Back in December, the Gay Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore (GLCCB) put out a request for locals to send in their ideas for the theme of this year’s Baltimore Pride celebration. Of all the submissions, the one that stood out most to committee members was “United We Shine.”

“It’s representative of everything we stand for,” says LaKesha Davis, Pride coordinator with the GLCCB. “Even though there is still room to grow within the community, as long as we remain united, we will continue to shine.”

The inclusive theme will permeate to every aspect of the celebration—happening June 16-17—which officially moved its annual Saturday-afternoon block party from Mt. Vernon to the Station North Arts District last year.

The parade route has shifted slightly this year. Instead of beginning in Mt. Vernon, it will step off from East 33rd Street in Charles Village at 1 p.m. and head south on Charles Street—descending into the block party on East 23rd Street in Station North. The decision to switch up the route was sparked by concerns of traffic congestion from last year’s parade, which ended on North Avenue.

Davis says that the new route is not only practical, but also symbolic. Revelers will march through Charles Village, where the GLCCB originated in 1977, and descend into Pride’s new home.

“We try to find a way to make things better every year,” Davis explains.

Parade day celebrations will include the annual high-heel races and a new pet parade, as well as live entertainment by Chance The Rapper’s kid brother Taylor Bennett, hip-hop goddess Miami Tip, our own club queen TT The Artist, and The Voice runner-up Davon Fleming.

As in previous years, the fun continues on Sunday at Druid Hill Park with a festival showcasing local vendors, live DJ entertainment, eats and drinks, and a performance by headliner Tish Hyman. The Druid Hill festival is also home to the GLCCB’s Elder Pride and Family Pride programs, which will offer kid-friendly activities led by The Walters Art Museum and the Maryland Zoo this year.

After months of hard work organizing the event, which attracted nearly 30,000 people last summer, Davis says she’s eager to see the community come together.

“I would love to see the whole community stand together and be represented as a whole,” she says, “because that’s how we get things done. We have to remain united in order to make things happen.”

In keeping with this year’s theme, establishments all over town are hosting a number of rainbow-inspired events to celebrate Pride month. Here are a few to mark on your calendar:

6/13: Wine’d Up Wednesday
Kick off Pride Week at this annual fundraiser for the GLCCB, which serves more than 800 individuals per month with its various programs. Gather with other supporters to sip wines, snack on hors d’oeuvres, and bid on silent auction items at Flavor in Mt. Vernon. 15 E. Centre St. 6-10 p.m. $40. 443-569-2279

6/13: Laugh Out Loud

If you’re in need of some mid-week laughs, head to The Motor House for this upbeat comedy show featuring sets by local entertainers Michael Furr, Ruby Darling, Violet Gray, and Jezabelle Von Jane. The evening will be hosted by Baltimore “boylesque” icon Tommy Gunn. The Motor House, 120 W. North Ave. 7-9 p.m. $20. 410-637-8300

6/15: Twilight on the Terrace
For more than a decade, this candlelit fundraiser at Gertrude’s inside the Baltimore Museum of Art has provided an ideal jump-start to Pride weekend with eats, drinks, and dancing under the stars. Enjoy signature gin cocktails and bites by Gertrude’s while rubbing elbows with special guests like The Voice’s Fleming and Mayor Catherine Pugh. 10 Art Museum Drive. 7-11 p.m. $125. 410-889-3399

6/16: Parade Day Party at The Baltimore Eagle
Located in the epicenter of Saturday’s festivities, The Baltimore Eagle in Station North will be a headquarters for revelers on parade day. The bar is throwing a rainbow rager featuring food and drink deals, and live DJs spinning in multiple rooms all day and night. Experience the epic dance parties in style with The Eagle’s VIP package that gets you no-cover access and a free tank top. The Baltimore Eagle, 2022 N. Charles St. 11 a.m.- 2 a.m. Covers range from $5-15 throughout the day. 410-200-9858

6/23: Pride Double Feature at the Parkway
The SNF Parkway Theatre’s new family-friendly film series, Generation Parkway, continues with a special Pride installment later this month. The Pride outreach event starts with a showing of Beauty and the Beast at 1:30 p.m., and continues with Howard—a documentary about Baltimore-born theater musician Howard Ashman, who wrote some of Disney’s most iconic scores. 5 W. North Ave., 1:30 p.m. $8-14. 410-752-8083

6/23: Pride Art Exhibit and Drink Deals at Hotel Revival
In the heart of Mt. Vernon, celebrate Pride by taking in a live exhibit by local artist Jasjyot Singh Hans. Hans will be auctioning off three pieces, with 50 percent of the proceeds being donated to Hearts and Ears—a local organization that supports individuals in the LGBTQ community with behavioral health issues and concerns. Be sure to head upstairs to Topside to sip special Pride cocktails, including the $11 “So Fresh, So Green,” made with Absolut Pride, mint-tea syrup, lime shrub, soda, and a mint garnish. The bar will also feature DC Brau’s Pride Pils, and Bells Brewery’s Sparkleberry ale for $5. Hotel Revival, 101 W. Monument St., 5-7 p.m. 410-727-7101.

