Issaquah Highlands' Blakely Hall is hosting "Rainbow Connections" to celebrate and connect LGBTQIA+ people across generations, on November 16 from 12 to 3 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in conversations with Queer community leaders, play games, and join in on craft projects.

Rainbow Connections will feature a mosaic project, a remembrance wall, a resource fair, and catered food from Seattle's LGBTQ+-owned Marination. Gay-straight alliances from Eastlake High School and Skyline High School will be present, and there will be games and a ukulele circle.

"Events like Rainbow Connections help build community and bring people together," Alana O'N
eill Gualin, a King County Library System librarian, told the SGN. "Community members have expressed how important it is to have events for Queer folks that center joy and celebration. There was also a desire to create [one] to counter the feeling of isolation, especially across generations."

Gualin, a main organizer, said that providing such spaces can create powerful connections that last well beyond a single happening.

Eastside Pride PNW, Pride Across the Bridge, the Garage Teen Cafe, the Highlands Council, and KCLS connected in June to create Rainbow Connections after receiving a grant from the KCLS Foundation.

KCLS staff hosted numerous listening sessions at the Sammamish Library with organizations and individuals in order to create a community-centered approach to the development of programming. Gualin said that KCLS wanted to provide information about local LGBTQIA+ resources without people having to travel to Seattle. She hopes Rainbow Connections will also identify current gaps in resources so KCLS can close those.

Gualin told the SGN that she would love to see another event like this in the new year, but that nothing has been confirmed yet.

The Sammamish Library and Eastside Pride will continue to offer their monthly Queer Teen Book Club, while KCLS will continue to host its monthly online Queer Book Club for adults, which is sponsored by Charlie's Queer Books.

Details about Rainbow Connections can be found at https://shorturl.at/IDh1d.