The Inland Northwest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center

The Center originally opened in 1996 under the name of the Rainbow Regional Community Center. Over the last ten years, the Center has been many things to many people, most recently a meeting place for local organizations, an art gallery, a Pride store, and a video and book library. That vision was cut short in June of 2006, when, over Pride weekend, the fully-donated location on 2nd Avenue flooded. Since little funds existed to move into a new space, the Board of Directors made the difficult decision to vacate, sell surplus inventory, box up the library and store, and shut the doors permanently at that location.

Over the course of the following year, the Board of Directors took the opportunity to focus on the reorganization and stabilization of the Center’s budget, and to raise funds through community contributions and grant writing. By April 2007, more than $6000 had been raised through community donated funds including a board match.

Also in April, a milestone was reached when the Eastern Washington Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® granted the Center $5700 to seed the Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LBT) Women’s Wellness Program, a breast health awareness program that educates our women’s community about their unique breast cancer risks, and educates health and wellness providers on the cultural risk factors that exist in the LBT community.

June 2007 brought Pride Weekend and the debut of the Center’s new name and logo. Also in June came word that the Center had been chosen for a Tobacco Community Action Program Grant of $10,000 to promote tobacco-use cessation and prevention in the LGBTQ community in the Inland Northwest. The LGBTQ Tobacco Cessation and Prevention (TCAP) Program serves to educate the community as well as health and wellness providers about cultural conditions and marketing that encourage tobacco use in our community.

The LGBTQ Wellness Project is the cornerstone project of the Inland Northwest LGBT Center, and will continue to be a focal point as we grow this project and pursue funding for additional projects such as a speaker’s bureau, educational workshops and programming, and of course, for a brick and mortar space that will once again, serve the community as a meeting place, resource center, and “center” of our community.