During the pandemic, Malcolm Keim was making soap in about 200 square feet of basement space. What began as a hobby, sparked in part by a college assignment illustrating scientific concepts through soapmaking, gradually grew into something larger. Artist markets led to a website. A website led to appearances at the Rochester Pride Festival.
“It was a pleasant surprise to see such a community pop up around it,” said Keim, a Marine Corps veteran who served during the final years of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’
In August 2025, Rainbow Cammo opened its storefront in Suite B128 at Village Gate Square — it’s a queer- and veteran-owned soap and fragrance shop, complete with a custom scent bar and shelves lined with handcrafted bath and body products. Beyond that, Keim has more planned.
“Retail was not our no. 1 focus,” he said.
The storefront has evolved into something harder to find: a sober-friendly gathering space where Rochester’s queer artists, makers, veterans and community groups can meet, collaborate and be visible.
“It is nice to be able to have spaces in Rochester that are queer and safe but more importantly are sober friendly,” said Keim, who also works part-time as a clinical laboratory scientist. “I’m not against any of the bars. They’re just loud, hard to socialize in sometimes. We wanted queer-coded safe spaces that don’t have those pressures.”
That vision has shaped the programming that now fills the shop’s calendar.
In recent months, Rainbow Cammo has hosted leatherworking and bootblacking skill shares, fundraisers for local artists and the first installation of the Queer Veterans Project, an oral history and photography exhibition documenting the experiences of LGBTQ+ military veterans across Western New York.
“The exhibit at Rainbow Cammo is the very first installation,” said historian and photographer Jovana Babović, who co-created the Queer Veterans Project with Buffalo photographer Mel Porter. “Malcolm has been a great supporter.”
Babović sees Rainbow Cammo as part of a broader ecosystem of queer community spaces Rochester needs.
“We always need more queer spaces,” she said. “Rainbow Cammo is a community space and an artisan shop. I’m grateful for (it) the same way I’m grateful to have queer bookstores, queer coffee shops, queer bars. Places where you can feel seen, in a way.”
She described Keim as “a connector, the kind of person who is aware of the nuances of building community and is actively doing that.”
Stephen Williams, founder of the Upstate Bootblack Collective and organizer of Rainbow Cammo’s bootblack socials, seconded that the shop provides something not often found elsewhere: a queer space that was simultaneously sober, accessible and welcoming to newcomers.
“The reason I brought the (bootback socials) about is because of COVID and how, later, there was a lot of interest (in community), but we were not finding anything,” Williams said.
At the socials, participants gather around tables to learn leather care techniques, work on projects and share knowledge. Some are experienced practitioners, others are attending for the first time.
“People just wanted to be together,” Williams said.
The gatherings are intentionally low-pressure. People bring leather projects, trade advice, sit together and, Williams said, end each social with chocolate cake — a bootblack tradition. The events have attracted a varied crowd, including many transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive participants who may not feel comfortable in other kinds of leather spaces.
“If it ends up being a safe entry point for people who are not cis men to feel included, I’m all about that,” he said.
For Keim, the sense of inclusion is inseparable from visibility.
“It is important to be visible because, frankly, we need to do it for the next generation,” he said. “There are kids who believe they are better off dead than being gay and we need to show they are worthy and are loved.”
The storefront itself may have grown far beyond the basement workshop where Rainbow Cammo began, but Keim said the mission remains unchanged.
“I want to support people, I want to do good things and I want to make people happy.” rainbowcammo.com
Austin Albanese is a Rochester-based historian and writer focused on memory, local history and overlooked stories from American civic life who is especially drawn to stories where local history reveals larger questions about belonging and community. His work has appeared in “The Forward,” “Rochester Beacon,” “The Christian Century” and “The Washington Post.”
