The Rainbow Project

I like The Rainbow Project. I’ve had mates and social work clients go here for advice and they’ve always given very good feedback of the range of services and helpfulness of staff. It focuses on gay and bisexual men only, which is a bit of a pity as it has a much higher profile than the lesbian line Cara-​Friend. But clearly there’s a reason for keeping Rainbow male only, so I’ll shut up now.
These guys are the ones I called when Iris Robinson made her ill-​advised comments about gay people a couple of years ago. They referred me to their press officer David, based in the Derry office, who’d had a hectic morning with pretty much every journalist in the country, and beyond, ringing for a quote. He was having a quick smoke but took the time to speak to me anyway, even though he could hardly speak for laughing. Bless.
Rainbow also have a big part to play in organising the annual Belfast Pride week and festival, a cracker day and worth turning up to no matter what your age, gender or orientation. From only 25 people attending the first year to over 10,000 this year, this is testamount to the great work the lads at Rainbow do. An essential and professional service that gets an easy five stars.

The Rainbow project is the leading charity for gay /​bisexual men in Northern Ireland. They have two offices, one in Belfast and one in Stroke City (London/​Derry for those not in the know) The Project was established in 1994 by volunteers concerned about the gay male population and HIV. In light of this they began offering information on HIV/​AIDS and STI’s as well as handing out safe sex methods at gay venues and LGBT events. The charity offers counselling as well as providing advocacy support for those who have been discriminated against or been verbally, physically, and/​or sexually assaulted because of their sexual orientation.
They have a number of objectives in their organisation such as; providing dedicated one-​to-​one support, providing safe spaces for gay and bisexual men to meet, providing specialised health promotion services, carrying out social research into health issues as well as research into social policy development and last but not least promoting good relations between both the gay and straight communities.
TRP is (amongst others) funded by HSPSS, HSC, PSNI, Belfast City Council, Children in Need, Comic Relief and the Housing Executive.