KC Rainbow Tour: A Drive from UMKC to the historic River Market

If New York and the Stonewall Riots are the birthplace of the Gay Liberation Movement, then Kansas City is where it was first conceived. On this driving tour through the city, I’ll shed light on how the gay agenda was first formed three years before Stonewall, and share the city’s rich and colorful LGBTQ+ history.

Starting outside Kauffman Gardens, you’ll wind your way through Womontown, the first and only intentional lesbian community in an urban area, and hear from the community’s founders, Maryann Hopper and Drea Nedelski. You’ll then make your way through Penn Valley Park to the Liberty Memorial. There you’ll hear from local artist Anthony Marcos Rea who’ll fill you in on the park’s importance. I’ll show you around 18th and Vine Jazz District and tell you about some of the musical legends linked to it.

This Kansas City Rainbow Tour guides you on a colorful, story-filled drive through Kansas City to over 20 locations, including:

• The Lavender Umbrella Center, Kansas City’s first Lesbian Center created by the Lavender Ladies, who were members of a Lesbian social club
• Jewel Box Lounge, the nondescript brick building on Troost Ave that was home to one of the most iconic female impersonation bars in the country
• The spot formerly occupied by Dixie Belle, a club that catered for the BDSM or kink LGBT community and wasn’t as welcoming of drag queens, trans people, or people of color
• Barney Allis Plaza, where you’ll hear how the gay agenda got its start in Kansas City
• Columbus Park neighborhood where Dante’s Inferno, a nightclub and speakeasy known for its female impersonators and table dancers, used to be located

This approximately 90-minute tour will begin near UMKC (the University of Missouri-Kansas City) and wrap up outside the Kansas City Museum with stops outside historic gay bar locations, Womontown, the Liberty Memorial, the Jazz District, and many, many more. Along the way, you’ll hear voices from the LGBTQ+ community share their stories, past and present.