Rainbow Dublin’s Coming Out New nonprofit hopes to bolster Dublin’s LGBTQ+ community By Cameron Carr Photos courtesy of Shahed Hasnat, Rainbow Dublin and City of Dublin
Bobby Weston speaks in June 2021 at Dublin Pride.
Bobby Weston saw much to love in Dublin when he and his husband, Cole, moved here in 2020 – excellent schools, a rich community – but there was one thing missing: there was no established LGBTQ+ presence. “There is a beautiful community here, an absolutely beautiful, diverse community,” Weston says, “but there’s nothing gay.” Weston quickly set out to change that. Through Rainbow Dublin, which held its inaugural Coming Out Party in August, Weston is offering support and resources to the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Weston took inspiration from Rainbow UA, an alliance aiming to support the LGBTQ+ community in Upper Arlington, to form a similar group for Dublin. Weston’s work organizing a Dublin Pride march 28 • December 2021/January 2022
also helped to demonstrate a desire within Dublin for an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Setting Sights on Change The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the U.S., conducts an assessment, the Municipal Equality Index (MEI), of American cities in terms of their support for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2020, Dublin scored a 44 out of 100. In comparison, Columbus scored a perfect 100. “The Human Rights Campaign, I kind of look at almost like an open book test – literally the answers are right in front of you,” Weston says. “It literally creates a roadmap for you: ‘This is how you get our points.’” Weston went through the MEI items and highlighted major spots for improvement in Dublin. He used those issues – ranging from employment and housing to a nondiscrimination order and human rights commission – to propose potential
goals for Rainbow Dublin in an associated Facebook group. Those responses prompted a list of goals for the nascent organization including garnering a nondiscrimination order for the City of Dublin, getting city leadership’s public position on LGBTQ+ equality and establishing a youth bullying prevention policy for city services. “I knew for certain that, with my group, the nondiscrimination order was going to be No. 1,” Weston says. “Of course, goals will change over time because, eventually, the nondiscrimination order is going to happen.” Dublin has made notable progress in recent years, Weston says. He points to the work of Chief of Police Justin Páez as being instrumental in improving Dublin’s score on the MEI from a 31 in 2019 to a 44 in 2020. Weston says Páez played an influential role in the city instituting a nondiscrimination policy for city employees, reporting hate crime statistics to the FBI and creating LGBTQ+ liaisons to assist in reviewing city policy.
Sho Sho Zahav reads during a drag queen-led story time at Rainbow Dublin’s Coming Out Party. www.dublinlifemagazine.com
