Spreading LGBT culture across Canada
Membership Information
Our mandate is to connect LGBT people in Canada to Canadian LGBT culture and
community, each other and the global LGBT culture. We try to help as many people as
possible of those with the least access to their LGBT community and culture. Although this
has no age limitation our primary focus is LGBT youth as it is best to help them early.
Secondarily we provide material to high school, college and university libraries for LGBT
youth as well as to introduce straight youth to LGBT culture and help make Canada a more
accepting society. We do help adult oriented organizations as well but adults are more able
to help themselves. Adult organizations are encouraged to join to help themselves and
provide them with opportunities to help LGBT youth oriented groups.
We encourage members to help spread Canadian LGBT culture by requesting Canadian
LGBT material but we also provide as much global LGBT material as we find. We also
encourage our members to encourage their users to make use of the materials we provide as
well as to connect to other LGBT people in Canada through the various things we list or
provide on our website, or inform you of. We encourage them to contribute to the Canadian
and global LGBT culture and community in any way their skills and talents enable them to.
If you have a user that could use some help in this regard such as books on writing skills
and how to market their writing, please let us know and we will do our best to find
something.
At the moment our main activity is collecting LGBT material (mostly books so far) and
offering it to our member organizations. A list is provided monthly for members to choose
from. The list has the title, author, format, condition, ISBN with a link to more information,
etc. As more than one member may request the same item, the items are allocated at the end
of the month based on our mandate and policies. The least expensive method of shipment is
usually chosen so it may take several months to accumulate enough items to send. Items on
our list are usually free but we do levy $1 per item to cover shipping and handling. We plan
to have a Pot of Gold for trading LGBT material. You will be able to post items you do not
need or request items you would like.
As a member of Rainbow Link you are expected to provide us with a copy of all your
LGBT ephemera – posters, brochures, handouts, newsletters, literature, etc. as well as any
items you create such as T-shirts, mugs, calendars, etc. We would also like to have
information and photos on your LGBT activities, meetings, outings, events, triumphs, Pride
events, etc. This will all end up in the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives but may also be
used on our website and history. The items passed on to the Archives will be saved for
posterity for researchers and display. If anything includes names or photos that should be
kept private please clearly state so or mark so on the item and pack it separately.
These private items will be given to the Archives with a limitation
that they not be available to the public for 100 years.
Rainbow Link, P. O. Box 111, Station F, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 2L4
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Application Information
Please provide the following information via email to application@RainbowLink.ca.
*Please explain why your group should be a member of Rainbow Link. How will your
organization help Rainbow Link meet its mandate?
*Name of your organization.
*Email address of your organization (please provide more than one if possible).
Snail mail address of your organization (for correspondence).
Snail mail address of your organization (for shipment of books, etc.) if different.
Telephone number of your organization.
Is your organization a registered Charity or part of one (please provide the name of the charity you
are part of)?
If not a charity, is your organization a Non-Profit Corporation?
Please provide a brief history of your organization.
Contact Person(s): name, email address and phone number
Please provide as many different contact points as possible for your organization and Contact Person(s) in
case something changes. Please indicate which ones to normally use.
What is the purpose/mandate of your group?
Describe the people you serve.
Approximately how many people do you serve?
What will you do to encourage the use of the LGBT materials you receive?
Please list the types of LGBT materials that your group would like to receive. At the
moment most of what we provide is books but we will look for additional material based on
your needs. For each material please outline your preferences – example books: fiction,
young adult, lesbian, graphic.
This information will also help us decide who gets a particular item if more than one group
requests it.
* Essential information.