KC Rainbow Tour

06/03/2024

Looking for a fun outing for your group, organization or ERG?

Book a guided group tour of the KC Rainbow Tour with me as your host. You'll hear all the recorded script but with the bonus of me there as your guide. I'll tell you even more stories, and facts, and introduce you to some personalities that couldn't fit on the recorded tour.

Now booking group tours of 20. Follow this link for more details and book your tour today. Time slots are limited so act fast!

Immerse yourselves in a captivating 2-hour journey filled with recorded audio narratives showcasing stories and voices from the past and present. I’ll complement the experience with live anecdotal commentary, creating a dynamic and engaging atmosphere throughout. The grand finale awaits at Enzo Bi...

05/11/2024

Last night David and I emceed HAVEN, ’s Gala fundraiser. The community raised nearly $320,000 for housing. What a beautiful, fun, and meaningful evening! Save Inc began 38 years ago as an AIDS Hospice. Learn more when you take the KC Rainbow Tour.

05/04/2024

Yesterday we went on an tour of the West Bottoms in KC. I highly recommend one of these these urban hikes. I learned so much about our history and saw things I didn’t know existed in the West Bottoms despite how well I thought I knew it. Plus, it was great exercise and fun!

05/03/2024

“A PREPARATOR, AN ARTIST AND A CURATOR walk into a Reading Room... and install a wonderful addition to the GLAMA Collection. Artist and mount maker extraordinaire Tom Binger (ball cap) built an elegant rail for the phenomenal ceramic mosaic crafted by artist Jack Brooks (striped shirt). His imagery was researched in the Gay and Le***an Archive of Mid-America at UMKC Libraries, curated by Stuart Hinds (blue T). Visit the 3rd floor of Miller Nichols Library from 9a to 4p and see this engaging work of art in person, you’ll be amazed.” - Christopher Leitch’s Facebook post and photos

04/29/2024

Hey Kansas City! Remember these two performances? Anita Morehead took Kansas City by storm for two nights. Someday maybe she'll return for an encore performance. Who knows?!

04/24/2024

Another piece of gay history bites the dust. The former Windjammer is being dismantled to make room for new apartments. While the building has sat vacant for many years, I had always hoped it would be reclaimed instead destroyed.

03/08/2024

03/04/2024

One of the first feminist organizations founded in Kansas City. The Kansas City Women’s Liberation Union worked to advance feminist causes in the area. 📸 ****ns

02/25/2024

February 19-21 The National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations, held in February 1966 at the State Hotel in Downtown Kansas City, welcomed delegates from 15 individual advocacy groups across the United States. This pivotal meeting signified the first step in forming a national organization dedicated to LGBTQ advocacy. Local organizer Drew Shafer is in photo one. The news coverage from the KC Times in photo 2. The Stare Hotel pictured on the left in photo 3. 📸GLAMA. These Boots Were Made For Walking was the #1 song at that time.

02/12/2024

“Hair so real, not even his fingers will know for sure!” A local ad from Gay Pride Magazine 1979. Also note the ad from our own Keith Spare who continues to advocate for our community today. Courtesy of via the Sandy Kay collection.

02/11/2024

The dolls of the Jewel Box Lounge looking glamorous. believes the one on the left is Edye Gregory , one of only two black queens who performed at the lounge. Hear more about their stories when you take the Photo reposted from and at

02/10/2024

A corner of my booth at the conference this week. I’ve met so many delightful people. The amount of creativity in this room is inspiring.

02/07/2024

Kansas City, February 13, 1965. Pucker Up boys, Drag Show. Photo courtesy of GLAMA and

02/03/2024

is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Kansas City. Before the interstate divided our city, it was home to over 20,000 Italian residents. In the you’ll hear a story about the underground drag scene that once existed there. Have you driven the tour yet? Download it today.

01/27/2024

Around this time of year about 60 years ago this was what we were talking about in our community.

01/15/2024

This morning when I put this hat on I recalled that I bought this hat 8 years ago on this MLK weekend when we visited Kansas City for the first time to look for a place to live when we moved here. Oddly enough I bought this hat at Restoration Hardware on the plaza, (when it was an interesting store).

