Every LGBTQIA+ person deserves to be treated kindly and to access the community resources we need to lead fulfilling lives. As members of the queer community, we have experienced firsthand the isolation, stigmatization, and fear that can arise from the lack of understanding and acceptance by the people around us. Many of us would have led different lives or made different decisions if we had a supportive, empathetic LGBTQIA+ peer to talk to when we were going through a hard time. That’s why we set up SQSH - a source of free, confidential, and identity-affirming peer support, by the St. Louis queer community, for the community.

“Hi! I’m a trans-masculine, genderqueer, and pansexual individual who was born and raised in Singapore, which I experienced to be a highly homophobic and transphobic country. Without any queer role models to look up to or supportive peers to talk to, I grew up feeling isolated, stigmatized, and afraid. I only found the courage to come out when I came to the U.S., joined the St. Louis LGBTQIA+ community, and found myself in a much more queer-affirming environment. I had always wished that there was an unconditionally supportive, non-judgmental LGBTQIA+ peer I could confide in and feel understood by. That’s why I’m passionate about setting up a LGBTQIA+ peer support helpline for the St. Louis region - to create a resource I wish I had, and to give back to the community that welcomed me.”

- Luka Cai (they/them), SQSH Founder -

At SQSH, we believe our services are better when we hold ourselves accountable to guiding principles and clinical-based models for peer counseling, community support, and helpline work. These include the following: caller led, harm reduction, wraparound service model, community-centered, confidentiality, transforamtive justice, intersectionality, accessibility, trauma-informed, self care & collective care, sustainability focused, limitations-aware, accountablity.

For Our Detailed Organizational Philosophy, Click Here.