Rainbow Ball Weekend with Out Maine 2025
Keynote and Workshop
Started in 2007, Rainbow Ball Weekend is more than just a one-off event. It’s a 3-day weekend of educational and social programming for 150+ Maine’s LGBTQIA2S+ and allied high school students. Rainbow Ball Weekend builds community and connections, opens youth to a wider world of acceptance and opportunity, and encourages educational aspirations.
Rainbow Ball Weekend’s programming and activities directly address the creative limitations, academic challenges, health risks, and other risk factors faced by many queer youth in Maine. Each workshop that is run by OUT Maine staff or volunteers follows at least one social and emotional learning (SEL) outcome.
Each year, youth look forward to this weekend, which includes a safe prom, workshops, and leadership skill-building. Rainbow Ball Weekend is a direct youth suicide prevention intervention, giving participants a lasting sense of community, hope, joy, and motivation to complete high school which is supported by ongoing regional youth events in the following months with OUT Maine.
Check out more information here!
Closing Keynote with Lex Horwitz
In this transformative storytelling workshop, youth and adults engage with tools to embody their personal narratives from a place of self-love and affirmation, while imparting advocacy and self-care tools for all. This workshop is rooted in empowerment, skill-building, and connection.
“Strategies to Address Transphobia & Homophobia in Our Schools” Workshop for GSA Advisors
We all have the responsibility to address transphobia and homophobia, but how can we do this in an effective and impactful way? In this session, participants will gain the knowledge and the tangible tools and strategies needed to address transphobia and homophobia in the school setting, in addition to engaging in inclusion strategies for our classrooms and discussing opportunities for advocacy.
Session Goals include:
Identify and understand systems of oppression – transphobia, cisnormativity, and cissexism (gender based) and homophobia and heteronormativity (sexuality based)
Understand and identify unique microaggressions experienced by queer, non-binary and trans people
Leave with tangible tools and best practices to utilize as an effective ally in action to queer, non-binary and trans people and/or for self-advocacy
Sharing experiences and how to utilize advocacy tools to be proactive and/or reactive (scenarios practice)