We drove all over the metro that snowy weekend (including the areas we were warned not to) and experienced as much of the city as we could in the 3 days we were here. To our surprise I was not going to have to wear a Carhart Jacket and cowboy boots to fit in. My Aunt Nila had said “I think you’ll be surprised at how cosmopolitan Kansas City can be.” She was right.

We immediately began falling in love with our new hometown. That weekend we went to The Ship and have been regulars ever since. We met members of the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce and today I serve as VP of the board of this dynamic and diverse business organization which I credit with helping me meet my community, expand my network and build my Joel Speaks Out business which now includes the KC Rainbow Tour.

We went back to South Bend, Indiana after our weekend here feeling assured that we were making the right move. David and I have never regretted that decision. We put down deep roots fast, dug in, made dear friends, got involved, and built a strong, diverse, network.

From time to time we contemplate the idea of living somewhere else but we always come back to agreeing that KC is too good of a place to not have as a home. (My face reflect my feelings about winter.)

01/13/2024

This church has played a very significant role in our KC LGBT history. What do you know about Spirit of Hope MCC?

12/22/2023

It’s December 27th and you’re sick of family visiting, worn out Christmas songs, and leftovers… come join the Cult.KC! It’s a live talk show full of surprises because it’s hosted by the never-dull Susanna Lee who has a lineup of guests this month that include DJ SirQueen and ME! There will be plenty of surprises, comedy, stories, and will learn about what’s happening in the culture of KC. I’ll be sharing some behind the scenes looks at the KC Rainbow Tour.

Get your tickets today. You’ll be glad you did.

Join Kansas City’s beloved prodigal provocateur, Susanna Lee, for a monthly live talk show

12/21/2023

In Sarah Zapata: So the roots be known, Zapata centers local le***an and feminist histories from her research at the Gay and Le***an Archive of Mid-America at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. In part, this installation pays homage to Womontown, a group of primarily q***r women who established a revolutionary community in the Longfellow (Dutch Hill) neighborhood of Kansas City in the late 1980s. Zapata’s use of abstracted tulip forms and shades of lavender draw inspiration from the Womontown banner while simultaneously evoking histories of q***r resistance, as the color lavender came to be associated with gay and le***an communities, and thus stigmatized, in the mid-twentieth century.

12/11/2023

We may not have Kansas City Prime beef and calendars anymore but we do have our local zines. So the what’s old is new again! Order yours today.

12/07/2023

Chase the Rainbow: Book Your Group Tour Today! -

Simply download the Voicemap App Today from your app store, add the KC Rainbow Tour to your library, and now you’re ready to take the free tour at your leisure.Grab some friends and make an afternoon of it. Stop at local LGBTQ owned restaurants, shops, and bars along the route. Be sure and snap so...

12/06/2023

“It’s just really a beautiful story of our resilience and our persistence,” he added. “You won’t stop us. You can legislate us, but you can’t stop us.” - Joel Barrett

“We have such a rich and incredible history here that people — even those who have been here their whole lives — don't know about,” said Joel Barrett, creator of the KC Rainbow Tour and a survivor of ex-gay therapy and former fundamental Baptist preacher.

11/29/2023

https://kclibrary.org/signature-events/show-me-love-female-impersonation-and-drag-kansas-city

11/22/2023

Did you know that the KC Rainbow Tour is an official partner? Together we’re going to do great things!

11/20/2023

Today we remember all our trans siblings who are no longer with us.

11/19/2023

The book I’m holding was my guidebook while in ex-gay therapy or what is more commonly called Conversion Therapy. Desires in conflict by Joe Dallas was the book that I thought would once and for all tell me why I was gay and how to stop being gay. Spoiler alert: it didn’t do any of that for me. I’m so happy to donate this book with all my notes in it to the Gay and Le***an Archives of Mid-America along with many other artifacts and books. It’s started the beginning of the Joel Barrett collection at GLAMA. I hope my collection will help researchers in the years to come. Also included in this collection is a copy of my own book Godly, But Gay and all things

10/22/2023

Dante’s Inferno was the home of some of the earliest “drag” in Kansas City. It was called female impersonation or female mimics at that time. No lip syncing occurred. Performers used their own voices. The more convincing they looked and sounded the more popular they were. Dante’s was home of Mr. Half and Half, the Lynn Sisters and other artists. This photo is hanging on the wall of the in the 18th & Vine Jazz District.