There are lots of great initiatives organized by the rainbow community in Nijmegen. Some get their fans from all over the Netherlands, like the yearly Pink Wednesday – Roze Woensdag – , others are known among the skaters and let’s-try-something-new folks, like queer skate collective Rollende Mina’s. There are the Lesbian historical archives, gathering photos and printed materials from fourty years back, covering feminist and LGBTQIA+ topics. And there’s much more. It’s something I am very proud of for my city and my fellow queers.

Imagine how happy I was to say yes when I got asked to help develop a meaningful network event and to host the evening as a speaker. 

Together with the policy officer for inclusivity we set up the event and quickly agreed on creating something different than your usual network evening.

We wanted this to be an evening to celebrate the great work everyone is doing and to support new collaborations. Inthe end we created a hangout / spotlight / date evening. 

It turned out to be a warm, welcoming and cosy evening. Three cool initiative takers took the microphone, best practices were shared and everyone left with at least one new connection <3 

The initiatives

RegenboogRoutes from Rainbow Collective and the Lesbian Archive Nijmegen. A queer history walk through the city. 

De rollende mina’s. A queer and female skate collective

The little queer library, created by Dito. A bookcase at the local city library with LGBTQIA+ only books. 

Thanks to everyone and special thanks to municipality Nijmegen for supporting and organizing this!