For Immediate Release: Queer Men United Opens a New Chapter at Historic First Presbyterian Church
Partnership gives QMU a downtown home including offices and social club activity spaces at the 198-year-old congregation
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., October 1 , 2026: Queer Men United (QMU) today announced a partnership with First Presbyterian Church of Little Rock. The church’s historic campus at 800 Scott Street will house QMU’s administrative offices and be a home base for its Social Club dinners and salons.
For QMU, the partnership marks a new chapter in its effort to build an enduring kind of community for queer people in a rural state, which is often politically and culturally hostile toward LGBTQ+ individuals and families.
“We want simple improvements for queer Arkansans. Longer, richer lives. Spaces to cultivate and preserve our culture, so queer folks stay here in Arkansas, where they belong,” said founder and board president Paul Whannel. “We’re reaching into our classic toolbox to do it – the dinner party, the mixer – the truly social spaces we pine for today.”
For First Presbyterian, the partnership is a clear way to support a spiritual ministry: connecting the marginalized in an increasingly fragmented, fear-driven society, while creating space to heal spiritual trauma. Many LGBTQ+ people carry spiritual trauma from religious rejection, which isolates and harms those who need spiritual affirmation the most.
The church’s Reverend Stephen Moody, himself openly gay, says the church is affirming of his family and all those who attend. “We stand with open arms and hugs at the ready,” says Moody. “We can’t undo the pain folks have felt, but we can embody a message of love and acceptance especially during stressful and dark times.”
First Presbyterian’s welcoming tone isn’t new. The church’s longtime pastor —the late Rev. Howard “Flash” Gordon, a leading voice for social justice in Arkansas—opened its doors decades ago to organizers working with LGBTQ+ youth and immigrants. First Presbyterian became headquarters for the Center for Artistic Revolution, the statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization founded in 2003, and home to the Lucille Marie Hamilton Youth Center, the first drop-in center for LGBTQ+ youth in Arkansas, along with PFLAG meetings and a transgender support group.
That welcome stands against a painful history. In the late 1980s, as AIDS spread across Arkansas, hospital chaplain Trudy James founded the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN) at First Presbyterian to make churches part of the solution at a time when, as she put it, many were part of the problem. RAIN’s congregation-based care teams grew to 1,500 volunteers on 127 teams in 40 Arkansas communities and served some 500 people living with AIDS, and the care team model developed here was replicated in other states and helped shape RAIN in Charlotte, N.C.
QMU board member Daniel Spillers said the partnership was a natural fit, with progressive grassroots community organization at the heart of both QMU and First Presbyterian. “The social club was always envisioned as a ‘third space’ for fellowship and belonging,” said Spillers. “The same sense of community that a church congregation brings to its members is what we strive to create for queer men, so sharing the same roof makes a lot of sense.”
QMU’s new home is also a city landmark. Organized in 1828, First Presbyterian is the oldest church of any major denomination in continuous service in Arkansas and will mark its bicentennial in 2028. Its English Gothic Revival sanctuary, completed in 1921 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed by John Parks Almand, co-designer of Little Rock Central High School, who also designed the church’s 1914 and 1957 education buildings. QMU will be based in these wings, whose fellowship hall served as the congregation’s sanctuary after a 1958 fire damaged the main sanctuary.
Whannel says the vast spaces have imaginations working overtime especially compared to the group’s nomadic early days, meeting in the back of coffee shops. The group plans to announce new programming at the location in the coming weeks on their website: queerar.org.
About Queer Men United
Queer Men United (QMU) connects gay, bi, and trans men in Arkansas by creating welcoming spaces centered on community, education, and advocacy. Learn more at queermenunited.org.
The Queer Men’s Social Club, an initiative of QMU, hosts weekly and monthly events in Central Arkansas, with the goal of a regular statewide distribution of events. Find an upcoming event at queerar.org.
About First Presbyterian Church of Little Rock
First Presbyterian Church, organized in 1828, is a diverse community of believers sharing Christ’s unconditional love. Learn more at firstpreslr.org.
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