Check out the latest updates from the Rainbow Commission:

Thursday, May 19, from 6:30-8:30pm, LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission meeting. The May meeting of the LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission. All meetings are open to the public and we welcome you to attend and learn more about what we’re doing for Arlington!  Register here.

Friday, May 20 from 7pm–10 pm, Pride Prom at the Arlington Community Center, 20 Academy Street/27 Maple Street, Arlington. An alternative prom for LGBTQIA+ teens and their friends and allies in grades 6-12! Come dance and celebrate! Dress up in what makes you feel fabulous, enjoy performances by our prom Drag King and Queen and dance the night away. If you are interested in chaperoning/volunteering for this, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Cosponsored by the LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission.

Tuesday, May 24 at 2pm. Arlington & Beyond LGBTQIA+ Seniors hybrid meetup and check in. At Arlington Community Center, 20 Academy Street/27 Maple Street, Arlington, and on Zoom. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 781-316-3419 for Zoom registration information.

Wednesday, May 25 at 7pm. The Queer Book Club at Robbins Library, Fourth Floor and on Zoom. Join us as we discuss the best-selling romantic comedy One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. For cynical 23-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. But then, she meets Jane on her commute on the train. Charming and mysterious, Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information, including how to log-in if you want to participate via Zoom.

Thursday, May 26, from 7-8:30pm, Listening to Asian Voices. In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month this online forum will feature people with Asian American and Pacific Islander identities who also have other historically marginalized identities and circumstances, such as disabilities, faiths other than Christian, LGBTQIA+ identities, and nontraditional vocations. Sponsored by LexPride. Cosponsored by Arlington LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission, Chinese American Association of Lexington, Chinese Americans of Lexington, Indian Americans of Lexington, Japanese Support Group of Lexington, Korean-American Organization of Lexington, Rainbows Across Communities, and Together We Rise. Supported by a grant from Community Endowment of Lexington, an endowed fund of the Foundation for MetroWest. Registration information here. 
 
Tuesday, May 31 at 2pm. Arlington & Beyond LGBTQIA+ Seniors hybrid meetup and check in. At Arlington Community Center, 20 Academy Street/27 Maple Street, Arlington, and on Zoom. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 781-316-3419 for Zoom registration information.

Crosswalk painting June 5-9

What do you get when you mix crosswalks with rainbow-colored chalk? A whole lot of fun, that’s what!
 
Our annual night of crosswalk painting has become so popular—we had 50 people of all ages out last year!—that we’ve expanded this year to three nights in East Arlington, Arlington Center, and Arlington Heights!
 
We will be in…

• Arlington Center on Sunday, June 5 from 7:30-10:30pm painting the crosswalk at the intersection of Mystic Ave. and Mass. Ave.
•  Arlington Heights on Tuesday, June 7 from 7:30-10:30pm painting the crosswalk at the intersection of Park Ave. and Mass. Ave.
•  East Arlington on Thursday, June 9 from 7:30-10:30pm painting the crosswalk at the intersection of Lake Street and Mass. Ave.

Click here to sign up to paint one, two, or all of the nights >>

 Pride event June 12

On June 12 we will celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride in the Winfield Robbins Memorial Garden, adjacent to the east side of Town Hall.

Festivities are still be planned, but we can guarantee that there will be an abundance of swag.

Watch our Facebook page for more details as they are confirmed.

In the leadup to June 12, we will be arranging for our banners to hang from lamp poles along Mass. Ave. and will also be painting the crosswalk in Arlington Center. 

Intersections of LGBTQIA+ identity, neurodiversity held

Explore the intersectionality of neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ identities by learning how to support people who identify as NeuroDivergent (autism, ADHD, etc.), LGBTQIA+ or both.

Lyric Holmans -- founder of the internationally recognized neurodiversity lifestyle blog Neurodivergent Rebel and owner of NeuroDivergent Consulting -- plans to humanize these issues, bringing them to life by weaving in stories, narrative and personal experience as a neurodivergent professional with a diverse business background.

This program takes place on Zoom at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 12. Register in advance to attend. Learn more >> 

Did you know, for example, that many people who are autistic also identify as LGBTQIA+? A 2020 study of over 600,000 people found that transgender and gender-diverse individuals have, on average, higher rates of autism and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses than cisgender individuals?

Co-sponsored by the Arlington LGBTQIA+Rainbow Commission, Arlington Human Rights Commission and the Arlington Disability Commission. 

Trans visibility held

Thursday, March 31, from 7 to 8 p.m. via Zoom. Transgender Day of Visibility. 

Trans people are just as ordinary and extraordinary as everyone else! Join us for a panel discussion, with stories and conversation with a group of fabulous trans people:

• Krysta Petrie (she/her) is an engineer, singer, maker, crafter, tinkerer, woodworker, and all-around nerd. She lives in greater Boston with her wife Katie, dog Porter, cat Steve, and two sugar gliders. She holds several identities: transgender, queer, sapphic and feminist, among others.
   
• Noah Stang-Osborne (they/he), a speaker, activist, member of LexPride’s Board of Directors, and art therapy student at Lesley University. Noah holds several identities: Black, Crow, disabled, trans, nonbinary, and queer.
   
• Parker Morii-Sciolla (they/them), a speaker, cosplay aficionado, and architecture student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Parker holds severaidentities: Japanese-American, Italian-American, and trans (nonbinary, agender).

The panelists will share their stories and answer questions about their favorite depictions of trans people in books and film, what else the community should know about trans people, and what allyship looks like.

Register to attend here >>

In addition to the Belmont Public Library, this event is co-sponsored by Belmont LGBTQ+ Alliance, Belmont Human Rights Commission, LexPride, Arlington LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission, Cambridge LGBTQ+ Commission, Quincy LGBTQ Commission, and Network for Social Justice. 

 These news briefs were updated April 15, 2022.