Road Trip, Anyone? Orbitz Creates an LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Trail Map

The online trip-planning company is helping queer travelers trace our history through a series of historic places of protest and modern murals and monuments found across the United States. The LGBTQ Civil Rights Trail map allows travelers to hit the road and discover the places that shaped our history, our rights, and our pride as a community.   

The self-guided tour includes a total of 15 must-see sites, including the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, the Pulse Memorial in Orlando, and the Trans Memorial Garden in St. Louis. 

If you’re in Florida, you can visit Key West to see the AIDS Memorial located near the Edward B. Knight at Higgs Memorial Beach Park. The names of women and men who died from complications due to AIDS are engraved in the granite memorial. 

In Nashville, queer travelers can check out the historical marker for The Jungle and Juanita’s Place, where 27 men were arrested in a raid at the city’s first gay bars in 1963. Their “disorderly behavior” arrest didn’t stop them from heading back to the bars.

Travelers passing through Wyoming should consider a trip to see a bench to commemorate the life of Matthew Shepard, the slain 21-year-old in a brutal hate crime on October 6, 1998. The bench tribute is located at the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie.  

The map includes 15 sites:

1. Stonewall National Monument – New York

2. Arch Street Friends Meeting House – Philadelphia

3. Dr. Franklin E. Kameny Residence – Washington, DC

4. Key West AID Memorial – Key West, Florida

5. Pulse Memorial – Orlando, Florida

6. UpStairs Lounge Arson Memorial Plaque – New Orleans

7. Pink Dolphin Monument – Galveston Island, Texas

8. The Jungle and Juanita’s Historical Marker – Nashville, Tennessee

9. Trans Memorial Garden – St. Louis

10. The Legacy Walk – Chicago

11. Equality House – Topeka, Kansas

12. Matthew Shepard Bench – Laramie, Wyoming

13. Black Cat – Los Angeles

14. Castro Camera and the Harvey Milk Residence – San Francisco

15. Never Look Away – Portland, Oregon