The Little Free LGBTQ Library installed at Flixx.

LIFE GOAL ACHIEVED

As I mentioned in my Note of Welcome, there were many reasons I wanted to start this Little Free LGBTQ Library.

But making it happen was a little more daunting.

Luckily I have an incredible boyfriend, who encouraged me and helped take this amorphous vision and build it into a real thing. (Thank you, Michael! ;) )

At the onset, there were decisions to make. Where should I put this thing? What should it look like? Etc.

I wanted it to be at Flixx because it has meant so much to me as a place for our Omaha LGBTQ community to come together. And the owners, Jeremiah and Kyle, have always been such supportive proponents and advocates for the community at large.

The LGBTQ community can only know and understand how important it is to have a space like that for all of us to grow and develop.

Thankfully it didn’t take any convincing, so the location was set.

I chose to locate it inside the bar for a couple of reasons. I wanted it to be specifically open to the LGBTQ community, not just anyone passing by. And because there has been a marked increase in anti-LGBTQ activity across the country in the last couple of years, I didn’t want to invite more trouble by posting it outside.

I realize this might be a little counter to the general spirit of the Little Free Libraries, but I think it’s warranted and justified in this case — sadly.

Once I had the place, I needed the thing itself.

I sketched out some ideas of building one from scratch. I browsed around online. I eventually settled on this mid-century modern kind of look because it resembled several stacked equals signs.

And it wasn’t terrible, price-wise.

But it was pretty dark and not at all inviting.

This is why you should sand any project…

So I took my website palate to Home Depot and matched the colors as best I could to some paint chips. All of the darker teal colors looked weird with the rest of the group, so I opted to go with a more blue and more purple colors to balance out the rainbow.

Since the paints were supposed to be a primer + paint, I got right to work painting the shelves. I thought I might need to sand them for the paint to stick, but I was afraid (since the bookcase was compressed wood covered in laminate) that it might splinter and break apart.

We spent hours painting, but even after several coats, it was easy to scrape off — not a great thing for something that will be at a bar.

So Michael and I spent hours removing the paint (easier) and sanding down all of the pieces (harder). And then we spent more hours repainting everything.

This time the paint stuck better, and after a couple weeks of many paint layers (and almost the entire “Heads Will Roll” series), it was time to put everything together.

Since the outside parts had a small, open end — and since there were exactly five layers — I thought it would be cool to add LGBTQ letters. So I picked up some wooden ones from Michael’s and painted them the same as our palate, but moved the colors up one level so that they would stand out more.

I knew the bookshelf would be in a little darker area of the bar, so I picked up some magnetically attached LED light strips and added one to each shelf. Unfortunately, as of this writing, they go through the batteries super fast. So I’m on the lookout for a different light set up.

Once everything was painted, together, and installed at the bar, it was time to add the books.

I’ve spent several months looking for books to add, and though I was trying to only add ones that I had read before, I ended up including several I haven’t yet - but I picked up several copies of some of my favorites (“Tin Man,” “Picture of Dorian Gray,” “Black Leopard, Red Wolf”).

And I’ve been so encouraged because in the first week, people have taken several books, and added even more back.

That’s what this is all about: sharing our community with each other; helping us realize we’re not alone and that there are stories we can relate to out there.

I’m sincerely so happy and proud of where we’ve started, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this little thing.