WanderTogether

About

LGBTQ+ bars have declined 45% since 2002 — lesbian bars specifically have declined 92.5%, from approximately 200 in 2002 to fewer than 15 today. The physical third places that built LGBTQ+ community are disappearing. Camp Fire (Paradise, CA, 2018): 52,000+ residents, the Wireless Emergency Alert system reached only 7,000 cell phones in the affected area — 70 of the 85 deaths occurred at home. Lahaina (Maui, 2023): the warning sirens were never activated because officials feared residents would move toward the ocean rather than away from the fire — 101 people died. Emergency alert infrastructure fails exactly when it matters most. The Repair Café movement (3,800+ globally) demonstrates that community-owned mutual aid models are scalable — people want physical space and practical mutual aid, not just digital connection. WanderTogether is community resilience: chosen family network, local event surfacing, neighbor mutual aid, and disaster preparedness that doesn't depend on cell infrastructure that failed in two consecutive major disasters.

Features

• LGBTQ+ bar directory: 45% decline since 2002, 92.5% for lesbian bars — finding surviving spaces matters
• LoRa neighborhood resilience: Camp Fire reached 7K/52K via cell alert — WanderSafeMesh mesh doesn't fail that way
• Lahaina lesson: disaster alert independent of siren infrastructure, official decisions, or cell congestion
• Chosen family network: privacy controls mainstream social apps don't offer — visibility you control
• Community discovery by identity + interest without corporate social graph
• Local LGBTQ+ event aggregator: not dependent on Facebook (hostile platform)
• Safe space directory: community-verified, not self-attestation — certification visible
• Repair Café model: 3,800+ globally — skill-sharing and mutual aid built into platform
• Mutual aid coordination: needs and offers matching, disaster-aware
• Neighbor resilience: community rings for crisis response, not just social connection