Using the internet to connect users to queer-owned spaces around the world

Growing up a closeted child in the rural Midwest, Charlie Sprinkman always hoped he could one day connect with others in the queer community.

Now, as an adult, he lives in Portland, Oregon, where he manages a team at a consumer packaged goods company. In his spare time, he combines skills from his day job with a knack for tech to put queer-owned businesses that he’s visited across the U.S. onto a digital map he’s created, called Everywhere Is Queer.

What started as a small project last year has now gone global.

Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

Charlie Sprinkman: I am [the] CEO and founder of Everywhere Is Queer, a worldwide map of queer-owned businesses and queer-serving community groups.

I grew up in rural Wisconsin, you know, I didn’t have out family members — I didn’t even really have that many out friends in my community. But I even think as a closeted kid, I would have loved to have known the queer-owned spaces in my area, if there were any.

Later on in life, I traveled the country for a job in 2019, and I went to nearly 45 of the 50 states. And as a queer person, I was out at this point, trying to find queer people and just queer community, and not necessarily to meet them, but just to be in queer spaces. I was trying to find those spaces all over the United States. And I really struggled to find those spaces. And so I kept Googling, and all I got was the, “here’s a queer-owned bar,” or queer bar here. And I do drink, but sometimes I need to get a bagel in the morning, and I would love for that to be at a queer-owned bagel spot, if possible.

June of 2021, I went and volunteered at Brave Trails, which is a queer youth leadership camp for 12- to 18-year-old youth. And being in a space of 100-plus queer people was so euphoric. I mean, people weren’t commenting on my voice for the first time in a series of days. So I kind of came off of that experience, that volunteering experience, and I was driving back to Colorado where I lived at the time and I’m like “a worldwide map of queer-owned businesses. Maybe we can make that experience I just had a Brave Trails, that euphoric experience, at a grander scale.”

I dove into my computer in January 2, 2022. I posted my logo on Instagram. I am so grateful for all of the growth. I have almost 90,000 followers on Instagram, 26,000 on TikTok. Social media has been the core of the growth of Everywhere Is Queer, allowing me to get the word out of what I’m doing. It’s also allowed me to just connect with a lot of queer-owned businesses and let them know “hey, we have a worldwide map. We’d love to have you on it. It’s free. We’d love to have you join and hopefully bring more people to your spot.” And that has happened a lot through TikTok.

But really, it’s the map. Over 5,500 orgs have joined, so they all apply themselves. I’ve had 1,000s of people tell me, “thank you for this. I now feel safe with my partner to road trip across the country.”