Local
Thousands celebrate Baltimore Pride
Politicians, activists join parade
Baltimore Pride’s 40th anniversary festivities returned to the gayborhood. (Washington Blade photo by Antwan J. Thompson)
Any concerns about the shift of dates for Baltimore Pride from its customary June event to the weekend of July 25-26 were put to rest as thousands descended on Mount Vernon on a sun-baked Saturday to cheer on the Pride parade and celebrate at the block party.
Baltimore Pride’s 40th anniversary festivities returned to the gayborhood following an unpopular move in 2014 to the Mount Royal area. Pride is run by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB).
The new dates deep into July and a revised location for the annual parade as well as a new venue for the block party did not deter visitors from all over Maryland, D.C. and beyond to partake in the celebrations.
For many in Baltimore’s LGBT community, it was a bittersweet event as it marked the last time Club Hippo would take part as it is scheduled to close its doors later in the year after more than four decades.
“This is my last Pride as owner of the Hippo,” Chuck Bowers, who was selected to serve as the grand marshal at this year’s parade, told the Blade. “But it’s not my last Pride.”
The parade included a record 82 units and proceeded up Cathedral Street from Monument Street. It ended on Chase Street several blocks north.
A contingent from BlackOutPrideBmore, including transgender activists led the parade under the banner #BaltimoreTRANSUPrising. They highlighted racism within the LGBT community and called attention to the dangers facing many trans Baltimoreans. Marchers also carried signs proclaiming Black Lives Matter.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis marched as did Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Other political figures included Reps. Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen who are seeking to succeed the retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski.
Local advocacy and health organizations participated, such as FreeState Legal, Chase Brexton Health Services and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Bars past and present were represented including the Hippo, the Lodge from Boonsboro, Md., and a sizable contingent standing on a flatbed from the Baltimore Eagle, which has been closed since 2012 but which supporters are hoping to reopen.
The block party following the parade became so crowded it spilled onto surrounding streets. Newly elected president of the GLCCB board of directors, Jabari Lyles, spoke from the main stage and emphasized the role of people of color in the movement.
“We’re not free unless all of us are free,” he cautioned.
Headliners Cazwell, Ts Madison and Martha Wash and other performers entertained on the stage throughout the evening.
The Sunday event, more laid back than the frenetic block party, took place in Druid Hill Park. Many performers appeared on the main atage and the Lady Lisa Memorial Drag Stage. Popular gay country singer Steve Grand was Sunday’s headliner.
Paul Liller, deputy director of the GLCCB and the person who oversaw Pride, was pleased with the weekend’s festivities.
“We at the GLCCB are very excited about how Pride 2015 went,” Liller told the Blade. “We feel it was a great way to honor 40 years of LGBT activism and civil rights.”
Baltimore
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
Leon’s closed in July after its owner’s death
By JULIE SCHARPER and WESLEY CASE | Soon after Jim Becker came out as gay in 1967, he ducked into a Mount Vernon bar called Leon’s.
In the dark, smoky bar, men used pseudonyms for fear of being outed, as homosexual acts were illegal in Maryland. Bartenders, wary of vice squad raids, would blow a whistle if couples leaned in for a kiss.
But to Becker, arriving at Leon’s was a kind of homecoming. He could explore his identity, connect with other gay men and build community in the anxious years before the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a pivotal moment in the LGBTQ rights movement.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Protest Pizza owners say community has expressed support
Gay activist Randy Downs said he and his business and life partner Ricky Bennett are grateful for the support they have received from the Dupont Circle community after they released a video showing a suspect breaking into their recently opened pizza shop and taking money from a cash register shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing black clothing with his face covered, smashing the glass front door of Protest Pizza, located at 1633 ½ P St., N.W. The video, which Downs and Bennett provided to D.C. police, also shows the suspect climbing over the bar to get to a cash register, which he opened to take out cash.
A D.C. police report obtained by the Washington Blade lists the incident as a Burglary in the Second Degree and says the owners reported “approximately $78 in cash” was taken from the cash register. The report says the incident is not listed as a suspected hate crime.
Downs told the Washington Blade that after he and Bennett reported the break-in and theft on social media, they received an overwhelming showing of support from neighbors and others, including business owners, from across the nation.
“The break-in was upsetting, but it is not what will define Protest Pizza,” Downs said. “What defines us is how quickly people showed up,” he told the Blade. “One person came looking for a cash register; our community saw a gathering place worth protecting. The response reminded us that Protest’s real value was never in the register.”
Downs said he and Bennett, who live around the corner on the section of 17th Street, N.W., near several other bars and restaurants, including the gay bar JRs are located, opened Protest Pizza in November 2025.
“Ricky and I built Protest Pizza as a positive, welcoming, queer owned neighborhood restaurant and bar — a space for protest and joy,” he said.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect responsible for the type of burglary and theft that occurred at Protest Pizza. Police say anyone with information to help solve this type of crime should call the police tipline at 202-727-9099.
District of Columbia
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Annual ceremony held at conclusion of Trans Pride DC
The 2026 SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards ceremony took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. on Saturday. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the day-long Trans Pride DC: Encore.
Honorees included D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Deputy Director Vida Rangel; the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, Inc.; and Connor Keuntje, CLP, CLPC.
Trans Pride DC: Encore was held throughout Saturday with several workshop sessions and a virtual conversation with actress and advocate Dominique Jackson.
The annual Engendered Spirit Awards were renamed the “SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards” in honor of SaVanna Wanzer, founder of D.C. Trans Pride. Wanzer died on April 24 of this year.
Speakers at the ceremony included Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and Bianca Sprague, executive director of D.C. Trans Pride.
“The intent behind this award and honoring members of our communities, organizations, and allies, is to really elevate all of the work that they’re doing to provide resources, tools, learning opportunities and connections: centering trans folks, gender non-conforming, and gender diverse individuals,” Sprague said.
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Monument to LGBTQ Canadians officially unveiled
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
When home becomes a journey: migration, memory, and the African diaspora
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Trump-Vance administration’s LGBTQ brain drain: what you need to know
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
Not all trans people are the same
Calendar: August 21-27
