The Quist app includes HIV in its daily queer history.

The Quist app includes HIV in its daily queer history.


 June marks Gay Pride month, and with the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality due any day, this year’s LGBTQ celebration will be one for the history books.

Not that we can trust the history books to include LGBTQ facts. I certainly learned nothing about gay history while growing up in rural Missouri in the 1970s and coming of age in the age of AIDS.

Since then, I’ve become fascinated with gay history and that of the HIV community. One of my favorite phone apps is Quist--which is short for “queer history” and as such offers bite-sized tidbits of important moments in LGBTQ history each day.

Of note to POZ readers is that Quist includes a large dose of HIV history. This should be expected and makes perfect sense, but it’s not something to be taken for granted at a time when many in the gay rights movement choose to ignore the reality of the virus for more feel-good headlines.

But even as we celebrate the forward momentum of marriage equality, Quist reminds us that the battle has been going on for decades. Like in this May 18 post:

As much as I appreciate contemporary history, I’m super curious about ancient LGBTQ history, or even that from, say, colonial America.

Quist has all that, and international events too, like the really cool item below regarding the Sacred Band of Thebes. (Full disclosure: I always thought the hunky warriors of the movie 300 were supposed to depict the 150 pairs of male Theban lovers. Wrong. 300 is about Spartan soldiers, not Greek. Duh. Guess that was just wishful thinking on my part.)
 


The Quist app displays the events in LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS history that happened on today’s date in past years. We’re bringing gay history, lesbian history, bisexual history, transgender history, and HIV history to the world to a new way.

Some Quist events are related to the LGBT community’s contributions to society, some illustrate how gender fluidity and same-sex relationships were treated throughout time, and some honor the sacrifices of the LGBTQ people who have advanced the cause.

The mission of this app is to:

  • Educate the world about the roots of the LGBTQ communities
  • Make LGBTQ history more engaging and relevant
  • Let LGBTQ youth know that others have shared their struggle.
  • Promote organizations that make LGBTQ history today and every day.
  • Make technology more inclusive of the LGBT community.


HAPPY PRIDE!