Rainbow House Plans Community-Focused Pride Picnic in Edwardsville
Rainbow House invites LGBTQ+ residents and allies to its annual Pride Picnic.
EDWARDSVILLE - The local LGBTQ+ community and allies will come together for a celebration in Edwardsville next weekend.
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From 2–6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, Rainbow House will host their annual Pride Picnic complete with pizza, music, vendors, yard games and more fun. Similar to a Pride festival, this picnic is smaller than a festival and more focused on building community and connection. David Roderick, director of Rainbow House, highlighted their goal to bring people together and celebrate acceptance.
“Rainbow House is a center for inclusion for LGBTQ community,” Roderick said. “We just wanted to create a safe space in an area that didn’t have any at the time.”
Roderick serves as the pastor at Immanuel United Methodist Church in Edwardsville. Instead of moving into the church’s parsonage, he decided to donate the house and create a space for LGBTQ+ inclusion, which is now known as Rainbow House.
The organization hosts support groups and events like the Pride Picnic to bring people together. They provide Safe Zone trainings and regularly partner with other organizations for Trans Day of Visibility and similar events that empower the LGBTQ+ community.
Immanuel United Methodist Church is an open and affirming congregation, with many LGBTQ+ leaders in its ranks. But Roderick emphasized that Rainbow House is not affiliated with the church, and it is not a religious space. People can enjoy Rainbow House events without engaging with spirituality. Though the church is always welcoming if people decide they want to attend a service, this isn’t the point of Rainbow House.
Instead, Rainbow House serves as a place for LGBTQ+ community members to meet each other and create connections. The Pride Picnic is one of their major events, and people of all ages and backgrounds are invited. The goal is for people to have a fun afternoon in an affirming, loving environment.
“Every year it’s different. We usually have families that come and hang out for a long time. We have individuals that stop by. We have older adults who just want to come and just say, ‘We’re supportive of you,’” Roderick said. “It’s really for everybody. It’s for the LGBTQ community, but it’s also for allies who just want to show support in whatever way they can. It’s usually a very wide mixture of ages and identities.”
Attendees are encouraged to enjoy the Pride Picnic, and they’re invited to join Rainbow House’s other events, groups and initiatives in the future if they would like. Roderick loves watching the conversations and relationships develop during events like this.
He added that sometimes people don’t engage with Rainbow House, but they are comforted just by the knowledge that it exists. A few years ago, Rainbow House was represented at the Land of Goshen Community Market, sharing their mission with shoppers. Two families later told Roderick that they felt safer moving to Edwardsville with their LGBTQ+ children because of the community’s support of Rainbow House.
“We always hear stories of people who have just felt like that’s made our community better, or they want to tell somebody in their family that there is this place they can go, things like that,” Roderick said. “No matter what happens on the day of the picnic, the purpose of it lives beyond that day.”
For more information about the Pride Picnic, visit the official Facebook event page. Check out the official Rainbow House Facebook page and their official website for more.
This featured article is sponsored by Rainbow House. To get your business or organization featured on www.RiverBender.com, contact us at sales@riverbender.com.
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