1DE Queer Congress

Bring what you know. Find what you need.

Build what none of us can build alone. A two-day convening for LGBTQ+ Delaware.

📅 October 16–17, 2027Tentative dates

What it is

Where brilliance finds brilliance.

Across Delaware, LGBTQ+ people are creating belonging, leading organizations, solving problems, caring for communities, and building extraordinary things. Queer Congress is where that brilliance finds one another.

For two powerful days, community leaders, organizers, businesses, employee resource groups, grassroots movements, institutions, creatives, educators, advocates, and people with ideas worth building will come together from across the First State.

We will exchange knowledge. Discover resources. Build partnerships. Strengthen the work already happening. Find the people who can help move an idea forward. And imagine what becomes possible when we stop carrying every challenge separately and begin building with the collective strength of our entire community.

This is connection with somewhere to go. This is how we turn connection into collective power.

The possibility

Imagine what becomes possible.

An emerging leader finds the mentor who helps them take their next step.

A grassroots group meets a community partner with the space, skills, or resources to help its work grow.

An organization carrying a persistent challenge discovers that someone else has already found a way through it.

A successful local program becomes a model that can serve people across Delaware.

A conversation becomes a partnership. A partnership becomes a project. A project changes what is possible for our community.

Queer Congress is where we find one another, learn from one another, and build what comes next together.

Bring your brilliance

Where are you thriving?

You know something our community needs. Maybe how to engage volunteers, create an accessible event, reach people in rural communities, build a strong board, secure funding, support queer youth, care for community wellness, develop new leaders, strengthen an employee resource group, or keep people connected when the work gets difficult.

Where has your organization, group, business, or community found its rhythm?
What have you built that is working?
What lesson, practice, tool, or experience could help someone else move forward?

If you are thriving in an area our community can learn from, we invite you to host a Queer Congress breakout session. Bring the strategy, the story, and the lessons you learned while figuring it out. You do not need to have perfected the work. You simply need something valuable you are ready to place into the hands of the community.

Your experience could become the answer another leader has been searching for.

Host a breakout session

Bring your questions

Where would you like to learn more?

Queer Congress is also a place to name where you are ready to grow.

What knowledge would strengthen your leadership?
What skill would expand your organization's capacity?
What challenge could become lighter with the right connection, resource, or collaborator?
What do you wish someone would teach, explain, demonstrate, or help you build?

Tell us what you want to learn. Your questions will help shape breakout sessions, year-round learning opportunities, resource connections, and future collaborations. Someone in our community may already hold part of the answer.

Share what you want to learn

All year long

Get involved throughout the year.

The energy of Queer Congress does not begin when the doors open in October. We are building connections all year. As a 1DE Community Partner, you can:

Join conversations with LGBTQ+ leaders and community builders across Delaware
Share your events through the INS1DE Guide
Offer knowledge, resources, meeting space, or professional expertise
Host a discussion, workshop, or Queer Congress breakout session
Tell us what your organization wants to learn or strengthen
Find potential collaborators, mentors, and community resources
Help connect people and ideas across New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties
Participate in opportunities for shared learning and collective action

You can contribute in the ways that fit your mission, strengths, and capacity. Bring the full identity of your organization. Bring the work you are proud of. Bring the questions you have not been able to answer alone. Bring the idea you believe could change something.

There is a place for what you carry here.

Community Partners

Become a Community Partner.

Community Partners are the people, organizations, groups, businesses, and institutions helping build a more connected LGBTQ+ Delaware. If you create community, serve, employ, invest in, or advocate for LGBTQ+ people, or believe in what becomes possible when we work together, we want you connected to 1DE.

You do not have to wait until October to take your place. Join us now. Help shape the conversations. Share what is working. Tell us what is needed. Meet the people who are ready to build alongside you.

Become a Community Partner

Take your place

What could we make possible together?

Where are you thriving?
Where are you ready to grow?
What could you teach?
What would you love to learn?
What could we make possible together?

The future of LGBTQ+ Delaware is already taking shape in the ideas, relationships, and work happening throughout our state. Queer Congress is where that momentum gathers.

Vendors & sponsors

Set up shop.

Local LGBTQ+ and allied businesses, makers, and organizations are welcome to apply. Applications run through a short Google Form.

Vendor sign-up formApplications open

1DE Queer Congress

United. Community. Collective power.

Take your place in the work already taking shape across Delaware.

Become a Community Partner Host a breakout session Share what you want to learn Get updates