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Trans woman held in men’s detention unit released
Was detained after photographing April 27 riots
Baltimore, Md. (Photo public domain)
BALTIMORE — Deairra Venable, 30, a transgender woman, was released from police custody after being arrested while photographing the looting that occurred on April 27. She was held on the male side of Central Booking although she has identified as transgender since age 14.
Her attorney, Astrid Munn, told Mashable that she was originally booked as female, but after learning that she was transgender, authorities then forced the woman to remove her bra and hand it over to officials, and she was forced to wear the semi-transparent shirt that reveals the outline of her nipples, the lawyer said.
For four days Venable was held and her body was exposed to male detainees and guards. “In every respect, she’s a woman,” Munn said. “She stood in stark contrast to the [men] in the jail.” She added that officers and detainees in Baltimore’s central booking facility bullied her client, and that the commissioner told her client, “you don’t look like a man,” when she was being assigned bail.
“FreeState Legal is relieved that Ms. Venable has been released,” Jer Welter, deputy director and managing attorney for the organization, told the Blade. “But we understand that she was released only because she was able — with the help of friends — to post the remarkably high bail that was set in her case, not because either the judge or correctional officials recognized that it is dangerous and unlawful to confine transgender inmates in gender-specific correctional facilities simply based on their sex assigned at birth.”
WorldPride 2025 concluded with the WorldPride Street Festival and Closing Concert held along Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. on Sunday, June 8. Performers on the main stage included Doechii, Khalid, Courtney Act, Parker Matthews, 2AM Ricky, Suzie Toot, MkX and Brooke Eden.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Celebrating the transgender community, Baltimore Safe Haven, an organization committed to empowering LGBTQ individuals in Baltimore City, plans to host their fourth annual Baltimore Trans Pride on Saturday.
Instead of the usual parade and march, this year’s Trans Pride will be a block party on Charles Street and between 21st and 22nd Streets. The event will start at 1 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and last until 10 p.m.
Community members can go on guided tours, enjoy refreshments by local vendors, listen to presenters, and watch performances by special guests.
Sukihana, the event’s headliner, plans to take to the stage to entertain the crowd, along with a variety of local performers, according to Melissa Deveraux, Baltimore Safe Haven’s executive assistant to Executive Director Iya Dammons.
“Some (are) prominently known, some (are) just making a name for themselves,” Deveraux said. Iya is always making sure that community talent is showcased at all of our functions.”
In company with Pride on Saturday, Baltimore Safe Haven will be opening its new building on Friday from 1-4 p.m.
“That is sort of going to be the prelude to pride,” Lau said. “Thanks to Sen. Mary Washington and the Weinberg Foundation, we were able to purchase the building outright, and it’s going to be a community hub of administrative buildings and 12-bedroom apartments.”
Renee Lau, administrative assistant for special projects coordinator for Baltimore Safe Haven, said the planning process for Baltimore Trans Pride began in January, and putting it all together was a collaboration of multiple city agencies and organizations.
“Safe Haven is an LGBT community organization, but we service the entire community, and that’s the message we try to spread,” Lau said. “We’re not just here for the LGBT community. We’re here to spread goodwill and offer harm reduction and housing to the entire community.”
Lau said the organization’s biggest goal for the event is to gain exposure.
“(We want) to let and let people know who we are and what our community is about,” she said. “Right now, because of what’s happening in DC, there’s a lot of bad untruths going on, and the total thing is bringing out the truth.”
Deveraux said having a place of inclusivity, acceptance, and togetherness is important in today’s political climate and the current administration.
“This event will have people seeing the strength and resilience of the transgender community, showing that no matter what we are going through, we still show up,” Deveraux said. “We are here, we will not be erased.”
The 2025 WorldPride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 7. Laverne Cox and Renée Rapp were the grand marshals.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Robert Rapanut)
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