NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
Attendees of Project Rainbow's holiday potluck lined up to fill their plates.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
Project Rainbow hosted its second annual winter solstice potluck dinner Wednesday to ensure LGBTQ Hatters and their friends have a place to celebrate the Holidays.
“It stemmed from a need to fight alienation in the community,” Project Rainbow spokesperson Caelan Hart said of the event’s inception.
He says the Holiday Season can be tough on LGBTQ people who have been “rejected by their families.”
“We really just wanted a Holiday dinner for everybody to come together and have a place to be themselves, to let it all hang out and be with their rainbow family,” said Hart.
Family dinners can still be an uncomfortable experience for queer people who aren’t estranged from their families, he added.
“Maybe they’re welcome at their family dinner, but routinely get dead-named and misgendered, or they have to pretend to be something that they’re not – they have to pretend to be straight, pretend to be cisgendered,” said Hart.
“For the polyamorous community, sometimes they have to choose one partner to present as their own partner. For the asexual community, sometimes they routinely face prying questions from their family about when they’re going to have a partner or family.”
Project Rainbow president Casper Cherwonogrodzky says he relates to this sense of alienation.
“I’ve been a very lonely person in the past and I’ve faced discrimination. That’s why I’m here – I want something to connect people for the Holidays,” he said. “That’s a very human thing we all need.”
The variety of people coming together were matched by the wide array of foods offered by the potluck, Cherwonogrodzky said.
“It gives a chance for people to not only be creative with their dish, but maybe show their background, or different cultures with it,” he said.
Although the event is put on by the LGBTQ community, Hart says it’s open to all and that he plans on organizing more in the future.
“We don’t make the dinner queer-specific. Anybody who needs a hot meal is welcome.”
