“Don we now our gay apparel!”

That was the tagline on the invite for the Equality Community Center’s inaugural holiday party, dubbed The Rainbow Affair, Dec. 6 at Maine Studio Works in Portland. Dozens of corporate sponsors and more than 80 host committee members supported this colorful seven-hour event — a cocktail reception, auction and drag queen dance party — in support of the collaborative space in Portland’s Arts District for LGBTQ+ and allied social justice nonprofits.

“This is a celebration of the accomplishments of the Equality Community Center, of the actualization of a dream of many of our icons of our community to come together to create a space that is safe and welcoming for our community,” said board member Theo Greene, a sociology professor at Bowdoin College. “Most of all, it is a celebration of our community — of our power and our resilience.”

A decade ago, the center’s founders — Betsy Smith, Ed Gardner, Matt Dubois and Rich Waitzkin — were inspired by safe LGBTQ+ spaces in other locations that have grown to become destinations, like Wilton Manors in Fort Lauderdale. A board of directors formed in 2015, and a year later the center opened at its original location on Congress Street.

Then, in March 2021, the Equality Community Center purchased a former bank at 15 Casco St., hung rainbow flags in the windows and began extensive renovations. Today, the finished space offers a community room, computer access, a lending library, a self-serve café, an art gallery and a thrift store run by MaineTransNet.

The center’s 16 LGBTQ+ and social justice tenant nonprofits include Equality Maine, Pride Portland!, Cross Cultural Community Services, Democracy Maine and Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine. Partners such as Frannie Peabody Center, Maine Gay Men’s Chorus, Rainbow Arts Collective and Queerecovery offer programs — everything from sober support groups and HIV testing to films, book discussions, craft events and open mic nights.

“The center creates a welcoming space for people who are otherwise marginalized in the communities they come from,” said Jeff Ehrenberg, a host committee member from Camden.

To address another need in the LGBTQ+ community — safe affordable housing for older adults — the center is about to break ground on a five-story apartment building next door called Equality Commons.

“Our board has been at this for 10 years — eight of those years in a complete volunteer capacity, moving a mission forward, and seizing every opportunity,” said Executive Director Christopher O’Connor. “Want to buy a bank? Sure, why not? Want to build elder housing? Sure, why not? … Every day I walk into a space that is changing lives just by being a safe haven for those who are the most vulnerable in our community.

“It’s not me that’s changing lives. It’s not the building that’s changing lives. It’s what’s happening within the walls of this center that is changing people’s lives.”

Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer and photographer based in Scarborough. She can be reached at amyparadysz@gmail.com.