Maplab
A Crowdsourced Map of the Queer World
A design student’s interactive map documents LGBTQ people’s experiences in places around the world.
There’s a tree in Jeanne-Mance Park in Montreal’s Plateau neighborhood that has special significance to Lucas LaRochelle. It’s where the 22-year old designer and student at Concordia University met their first serious partner. (Note: LaRochelle uses gender-neutral pronouns.) Later, the couple had a memorable argument there. In the years since, the same place kept coming to mind.
“I was biking home from school one day and I biked by this tree, which I go by every day on my way back from school,” LaRochelle said. “As I continued my bike ride, I was plotting out in my head all of the other places, or objects, or architecture, that held that queer feeling for me.”