My Queer Mentor Ruth, Who Got Murdered in Her Car

A story of Kansas City, 1986–1988

I estimate I was 12 years old when I met Ruth Kindermann. I’d just crapped out of sixth grade at a public elementary school in Kansas City called Marlborough like the cigarettes, over chronic periods of truancy and a series of conflicts with teachers and classmates. My mother somehow arranged it so I could jump up to the 7th grade for the second half of the year at a very unique 7–12 called The Kansas City Academy of Learning. KCAL didn’t have its own dedicated campus — we occupied the…