6/27: LGBT Pride Night at Camden Yards
There will be some rainbow flair mixed in to the usual sea of orange at Camden Yards on Wednesday, June 27. The Orioles are offering a Pride-inspired ticket package for the evening’s game against the Seattle Mariners, including a special O’s Pride cap with rainbow embroidery. A portion of the ticket sales will be donated to Moveable Feast, a local charity that provides meals to locals living with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. 333 W. Camden St., 7:05 p.m. $70.

6/29: Baltimore Bike Party Pride Ride
This monthly bike trek is celebrating accordingly with a rainbow ride throughout the city. Pump up your tires and throw on some colorful garb to pedal around before descending into Highlandtown for an official after party at Old Line Spirits—complete with cocktails and beers from neighboring Monument City Brewing Company. Route details TBD. 6:30-11:30 p.m. Free.

Forty years ago, members of the local LGBTQ community gathered to establish the Gay Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore (GLCCB) in the basement of a building on Maryland Avenue in Station North.

The center is making it a priority to honor those roots this year, by moving the 42nd annual Baltimore Pride celebration—which returns June 17-18—from its iconic venue in Mt. Vernon to the Station North arts district.

“It’s a big circle back to where everything started for us,” says Mimi Demissew, current executive director of the GLCCB, which moved from Mt. Vernon to Lower Charles Village last year. “There is such a long, rich LGBTQ history represented in Baltimore that I don’t think many people realize.”

As in previous years, Pride weekend will kick off with a parade and block party on Saturday, followed by a festival with vendors and live entertainment in Druid Hill Park on Sunday.

Demissew says that organizers remained mindful of Pride’s ties to Mt. Vernon by designing a symbolic parade route—which will step off from Chase Street and descend into the center’s new home. Afterward, a block party will take place in a footprint similar to Artscape, from North Avenue to 23rd Street.

Though there are some locals who stand by the idea that Pride is meant to stay in Mt. Vernon (where it has been held for the majority of the past four decades), Station North community leaders are enthusiastic about the change of venue.

“There are a lot of people saying that the ‘gayborhood’ is shifting,” says Ian Parrish, a local developer who recently reopened The Baltimore Eagle on North Charles Street. “But I really think that the neighborhood is nothing without its people. It’s not that Mt. Vernon is losing anything, there’s just a lot of new energy and revitalization in Station North. It adds to the entire community as a whole, rather than detracting from it.”

Bolstering the community even more, the Maryland Film Festival (MFF), which recently unveiled the refurbished Parkway Theatre on North Avenue, is featuring a curated selection of LGBTQ films on all three screens June 16-22.

“We’ve essentially been in Station North all along,” says Eric Hatch, director of programming for MFF, which has partnered with the Charles Theatre and the Windup Space for many years. “It feels like home, and it’s a perfect fit for Pride.”

Films highlighting LGBTQ content will range from international works and shorts to revivals including Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman and Sean Baker’s Tangerine.

“One of the most exciting things about any art form is encountering other perspectives and embracing diversity—and historically film has not done a good job of that,” Hatch says. “Film festivals have always been an opportunity to correct that, to portray more content that positively represents women, people of color, and certainly more from the LGBTQ perspective.”

Inclusivity is something that the GLCCB is stressing more than ever this year. The organization asked for community feedback to brainstorm the festival’s theme, and landed on “Pride: Unleashed.”

“We’re in the midst of this new reawakening,” Demissew explains. “The change in political climate has reinvigorated everyone across the country. We want to celebrate the community unabashedly—we’re not going to apologize for who we are and the rights we’re demanding.”

In keeping with the inclusive sentiment, the GLCCB will host specific programs for LGBTQ youth, seniors, transgender community members, and people of faith throughout Pride week.

Youth Pride will once again have its own designated area with food, activities, and live music at Saturday’s block party in Station North, and the center will introduce the inaugural Elder Pride in partnership with Chase Brexton Health at Sunday’s festival in Druid Hill Park.

Other highlights to look forward to include the annual High Heel Race on North Charles Street, and headliners including former Pussycat Doll Jessica Sutta, American Idol contestant (and Baltimore native) George Lovett, and New Orleans-based hip-hop star Big Freedia.  

The Baltimore Eagle, located in the epicenter of all of the festivities, has many activities planned for Pride, including art installations, drag shows, and special rainbow drink deals. 

Parrish, who faced drawn out struggles with the City Liquor Board to reopen the iconic gay club, is excited to officially celebrate the bar’s first Pride since debuting in Station North.

“Our fight for equal treatment by the city strengthened my belief that equality isn’t just an LGBT issue—it’s a cause every Baltimorean should take to heart,” he says. “We came out on top because we did it together, and that showed me that there’s no wrong in our hometown that a little pride can’t cure.”

