UMSL’s Office of Student Involvement (OSI) has been steadfast in their approach and execution of Black History Month events on campus for years, and 2025 was no different. On February 6, OSI collaborated with the Pride Alliance to host an event called “Black Queer Liberation: A Round Table Discussion.”
Held in the third floor of the Millennium Student Center, the event centered on discussions about the political, economic and queer intersections of the Black community. More specifically, concepts within those three realms that can prohibit community members from being authentic or accepting themselves and others as they are. These intersectional areas of identification (political, economic and queer) apply to a large portion of the UMSL community, and the guest speakers came to inform and encourage liberation from these restrictions.
The speakers, Bryon Pierson and Maxi Glamour, come from different sides of various issues and, despite sharing multiple core cultural identities, have very different perspectives on most topics.
Pierson, a venture capital professional, tech entrepreneur and equity advocate, joined UMSL as staff in January 2025. As a student program manager for OSI, he wants to bridge the gaps of our on-campus community. Glamour, on the other end, is a graduate student earning a master’s in philosophy. Glamour is also a well-known drag artist, musician and activist.
On the topic of liberation, Pierson, who is a Christian, says that a sense of true liberation can, at times, be at great odds with his faith. Pierson suggests that groundbreaking individuals, such as Bishop Carlton Pearson, are to be an example for queer individuals who hold on to their core religious beliefs alongside their identity. In Pierson’s presentation, he mentions Bishop Pearson is known for rejecting the idea of hell and advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights. This led to the Bishop being ostracized from his community. Still, it showed people, like Pierson, that there is space to be made for everyone and that all people “belong,” contrary to conflicting beliefs.
Pierson also highlights the “Pink-Brown Dollar Theory” as a means for economic liberation. With industries like travel, fashion and entertainment largely being influenced by “pink dollars” from the LGBTQIA+ community, Pierson suggests combining that influence with Black purchasing power would help to shrink the racial wealth gap and combat economic discrimination. Glamour, however, suggests the pink dollar be used for fighting for Black queer mental and physical health as well as inclusive policies.
While Pierson says that true liberation comes from “breaking systemic barriers in entrepreneurship, advocating for policy change and reclaiming spaces that have historically excluded Black queer individuals,” Glamour, a proud Black, non-binary, non-religious anti-fascist, says that liberation is incompatible with “cultural hegemony.”
Cultural hegemony is a concept developed by Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci that highlights the role of Eurocentrism, anti-blackness, ableism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia in maintaining imbalanced power structures.
Glamour emphasizes how queer communities can be complicit in upholding racist white supremacy through racism, misogyny and heteronormative queerness. Black people in queer spaces have to venture out further and make alternative spaces for belonging. This is why organizations such as Black Pride STL exist.
Much like Pierson, Glamour suggests that to combat these cultural means of control, the Black queer community should have an active presence in economic and political sectors to see tangible change.
During the conversation, Glamour used their voice and presence to give flowers to William Dorsey Swann, the first documented drag queen and LGBTQ+ activist. On the other side of fighting the good fight, Glamour also highlights the importance of art, expression and representation in media and “drag as an act of resistance and identity reclamation.”
Following the informative conversation between Pierson and Glamour, a roundtable question-and-answer session for attendees allowed for clarification on topics covered earlier in the program. Whether attendees were fully aware of the hurdles the community faces or not, both Pierson and Glamour were able to give insight from their perspectives on how true liberation for queer Black people can be achieved.
