Rainbow Roundup brings LGBTQ families together to share resources, ideas and just have some fun
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
The families of Rainbow Roundup are going camping the weekend of Sept. 23, and organizers are expecting a large and enthusiastic crowd, since this is the group’s first camping trip since the pandemic set in. More than 200 people participated the last time the group took a camping trip — before the pandemic.
They’ll be camping at Yogi Bear’s North Texas Jellystone Park in Burleson, south of Fort Worth. The facility offers a variety of options from tent sites to bunkhouse rooms to pirate ship cabins and RV sites.
Group founder and organizer Kimberly Kantor said there will be visits with Yogi and friends, wagon rides, crafts, activities and more for the RR group, and RR will cover the cost of almost everything outside of the camping stay. Not only will most meals be covered, but so will campfire smores and Kona Ice.
The campsite offers an Airplay Zone, laser tag, paintball, a petting farm and a games pavilion as well as nature trails. And Pirate’s Cove Waterpark is right next door.
That should provide for a busy weekend for LGBTQ couples and singles with families to mingle. It will also provide an opportunity for teens with LGBTQ parents to connect, and for kids to just be kids.
Kantor said that with what’s going on politically these days, it’s more important than ever for LGBTQ families to get together and share resources and experiences.
Rainbow Roundup has been getting LGBTQ families together since 2012. The pandemic may have paused most in-person activities, but members continued to get together online with virtual events like cupcake decorating, scavenger hunts and chats.
Teens got together to prepare meals for the homeless, and there were a few outdoor activities like picnics and a trip to the zoo.
Kantor said she’s excited about getting families together for the camping trip.
“In the beginning, when I wanted to start Rainbow Roundup, there weren’t resources available for families,” she said. The resources she needed and wanted to share with others included lists of pediatricians who were happy to treat kids no matter what their families looked like, as well as references for obstetricians, attorneys who would file a second-parent adoption, fertility specialists and more.
What schools welcome students with LGBTQ parents and what neighborhoods welcome diverse neighbors? That was another question many families needed answers for.
But, Kantor said, “The resources weren’t there.”
So Kantor started a Facebook group with 19 members that began sharing resources and planning events. Today, that group has grown to more than 3,000 members.
At Rainbow Roundup events, kids and teens began talking to each other about their experiences.
“Our families have to come out on a daily basis to other kids at school, to teachers, principals,” Kantor said, “coming out about how their family is made of love. How there are all types of families.”
Rainbow Roundup events allow their kids to see other families like theirs, to make friends with families that look like theirs and to share ideas and stories about how they’ve come out at school and elsewhere.
WHERE WE CAN BE FREE
One member, a parent named Red, said their family joined Rainbow Roundup just recently and have found it to be a “freeing” experience.
When they arrived for a family day at the park, Red said, their family members were offered name tags and asked what pronouns they used. Eight-year old Zane’s eyes lit up at that question. For the first time in public, he could use his preferred pronouns and name, no questions asked. He proudly wrote the “Z” and added “He, Him.”
In his Irving school, Red explained, Zane’s teachers aren’t as accepting of him and his gender identity.
Red said Zane proudly put on his name tag and ran off to play. “He was so excited [that] no one disrespected him,” Red said, and he was so happy to tell his family, “Everyone’s calling me a boy.”
Red and their wife were thrilled to watch their son play, finally able to just be a kid around other Rainbow Roundup children. “It meant the world to him,” Red said.
Red and their wife also have a 13-year old, who, they said, is always explaining his family. But, “At the picnic, he just got to hang out with other teens his age,” Red said. “It was amazing to just see my kids be kids.”
Rainbow Roundup usually holds an event once a month. Since they joined, Red said, their kids regularly ask if there’s something going on that weekend. They’re excited about the next event, an afternoon at Hawaiian Falls Mansfield from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on July 31. Kantor said her group will provide snacks and drinks, and there will be a meet-up at the pavilion.
Red said their older son is excited about getting together with others his age with whom he knows he won’t have to explain anything about having two moms, one of whom is non-binary, and a trans brother.
“Rainbow Roundup is an awesome community,” Red said. “It’s helped everybody in my family.”
Kantor said she looks forward to each event and loves watching kids and teens in a setting where “they don’t have to explain their family dynamics and can just be free.”
