When Bobby Weston and his husband, Cole, moved into their forever home in Dublin in 2020, Weston struggled to find a connected LGBTQ+ community. It didn’t take long for him to set out to help establish one himself.
With newly formed Rainbow Dublin, which will hold its inaugural Coming Out Party on Aug. 8, Weston is seeking to offer support and resources to the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
“I want the community (of Dublin) to take away from the event the thought that, ‘We’re here, we’re people just like you,’” Weston says. “Not all of us wear our hearts on our sleeves but the person sitting next to you, they might be gay. Just know that we are here, we’re not hiding anymore.”
Rainbow Dublin’s Coming Out Party, which Weston describes as a more community-oriented Pride festival, will help to demonstrate the LGBTQ+ community members and allies already existing within the city.
The event, intentionally planned just days before classes begin for Dublin City Schools, will also offer an opportunity for people to publicly come out as part of the LGBTQ+ community in a supportive environment.
The party will include drag queens, live music and food as well as organizations such as the Sexual Assault Response Network of Central Ohio (SARNCO), the Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization (BRAVO) and Syntero. It will also include physician and dental offices as well as other businesses that, Weston says, want to express their support for the community.
The event aims to provide visibility to the LGBTQ+ community and serve as a launch pad for further events and action by Rainbow Dublin, Weston says.
Beyond the Coming Out Party, Rainbow Dublin has a host of goals, inspired by the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, which scores cities based on their support for LGBTQ+ people and issues. Rainbow Dublin’s goals include a citywide non-discrimination order, garnering leaders’ stances on LGBTQ+ issues and compelling the creation of a youth bullying prevention policy for city services.
“I’m hoping that people’s eyes are finally getting opened that there are so many more minorities, and we just need to have that open eye,” he says. “We need to work on that, … accept change and get rid of that mentality of, ‘We’ve never had a problem before, why fix it if it’s not broken?’ There’s always room for improvement.”
Rainbow Dublin’s Coming Out Party takes place Sunday, Aug. 8 from 2-7 p.m. in Scioto Park’s Scioto South Shelter.
Cameron Carr is associate editor. Feedback welcome at ccarr@cityscenemediagroup.com.
