A new book shows how Kansas City's drag performers influenced the national scene

A college professor with Kansas City roots is highlighting the city's influence in LGBTQ+ history and the national gay bar scene. Lucas Hilderbrand says the city was a nexus for gay political activity, activism and culture.
Lucas Hilderbrand says he never really imagined Kansas City “as being a gay city or a queer city.”

The University of California-Irvine professor of film and media studies had visited family in Kansas City a lot growing up, but it wasn’t until much later that he learned about the city’s rich history of gay bars.

“It actually had the best collection of any place around the country to tell the story of drag and how it emerged as a gay bar staple,” Hilderbrand says, referring to the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Hilderbrand’s discoveries at GLAMA inspired him to make the city one of just a few he includes in his new book, “The Bars Are Ours,” about the history and cultures of American gay bars.

Despite being the primary social institution of the gay community for about 100 years, Hilderbrand says his is the first national history of gay bars.