ROAR and QJC are now QJJC:
The Queer Joy and Justice Collaborative
ROAR
ROAR (Rainbow Organizing And Response) is a volunteer organization built on the understanding that ‘we protect us.’ ROAR volunteers create a welcoming presence at LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC events and, if necessary, use rainbow umbrellas and other distraction techniques to shield people from protestors or disruption. We hold the line between love and hate, and we do that by bringing joy.
ROAR began this work in 2023 and has expanded each year. We are now supporting events all over Western Massachusetts and have broadened the ways we advocate and support to include coalition building and community organizing for safe schools and access to gender-affirming health care for queer and trans youth, developing models to teach students how to resist hate groups, and building and practicing models for community safety plans that empower people to protect themselves and one another without relying on law enforcement.
Our work is powerful because of the people who show up for it. ROAR recognizes that people build communities and communities build movements and movements create the change we need for the world we deserve.
The Queer Joy Collaborative
Started in 2024 as an umbrella organization housing the Queer Joy Chorus, a growing community of people who wanted singing together to be the thing that brought us to community, but not the only thing we did.
We added the Rhythm & Radiance Youth Chorus, Sending Joy Postcards, and Affirming Voices, all programs centered in building community around people being themselves.
Our work is rooted in mutual aid, connecting with community, and the joy that comes from safely being ourselves.
It started with a few collaborations
QJC and ROAR began independently, and joined forces in fall, 2025, when ROAR needed a fiscal sponsor.
We began showing up for each other in all the ways we could.
Starting at our first rehearsal of the fall, when ROAR members welcomed chorus members with music, bubbles, and their signature rainbow umbrellas…
As our communities have grown closer and our collaboration has deepened, merging felt less like a decision and more like an inevitability — a joyful, deliberate step toward something bigger than any of us could build alone.
Now ROAR and QJC are equal parts of the same organization, so our name (and structure) had to change!
The Queer Joy and Justice Collaborative will carry forward everything you love about both organizations, now unified under one umbrella
An Artistic/Creative Arm
Led by Mara Levi, this arm of the organization will continue running programs like the Queer Joy Chorus, Rhythm & Radiance Youth Chorus, Affirming Voices, and more
An Action/Advocacy Arm
Led by Ali Wicks-Lim, this arm of the organization will continue ROAR's organizing and community advocacy work and will expand into further action
Co-Executive Directors
Mara and Ali will continue collaborating, dreaming, and building, each with equal authority within the organization.
Joy and Justice Together
We believe that joy and justice are not separate things — they strengthen each other. When we sing together, we build the resilience to fight together. When we organize together, we create the conditions for more joy.