Started in Brooklyn, NY in 2017, Queer Soup Night is a queer-led national organization with affiliates in cities across the US. Queer Soup Night events showcase the culinary talent of local queer chefs in queer-owned or allied spaces, where sliding scale donations are gathered to raise money for a local LGBTQ+ non-profit or advocacy organization.

The goal of these events is to foster community, celebrate queer culinary talent, and gather resources to protect the most marginalized and deserving of support in the LGBTQ+ community.

On January 19th, 2025, we will be hosting Chicago's first local affiliate Queer Soup Night Event in over five years, tentatively at Dorothy Downstairs - a sapphic / lesbian bar in West Town that is a central pillar of Chicago's LGBTQ+ night life, arts, and cultural scene. Proceeds from sliding scale donations charged for soup will go directly to Brave Space Alliance: a Black and trans-led LGBTQ+ Center on the South Side of Chicago that creates and provides affirming and culturally competent services for the entire LGBTQ+ community of Chicago.

The timing of this event is planned for the night before Donald Trump's inauguration. With his administration committed enacting an incredibly anti-LGBTQ+ agenda, it's critical for organizations like the Brave Space Alliance to be fully-funded and prepared to continue providing resources and support to the most vulnerable in our community, specifically trans and non-binary Chicagoans and transgender youth.

While we have the mentorship of the national Queer Soup Night organizers, every chapter of QSN is locally-led and 100% volunteer-powered, with local organizers planning events and finding chefs, venues, and donated goods without any sort of formal support or budget. As of now, I am the only person leading organizing efforts for Queer Soup Night Chicago, with a handful of volunteers supporting me.