Kaitlyn Mahoney has launched a crowd-funding campaign to help fund the opening of Under the Umbrella: A Queer Little Bookstore, which she "envisions will be filled with books by queer authors or containing queer characters and where people's pronouns are respected and their identities are celebrated," the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Under the Umbrella will be "straight friendly, but it's queer specific," said Mahoney, who also sees the future bookstore as a way to build the LGBTQ community in Salt Lake City. She plans to create partnerships with groups like Drag Queen Story Hour and organizations that provide books to people who are incarcerated; to host queer book clubs and poetry nights; and intends to sell items like candles, stickers, pins, artwork and more made by members of the queer community.
In addition to the crowd-funding campaign, which will raise the money needed to build an inventory of several thousand books for the store, Mahoney has "received a small loan and plans to invest $70,000 of her own savings into the bookstore to pay for furniture, rent, licensing and marketing costs," the Tribune wrote.
"I knew that we needed this space just personally," Mahoney said. "But as soon as I went live with this, the response that I got from other people was overwhelming--how many people reached out and said how excited they were for a space like this to exist and how much we need it here."
As soon as she can find a location "that checks all her boxes--including a storefront accessible to people with disabilities," Mahoney is ready to go. She told the Tribune that she is "optimistic" the bookstore will be able to open by June, just in time to celebrate Pride month with the community.
"Right now, we have all of these bills going on trying to keep trans people out of sports and limiting their access to health care," Mahoney said. "It's scary. And having a place where you can go and know that anyone who's in there--as much as I can provide, right?--that they support you.... I can't even imagine having a space like that myself. I'm so excited to help create that."