributions to the arts and sciences, watershed moments in the LGBTQ liberation movements, milestones of the HIV epidemic, specific love stories from the last several hundred years, significant court cases and executions, and worldwide “firsts” from the first transgender member of parliament’s election to the first time a same-sex wedding aired on a sitcom. Examples of stories in the app can be found at Quist’s website.
There are currently over 750 historical events in the app and new events are being added every day. Quist’s research team aims to curate 1,000 events by October 2013, which is LGBT History Month in the United States. February 2014 is LGBT History Month in the United Kingdom and much of Europe.
Quist’s mission is to educate the world about the roots of the LGBTQ community, make LGBTQ history more engaging and relevant, let LGBTQ youth know that others have shared their struggle, and promote organizations that make LGBTQ history today and every day. The name Quist is a combination of the words “queer history.” The app is free for both iOS and Android.