Beauty Marks

West Pratt Street
April 11, 2015

Mötley Crüe’s glam metal hit, “Girls, Girls, Girls,” blares as the Miss Tattooed Baltimore pageant gets underway at the 8th Annual Tattoo Arts Convention. Twenty contestants, a pleasingly diverse group in terms of age, ethnicity, size, and shape—not to mention personal style—take the stage in everything from neon bikinis and low-cut, gothic gowns to hip retro dresses their grandmothers may have worn.

As amateur paparazzi snap away, the crowd, many sipping cans of Natty Boh, cheer for friends and loved ones—including two parents wildly rooting for their heavily tattooed and pierced twentysomething daughter. “Why wouldn’t we support her?” says Dad. “She’s in college. She’s doing great.”

After rounds based on tattoo quality and quantity, and then overall beauty presentation, the women, whose careers vary from arts education to firefighting, talk a little about themselves. Ultimately, beautician and mom Valerie Stanovich, 26, channeling an edgy, pin-up “Norma Jean” look in cowgirl boots and red-and-white-checked top—while rocking full-sleeve arm, thigh, and neck tattoos—is named the winner. Stanovich, who also runs a small company called Vintage Veils, plans to volunteer with Brides Against Breast Cancer during her reign and will make various local appearances, including emceeing HonFest’s mustache contest. Along with $1,500 in prizes, she also receives a tiara, of course, to wear for the year—though not last year’s winner, Lindsey Crozier’s, sparkling headpiece.

“Oh no,” Crozier says with a smile after placing the jeweled crown atop Stanovich’s done-up, brunette locks, in accordance with traditional pageant practice. “This is a different one. I get to keep mine.”

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Life Cycles

Maryland Avenue
May 3, 2015

Baskets of clothes sit atop washing machines inside the packed house at the Spincycle laundromat in lower Remington. Many people here have come intending to do laundry, naturally, but others have come to catch a pop-up music and art exhibition called “Love on the Line: Dirty Laundry.” Some have come to do both.

“We encouraged everyone to bring quarters and a load to wash,” chuckles Melani Douglass, founder of the traveling Family Arts Museum, which is presenting the exhibition. The idea, explains Douglass, who earned a master’s degree in curatorial practice this spring from Maryland Institute College of Art, is “to celebrate the ancient forms, everyday rituals, prescriptions, and tonics for getting the stains out of laundry and life.”

Surrounded by decorated mannequins, poet Femi the DriFish reads beneath colorful portraits, hung with clothespins, painted by artist Pierre Bennu. There’s also Brazilian dance and a performance by vocalist Jasmine Pope of J. Pope and Funk Friday. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” she sings, a nod to the still reverberating Freddie Gray protests.

Nearby, the show’s “domestic artist in residence,” Ms. Penny, who works at Spincycle, cleans and folds clothes, as a volunteer collects “recipes” for removing stains of both the fiber and emotional variety. “Sometimes all you need is a gentle wash, other times you need bleach. And sometimes, you need a professional,” she says.

“You can also learn a lot about people from their laundry,” adds Adonna Nissi, a member of the all-ages Baltimore Girls collective, with a smile. “You might see a middle-aged woman doing her wash, or a mom doing her kid’s clothes, and assume you know everything about their situation. Then, you’ll see her pulling out a sexy pair of underwear and you realize, ‘Oh, she’s got something going on.’”

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Rainbow Warriors

North Charles Street
May 31, 2015

The nearly 40-year-old Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Baltimore (GLCCB) moved into the Waxter Center last year, so it’s appropriate that Baltimore Heritage’s LGBTQ Walking Tour begins here. Beyond the neighborhood’s gay bars and restaurants, Mt. Vernon has long been home to gay-friendly institutions, activist Richard Oloizia notes, including the Waxter Center, which since 1991 has hosted the Chesapeake Squares—Baltimore’s gay-friendly square-dance club—and the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, which first screened John Waters’s notorious Pink Flamingos.

Across the street, Oloizia points out the old apartment of John Stuban, the founder of ACT UP Baltimore, who died of AIDS in 1994, and then Leon’s, a gay bar since 1957, which for decades maintained a second, hidden entrance through the straight restaurant located behind it.

At Mount Vernon Place, Oloizia recalls the city’s first “pride” marches and retired college professor Shirley Parry tells of the local lesbian women who founded the Bryn Mawr School for girls and secured the rights of women to attend The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The 90-minute tour ends near the Hippo, the popular disco that’s set to become a CVS, and the row house where Gertrude Stein lived when she attended Hopkins. Kate Drabinski, a University of Maryland Baltimore County gender and women’s studies lecturer, says Stein faced misogyny at med school, which she wasn’t great at—she was a writer, after all—but that this is where she first fell in love with a woman and suffered her first heartbreak. “She lived down the street there, but please don’t go knock on the door because other people live there now, and that would be awkward,” Drabinski cautions. “From experience.”