The first-ever LGBTI community center Rainbow Hub was opened in Sofia, Bulgaria in March 2018 and operated for three years in two different locations. During its operation, Rainbow Hub was vandalized multiple times and the biggest yet attack took place on October 30th, 2021, when an organized nationalist group trashed the place, threatening participants with a knife and hitting an LGBTI activist. Startled by the attack and its media aftermath, the owners’ assembly of the building where Rainbow Hub was located, forced the center out in December 2021. For the LGBTIQ community, it is of great importance for Rainbow Hub to relaunch in a sustainable and secure way as a safe space for LGBTI people in their diversity, but also as a place for information, socialization, vital services, and opportunities for political mobilization.
The project will support the relaunch of Rainbow Hub, offering vital services of support and information through walk-ins, community events,, individual mental health support service, mental health group seminars, and anti bullying virtual support service. It will give a home of 8 affinity groups who will support each other in, learn from each other and run action/campaigns around shared interests. The Rainbow Hub will also become the host of collectives and groups from sister civil society and social movements. Community events will be accompanied by intensive communication efforts across the LGBTIQ community, along with establishing an international community of practice of LGBTIQ organizations and groups and investing in a research-based business plan that will financially sustain the Rainbow Hub and its integrated services and activities in the long-run through social entrepreneurship.
